THE WASHINGTON UNION REBUKE: NO. 21

THE GUN SAFETY CORRECTION:

The Rebuke

This administration treated firearms not as tools requiring responsibility but as symbols to be deregulated recklessly, marketed indiscriminately, and defended blindly, even as lives were lost daily to violence. Where prudence demanded guardrails, it tore them down. Where communities pleaded for safety, it offered slogans. Where law enforcement sought sensible measures, it offered excuses. Gun violence, already a uniquely American epidemic, was worsened by policies that favored manufacturers over families, lobbyists over law enforcement, and absolutist rhetoric over common-sense safety. The result was more lives lost, more families shattered, and a Republic forced to endure preventable tragedy.

Rules designed to keep the most dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands were weakened or abandoned. Background check loopholes were left wide open, allowing guns to flow through online sales, gun shows, and private transfers without scrutiny. Regulations on ghost guns — untraceable firearms built from kits — were delayed and undermined, even as their presence surged in crimes. Oversight of dealers was lax, inspections were slashed, and repeat violators kept licenses. The federal government’s duty to enforce its own laws was neglected, and the black market for firearms thrived as a result.

Weapons of war remained on civilian streets. Assault-style rifles designed for battlefields were protected from regulation, their proliferation excused with political posturing rather than addressed with sober policy. High-capacity magazines, enabling mass shootings of devastating scale, remained widely available. Bump stocks — which convert semi-automatics into near-automatic weapons — were fought over in court rather than banned outright. Every mass shooting was followed by ritual expressions of “thoughts and prayers” while the structural conditions that enabled them remained untouched.

Community safety programs were gutted. Grants for violence-intervention initiatives were slashed, research into gun violence as a public health issue was blocked, and data collection on firearms was stifled under pressure from the gun lobby. The CDC and NIH were muzzled, forbidden for decades from studying the epidemic as they would any other cause of preventable death. Local leaders were left to fight the crisis blindfolded, without resources or reliable data.

Red flag laws, which allow firearms to be temporarily removed from individuals in crisis, were dismissed as infringements rather than embraced as lifesaving tools. Domestic abusers exploited gaps in the law to retain weapons. Children continued to find unsecured firearms in their homes, leading to unintentional shootings that ended in tragedy. Guns flooded across state lines from weaker jurisdictions into cities already overwhelmed by violence, and instead of federal coordination, communities were left to face a patchwork of laws as fractured as it was ineffective.

At its heart, this is a betrayal of stewardship. Government’s first duty is to protect the lives of its people. Yet this administration elevated absolutist ideology over responsibility, treating firearms as untouchable even when the cost was measured in funerals. It did not safeguard the Second Amendment; it distorted it, recasting a right paired with responsibility into an excuse for recklessness. What was lost was not only lives but the assurance that government would act to prevent preventable death. A Republic that tolerates daily slaughter while mocking solutions has abandoned its covenant with its citizens.

The Correction

The Washington Union Party affirms without hesitation: the right to bear arms is not the right to unfettered violence. The correction we declare is comprehensive: firearms will be regulated responsibly, safety will be prioritized over absolutism, and lives will no longer be sacrificed to lobbyist power. Gun ownership will remain a right, but one bound — as all rights are — by responsibility, law, and the common good.

1.     Universal background checks. Every firearm sale — online, at gun shows, or private — will require a background check through a modernized, interoperable NICS system. The “Charleston loophole” that allows sales to proceed if a check is delayed will be closed. States will be supported to upload domestic violence and mental health records swiftly and accurately. Straw purchasing will carry real penalties, and trafficking will be prosecuted with vigor.

2.     Ban weapons of war and accessories of mass slaughter. Assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines will be prohibited for civilian purchase, with buyback programs to reduce the existing stock. Bump stocks and similar conversion devices will be permanently banned. Firearms uniquely suited for military use will not be normalized on city streets. Hunters, sportsmen, and self-defense owners will retain access to weapons appropriate for those purposes, but the tools of mass killing will be barred from general circulation.

