In the September 2022 issue, I mentioned in Downrange that “Fifteen Republican senators rolled over earlier in the year to pass a bill negotiated in part by Soft John Cornyn (R-TX), whom I will work to get primaried out in Texas if he chooses to run for his Senate seat again in 2026.”
Well, good news: Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated RINO John Cornyn in the Texas Senate runoff election. Cornyn, the four-term incumbent senior senator from Texas, famously worked to help pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, the largest package of gun control in 30 years.
Ken Paxton, on the other hand, is a true gunowners’ rights supporter. Paxton now proceeds to the general election in November, where he’s up against James Talarico, a vegan gun-control advocate who’s recently been seen by media cameras eating ribs now that he has to win a statewide race.
I realize that Texas politics don’t matter to most Gun Tests readers outside the state, but Cornyn’s dismissal by an almost 2-to-1 margin signals a change in mood among gun owners. This is a major blow to the gun-control movement, who promised Cornyn in 2022 that he wouldn’t see retaliation at the polls. That was wrong. Gun owners remember.
Meanwhile in Louisiana, another senator who voted for the anti-gun Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — Senator Bill Cassidy — lost his primary as well. Those who work to undermine the Second Amendment, take note. If you vote against the right to keep and bear arms, gun owners will vote you out of office. Saying adios to Cornyn is a big win, assuming Paxton can hold the seat. We’ll know more in about a month.
In Virginia, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a new federal lawsuit, McDonald v. Katz, after Governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation to ban so-called “assault firearms” and “large capacity” magazines. As gun owners, we know those two terms as “semi-auto rifles” and “standard-capacity” magazines. FPC is seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Virginia bans.
The plaintiffs challenging the ban include two individual FPC members, the National Rifle Association, and the Second Amendment Foundation.
“FPC just filed a federal lawsuit to put an end to tyrant Governor Abigail Spanberger’s radical assault on the People of Virginia. Spanberger’s insane law criminalizes constitutionally protected conduct and bans arms the Second Amendment protects. We’re going to force Governor Spanberger … to follow the Constitution and respect the Second Amendment, full stop,” said FPC President Brandon Combs.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a lawsuit challenging Maryland’s recent Glock ban. Gov. Wes Moore signed into law Senate Bill 334, which bans the sale of a “machine gun convertible pistol,” defined as a firearm that contains a cruciform trigger bar. “This Maryland law bans nearly every Glock and Glock-style handgun on the market today,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. NRA and FPC also joined the suit. — Todd Woodard
