Should Gun-Rights Advocates Worry About Trump's DC Takeover? (Ft. InRangeTV's Karl Kasarda)

This week, President Donald Trump federalized policing in the nation's capital. He deployed the National Guard and federal agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The move has been met with mild pushback from some gun-rights activists.

Karl Kasarda from InRangeTV joins the podcast to explain why he thinks there should be more. The prominent GunTuber, who has criticized President Trump more than most other gun-rights activists, argued that sending troops and ATF agents into the streets of DC for general crime control should be a red flag for gun-rights advocates.

He went so far as to say that Trump's aggressive use of masked law enforcement, including at one point the ATF, as well as military troops in American cities risks moving in an authoritarian direction. He pointed to the deportation of certain immigrants to an El Salvadorian prison without due process as an example of what concerns him most. He argued the deployment of federal police and troops in connection with those sorts of tactics is a threat to everyone's liberty.

Kasarda agreed that the Trump Administration has made a number of pro-gun reforms, like rolling back the ATF's zero-tolerance policy toward gun dealers and effectively neutering the pistol brace ban. But he argued those reforms shouldn't outweigh the limit-pushing nature of Trump's military and police deployments, even if what the President has done thus far hasn't exceeded constitutional bounds in most instances.

Special Guest: Karl Kasarda.