Mike Pence on the Second Amendment
Presumptive nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has indicated he’ll name the conservative governor of Indiana as his VP pick. Anyone who supports religious freedom knows Pence’s name because of the legislation he’s signed into law during his term, but what are Mike Pence’s views on Second Amendment? He has earned “A” grade from the NRA for vetoing anti-Second Amendment legislation in his state protecting individual rights.
Throughout his 12 years in the House of Representatives before taking office as governor in 2013, Pence consistently displayed a pro-gun voting record. He has maintained his belief that allowing law-abiding Americans access to guns makes the country a safer place, not a more dangerous one. That’s ostensibly why he voted in favor of similar measures in 2003 and 2005 that would have banned liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers when firearms are used criminally — like the one families of the victims of the 2014 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have brought. In 2011 that conviction motivated him to co-sponsor the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act to relax restrictions on interstate gun purchases.
Pence has continued his pro-liberty stance since embarking on his governorship. In March 2014, he signed into law a bill that many anti-freedom school union thugs and administrators had urged him to veto, because they touted it would threaten the safety of students: to allow adults to store handguns and other firearms in their locked cars while in school parking lots.
“Young people, schools, guns and all of that is a mix for something inappropriate,” Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee told The Indianapolis Star before the governor approved the measure. Pence said that it would not affect the prevalence of school shootings because potential killers wouldn’t worry about following laws, and would bring weapons onto campuses regardless.
In a follow-up Real Clear Politics interview with Chris Wallace, Pence further defended his decision:
I have strongly supported the right to keep and bear arms. I truly believe that firearms in the hands of law abiding citizen’s makes our families and our communities more safe, not less safe. And the bill that we just signed here in Indiana really was a common sense reform. We actually have parents that had a permit to conceal and carry a weapon that we’re finding themselves guilty of a felony just by dropping their kids off to school. So we just — we made a modest change, a common sense change in Indiana law. And I strongly supported it.
Pence’s pro-liberty views are in line with his other conservative gun stances that may make him such an attractive VP pick for Trump in the first place. It could help the presidential candidate reel in social conservatives who approve of Pence’s signing into law of a religious freedom bill protecting the people’s right to practice their faith. They’re also likely fans of a measure he signed a year later protecting the rights of the unborn children in the state (it was later blocked by a federal judge).
While there’s no more speculation surrounding whom Trump will name as his running mate tomorrow, there is really no question about Mike Pence’s views on gun control: He doesn’t like it. In fact, his commitment to the Second Amendment is unwavering and has led him to seek more freedoms to those who wish to exercise their Second Amendment right, as well as those who manufacture firearms.