Non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, can be kind of troubling. That's especially true when the government does the bidding of those NGOs or vice versa. Too close a relationship can be an issue.
And we saw that when DOGE started digging earlier this year.
But not all of those relationships were financial. Some were cases of NGOs looking to allies in government to step in and help them advance their agenda, such as gun control.
The National Shooting Sports Federation, which represents the firearm industry, is asking the FTC to do a little digging.
NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson urging the FTC to support President Donald Trump’s Executive Order Protecting Second Amendment Rights by conducting a thorough review of relationships and activities by the Biden FTC with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that propagated “whole of government” infringements on Second Amendment rights.
Gun control groups were welcomed to the Biden White House, including through the now-defunct White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, that built a reciprocal relationship to attack Second Amendment rights and the firearm industry that makes exercising those rights possible. As part of a coordinated “lawfare” campaign, gun control NGOs aligned with the Biden administration coordinated to publish a series of misleading “complaints” urging the FTC to investigate and a take legal action against truthful and constitutionally-protected firearm advertising.
“Countering President Biden’s ‘whole of government’ effort to infringe the Second Amendment necessitates a whole of government response by this administration,” wrote Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel, to Chairman Ferguson. “Likewise, the particular focus from the Biden Administration and NGOs on co-opting the Biden-era FTC for their unconstitutional agenda, necessitates decisive action from the current Commission.”
You can read the full letter here.
During the Biden administration, pretty much every part of the executive branch was trying to push an anti-gun agenda. That choice of terms is very particular here, too, because it wasn't about gun control in and of itself. The FTC can't really enact gun control.
They could, however, make life incredibly difficult for the firearm industry as a whole. They could do all sorts of nasty things that would throttle their business and potentially make it harder for lawful gun purchases simply because of rules regarding trade.
This was just one cog in an incredibly anti-gun machine that stemmed throughout the executive branch, all while knowing that the legislative branch would approve of no such thing.
For all the people screaming about tyranny because Trump called in the National Guard to deal with DC crime--a measure that seems to be working and has significant local support, mind you--they said nothing when the entirety of the federal government dedicated itself to trampling on a constitutionally protected right.
The American people have a right to know just who was doing what, and this is an important step in uncovering that. Then, if laws were broken, as they probably were, the American people have a right to see prosecutions happen.
Then again, at this rate, any prosecution would be a novel thing.
