Newsletter: Trump Bails on the NRA

This week, we’re trying on the relationship between President Donald Trump and the NRA.

We broke the information that Trump has determined to not converse at this 12 months’s NRA Annual Assembly. It’s the primary time he’s skipped the occasion in a decade, and it comes at a dangerous time for the gun-rights group. I take a look at how dangerous issues have gotten and whether or not the NRA can nonetheless get better in a chunk for members.

We even have one other ruling in an AR-15 ban case, this day trip of Massachusetts. Montana additionally took an attention-grabbing step within the battle over “Pink Flag” legal guidelines. In the meantime, Contributing Author Jake Fogleman explores the politics surrounding essentially the most sweeping gun restrictions in Colorado’s historical past.

Plus, Larry Keane from the Nationwide Capturing Sports activities Basis explains how tariffs may impression gunmakers on the podcast. We even have a whole lot of tales down within the hyperlinks, together with President Trump’s preliminary response to Thursday’s horrible taking pictures at Florida State College.

Trump Snubs NRA ConferenceBy Stephen Gutowski

For the primary time since 2015, President Donald Trump received’t be talking on the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation’s Annual Assembly.

On Tuesday, the NRA confirmed President Trump wouldn’t be attending the occasion in Atlanta, Georgia, on the finish of the month. It additionally mentioned it had canceled the Management Discussion board, the a part of the convention the place Trump and different politicians often deal with NRA members. It cited scheduling conflicts as the explanation for Trump’s absence.

“Although President Trump is unable to attend the NRA’s 2025 Annual Assembly, he’s all the time welcome on our stage to handle our members and has carried out so on 9 events during the last decade,” the NRA advised The Reload. “As an NRA Life Member himself, President Trump stays a steadfast advocate for NRA members and a champion for the correct to maintain and bear arms. Contemplating the excessive degree and tempo of labor being carried out by his administration on many fronts to make America nice once more and put America first on the world stage, we will perceive that he has a posh, ever-moving schedule.”

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Evaluation: Can the NRA Nonetheless Pull Out of Its Tailspin? [Member Exclusive]By Stephen Gutowski

The Nationwide Rifle Affiliation is lastly on the opposite aspect of its New York corruption trial with reformers firmly in management, however its existential disaster remains to be rising.

This week, President Donald Trump determined to bail on the gun-rights group’s annual convention for the primary time since he started his political profession in earnest. That blow got here shortly after information that the NRA remains to be shedding members. Plus, two different lawsuits in opposition to it current extra potential peril.

Can the NRA nonetheless survive?

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First Circuit Upholds Massachusetts ‘Assault Weapon,” Journal BansBy Jake Fogleman

The Bay State’s ban on the sale of sure semi-automatic firearms and ammunition magazines doesn’t run afoul of the Second Modification, a federal appeals court docket dominated Thursday.

A 3-judge panel for the First Circuit Courtroom of Appeals unanimously upheld the denial of a preliminary injunction in opposition to Massachusetts’ ban on the sale of “assault weapons,” similar to the favored AR-15, and ammunition magazines able to holding greater than ten rounds. It decided that the logic of a previous ruling upholding Rhode Island’s ban on sure magazines utilized to the weapons banned by Massachusetts regulation.

“An easy utility of our prior holding in Ocean State Tactical helps the Commonwealth’s demonstration that the Massachusetts Ban’s AR-15 restriction ‘is in line with the Nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation,’” Decide Gary Katzmann wrote in Capen v. Campbell. “Because of this Appellants have didn’t exhibit at this stage that the Ban is unconstitutional in all its functions.”

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Montana Bans ‘Pink Flag’ Legal guidelinesBy Stephen Gutowski

Large Sky Nation received’t permit momentary gun confiscation orders on the state or native degree.

On Monday, the Montana Legislature despatched HB809 to Republican Governor Greg Gianforte’s desk. The invoice bars localities from implementing their very own Excessive Threat Safety Orders (ERPO), generally known as Pink Flag legal guidelines, or accepting grants to pursue them. The state doesn’t have a Pink Flag regulation, and, if the invoice is signed into regulation, none of its cities or cities shall be allowed to think about their very own.

“The governor will rigorously think about any invoice that makes it to his desk and can all the time firmly defend the Second Modification rights of Montanans,” Kaitlin Worth, Governor Gianforte’s press secretary, advised The Reload when requested if he plans to signal the invoice.

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Podcast: Tariffs and the Gun Business (ft. Nationwide Capturing Sports activities Basis’s Larry Keane)By Stephen Gutowski

This week, we’re taking an in depth take a look at the state of the gun trade and the potential impression of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

That’s why I’m interviewing the pinnacle of the gun trade’s commerce group. Nationwide Capturing Sports activities Basis (NSSF) common counsel Larry Keane is again on the present to element the place the trade is at at this time and the place it’s headed. Maybe the most important query to reply is what tariffs will do to home and overseas firearms corporations.

You possibly can take heed to the present in your favourite podcasting app or by clicking right here. Video of the episode can be obtainable on our YouTube channel.

Plus, contributing author Jake Fogleman and I talk about Colorado Governor Jared Polis signing essentially the most sweeping and restrictive gun invoice within the state’s historical past and what that claims about gun politics within the Democratic Occasion. We additionally speak about main new developments on the ATF, each by way of potential gun coverage modifications, in addition to the introduced shakeup within the high two management positions of the company.

Audio right here. Video right here.

Evaluation: The Thorny Politics of Colorado’s New Semi-Auto Regulation [Member Exclusive]By Jake Fogleman

Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D.) simply picked sides between a rock and a tough place.

On Thursday, Polis signed SB25-003 into regulation. Consequently, starting in August 2026, the manufacture, sale, and buy of most semi-automatic firearms that may settle for removable ammunition magazines shall be outlawed in Colorado. Solely those that bear particular vetting from their native sheriff’s workplace, take as much as 12 hours of coaching over a number of days from a soon-to-be-developed state-sanctioned class, and pay an undetermined quantity in charges for each processes shall be permitted to purchase the frequent weapons lined below the regulation.

The brand new regulation as soon as once more places Colorado within the nationwide highlight over gun politics, a probably uncomfortable place to be for the person who signed it.

Polis, a soon-to-be term-limited Governor recurrently floated as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has labored exhausting to garnish a popularity as a political average with libertarian leanings. Till this week, that work prolonged to weapons.

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Outdoors The Reload

Trump rejects requires gun management after FSU taking pictures | AP Information | By Darlene Superville

Allow requirement for gun purchases clears Washington legislature | Washington State Normal | By Jake Goldstein-Road

Eighth Circuit sympathetic to former Iowa police chief convicted of shopping for machine weapons | Courthouse Information Service | By Rox Laird

3 main gun payments advance in Oregon legislature | OPB | By Bryce Gap

Texas lawmakers think about quite a lot of payments to loosen restrictions round firearms | Texas Newsroom | By Blaise Gainey and Nina Banks

Oregon gun homeowners enchantment to state Supreme Courtroom to evaluate gun management Measure 114 | The Oregonian | By Maxine Bernstein

Will S.C. Lawmakers Assist These Nonetheless Dealing with Gun Possession Prices Regardless of Permitless Carry Regulation? | Bearing Arms | By Cam Edwards

That’s it for this week in weapons.

If you wish to hear professional evaluation of those tales and extra, be sure you seize a Reload membership to get our unique evaluation e-newsletter each Sunday!

I’ll see you all subsequent week.

Thanks,Stephen GutowskiFounderThe Reload