Texas Gun Rights recently exposed how James Talarico hired a former “Cocks Not Glocks” activist who helped craft gun-control legislation in his Texas House office.

Now, new reporting from the National Shooting Sports Foundation highlights Talarico’s own statements confirming the philosophy behind that record.

Talarico does not treat the right to keep and bear arms as a God-given right government is bound to respect. He treats it as a privilege politicians may license, restrict, and eventually ban whenever they invoke “common sense.”

A Protest Permit Is Not a Gun License

Talarico has compared gun-control requirements to permits for rallies or demonstrations on government property.

That analogy fails.

A permit for exclusive use of a public street, park, or plaza regulates time, place, crowd control, and competing use of government property. It does not authorize government to decide whether someone may possess books, attend church, criticize politicians, or speak inside his own home.

Gun licensing and registration schemes place fees, paperwork, databases, waiting periods, government approval, and criminal penalties directly between citizens and a constitutional right.

No Texan would tolerate that treatment of the First Amendment.

Gun owners should not tolerate it for the Second.

“Well Regulated” Does Not Mean Government-Controlled

During a 2020 town hall, Talarico claimed defenders of the Second Amendment often overlook the phrase “well regulated.”

His implication was clear: those words supposedly grant government broad authority to impose gun control.

That interpretation is historically and constitutionally wrong.

At the Founding, “well regulated” referred to something properly functioning, organized, trained, and prepared—not burdened by registries, waiting periods, storage mandates, or bans on commonly owned firearms.

The Supreme Court also rejected the theory that the Second Amendment protects only militia participation. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, including self-defense in the home.

The militia clause explains one purpose of the right. It does not erase the operative guarantee that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Talarico turns the amendment upside down by using language describing a capable citizen militia to empower the government the amendment was written to restrain.

“Common Sense” Is the Sales Pitch

Talarico has described mandatory firearm-storage laws as “common sense” and supports so-called universal background checks.

The phrase sounds moderate. The policies are not.

Mandatory-storage laws allow government to dictate how Texans keep firearms inside their own homes and may leave a firearm inaccessible when seconds determine whether a family survives a violent break-in.

In Heller, the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.’s storage requirement because it prevented citizens from keeping operable firearms available for immediate self-defense.

Universal background-check laws commonly criminalize ordinary private transfers, loans, or exchanges unless citizens first receive government approval. Effective enforcement requires a system capable of tracking which firearms exist, who possesses them, and when they change hands.

That is the infrastructure of registration.

Talarico Wants to Ban America’s Most Popular Rifle

Talarico also supports banning AR-15-style rifles—firearms owned by millions of peaceful Americans for home defense, sport shooting, hunting, training, and other lawful purposes.

According to NSSF, more than 32 million modern sporting rifles are in circulation in the United States.

These are not exotic firearms possessed by a fringe minority. They are among the most commonly owned rifles in America.

A politician cannot credibly claim to respect the Second Amendment while demanding a ban on one of the most common classes of firearms in the country.

This Is a Philosophy, Not a Misstatement

James Talarico’s political philosophy is that constitutional rights exist only until politicians decide they are inconvenient.

He may use softer language than some gun-control activists, but the destination is the same: more restrictions, more government databases, more confiscations and fewer rights for law-abiding Texans.

Texas Gun Rights will continue exposing every politician who treats the Second Amendment as negotiable—regardless of how polished the rhetoric or carefully packaged the agenda.

Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights expose anti-gun politicians and defend the God-given right to keep and bear arms.

Texas gun owners are leading the nation as Americans purchase suppressors in record numbers following the elimination of the federal government’s $200 National Firearms Act tax.

According to data provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Texas recorded 23,133 NFA background checks in June –– more than any other state in the country and well ahead of second-place Virginia at 18,235 and Florida at 11,782.

Nationwide, the FBI conducted 166,677 NFA checks in June, a 177 percent increase over the same month last year. More than 845,000 suppressor applications were submitted during the first five months of 2026, with approximately 768,000 approved.

The surge sends a clear message: when government removes even one barrier to the exercise of the Second Amendment, law-abiding Americans respond —and Texans lead the way.

But eliminating the tax was not the same as deregulation.

Congress Removed the Tax—But Preserved the Registry

Beginning January 1, Congress reduced the NFA tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and certain other regulated weapons from $200 to zero.

Those items, however, remain trapped under the National Firearms Act.