3.     Regulate ghost guns and modern threats. Kits and 3D-printed weapons will be subject to the same serializing, background check, and transfer laws as any other firearm. Untraceable guns will be treated not as novelties but as existential threats to enforcement. Manufacturers and sellers who evade regulation will face prosecution and closure.

4.     Red flag and domestic violence protections. A federal extreme-risk protection order framework will be established, enabling families and law enforcement to petition for temporary removal of firearms when someone poses a clear danger. Domestic violence loopholes will be closed nationwide, ensuring abusers cannot retain access to guns. Courts will be resourced to act quickly, due process guaranteed, and misuse penalized, but the principle will stand: rights do not include the right to kill in crisis.

5.     Safe storage and child protection. Federal safe-storage standards will be enacted, requiring secure storage in homes with minors and mandating warnings at the point of sale. Incentives for gun safes and locks will be widespread; negligence leading to child access will carry penalties. Education campaigns will normalize responsibility, making safe storage as expected as seatbelts.

6.     Community violence intervention. Funding will be robust and permanent for local programs proven to interrupt cycles of violence — street outreach, hospital-based interventions, restorative justice efforts. These initiatives, often underfunded and dismissed, will be elevated as national priorities alongside enforcement. The correction affirms that violence is not only a policing problem but a public health one.

7.     Restore research and data. The CDC, NIH, and DOJ will be free and funded to study gun violence as the epidemic it is. Comprehensive data on ownership, trafficking, and use will be collected and published. Policy will be guided not by lobbyists but by evidence.

8.     Accountability for manufacturers and dealers. Gun companies will no longer enjoy blanket immunity. Victims will have legal recourse when manufacturers or sellers act recklessly, flood markets, or ignore obvious trafficking channels. Dealers will face regular inspections, with repeated violators losing licenses. Industry will be held to the same standard as any other: if your product kills due to negligence, you are accountable.

This correction is not about abolishing rights. It is about balancing them with responsibilities, as every right in a Republic must be. It proclaims that the Second Amendment coexists with the First duty of government: to protect life. It affirms that freedom is not measured by how many guns a person may stockpile but by whether children can learn in schools without fear, families can gather in houses of worship without dread, and citizens can live without the daily drumbeat of preventable death.

The Verdict

The judgment is clear and final: guilty. Guilty of leaving loopholes that armed criminals and abusers. Guilty of deregulating ghost guns, shielding assault rifles, and protecting profiteers. Guilty of blocking research, silencing data, and starving prevention programs. Guilty of mocking solutions while mass shootings mounted and families buried their dead. Donald J. Trump and his administration stand condemned for treating an epidemic of violence as a stage for ideology rather than an emergency demanding action. These were not oversights; they were deliberate choices, defended in speeches, and enforced in policy.

We hold and declare: any government that tolerates mass shootings as “the price of freedom” has misunderstood freedom itself. Any administration that puts lobbyists above lives has abandoned stewardship. Any leader who defends weapons of war on city streets while children die in classrooms has betrayed not only public safety but the very Constitution they invoke. These are not policy disagreements; they are crimes against responsibility and against the people’s right to live without fear.

The harm is measured in every parent who drops off a child at school with dread, in every community scarred by mass shootings, in every survivor carrying trauma into adulthood. It is measured in Black and brown neighborhoods disproportionately policed yet underprotected, where gun violence takes daily tolls unseen by headlines. It is measured in veterans who survive war zones only to fall to suicide with firearms at home. It is measured in the silence of children who practice active-shooter drills instead of learning in peace.

Therefore, we affirm with clarity: the Trump administration’s legacy on gun safety is one of disgrace — deregulation, denial, and death. It will be remembered not for protecting rights but for protecting recklessness, not for defending freedom but for endangering it.

Our ruling is absolute. Gun safety is not negotiable. Background checks will be universal, weapons of war banned, ghost guns regulated, red flag laws empowered, storage enforced, research restored, and communities invested in. The Washington Union Party declares that under this correction, the United States will balance rights with responsibility, ensure safety alongside freedom, and end the epidemic of violence that has long mocked our values. This is the verdict of history, and it shall endure.