Gun owners must still submit fingerprints and photographs, undergo a federal approval process, and register their property with the ATF. Suppressors and short-barreled firearms continue to be regulated under the same framework governing machine guns.

That was not supposed to be the final outcome.

The House-passed version of the One Big Beautiful Bill would have removed suppressors from the NFA, while the Senate proposal expanded deregulation to short-barreled rifles and shotguns.

Then the Senate parliamentarian advised that those provisions violated the Byrd Rule and could not remain in the reconciliation bill without 60 votes.

Republican leaders could have challenged that interpretation and forced a public fight over whether unelected Senate staff should be allowed to block the restoration of constitutional rights.

Instead, they surrendered.

The deregulation language was stripped, the tax was reduced to zero, and weak-kneed Republicans like Senator John Cornyn celebrated the remaining half measure as a historic victory.

Texas Gun Rights Refused the Half Measure

Texas Gun Rights refused to participate in the victory parade.

Alongside the National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of America, Texas Gun Rights pressured Republican senators to reject the parliamentarian’s interpretation and finish the job.

These organizations warned that eliminating the tax while preserving the NFA’s registration and enforcement structure would leave the federal gun-control machinery intact and force gun owners to continue seeking government permission before possessing constitutionally protected firearms and accessories.

Not only that, they warned that eliminating the tax only would give Democrats a new weapon to use against gun owners when they regained control — and they were right. 

Other gun groups praised the final bill and moved directly toward litigation.

But gun owners should never have been forced to rely on years of expensive court battles to obtain what Congress had the votes and authority to deliver directly.

Congress Abandoned the NFA’s Original Justification

The parliamentarian’s ruling was especially indefensible because the National Firearms Act was enacted as a tax law.

When the NFA reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Sonzinsky v. United States in 1937, the Court upheld its taxation and registration provisions as an exercise of Congress’ taxing power.

Congress has now reduced the tax on suppressors and short-barreled firearms to zero while preserving the registry, federal approval process, and criminal penalties that were supposedly created to administer and enforce that tax.

The government abandoned the tax while retaining the gun-control regime built around it.

That contradiction has opened a major constitutional challenge to the remaining NFA restrictions. Gun owners may ultimately prevail, but only after years of litigation and millions of dollars in expenses that Congress could have prevented.

The Cost of Republican Surrender

Those millions of dollars could have been used elsewhere in the fight for the Second Amendment.

That matters during a critical election year.

George Soros-backed organizations and radical national Democrats are pouring resources into Texas and other states to elect anti-gun candidates, defeat pro-gun conservatives, and build support for Red Flag gun-confiscation laws, universal gun registration, semi-automatic firearm bans, magazine restrictions, and other attacks on gun owners.

The money now required for attorneys, court filings, expert witnesses, and appeals could have helped expose that agenda, educate voters, mobilize gun owners, and highlight candidates willing to defend the Second Amendment.

Instead, donors are being forced to finance a legal battle that Congress could have avoided by refusing to surrender.

Abolish the ATF and Repeal the NFA

The fight cannot end with removing suppressors and short-barreled firearms from the NFA.

For decades, the ATF has waged war against law-abiding gun owners, firearms dealers, and the Second Amendment itself.

No other enumerated constitutional right is subjected to a federal enforcement bureaucracy so directly dedicated to licensing, registering, restricting, and criminalizing its exercise.

Much of that abuse flows from the NFA, which the ATF has repeatedly used to claim sweeping regulatory authority over firearms and accessories.

Through administrative rules and reinterpretations carrying the practical weight of law, unelected bureaucrats have attempted to redefine firearms, criminalize previously lawful conduct, and bypass Congress.

Repealing the NFA would eliminate one of the primary sources of that claimed authority. Abolishing the ATF would ensure that another federal bureaucracy cannot continue inventing new gun-control schemes whenever political power changes hands.

Texas’ nation-leading NFA numbers show how eagerly law-abiding Americans will exercise their rights when government gets even partially out of the way.

Removing the tax was progress. Leaving the registry and federal permission system intact was capitulation.

Texas Gun Rights will never negotiate away the rights of gun owners, declare surrender a victory, or place the political comfort of Republican politicians above its members and the God-given rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment.

Sign the petition today demanding that Congress Abolish the ATF and Repeal the NFA once and for all.

Then chip in to Texas Gun Rights to help continue the unapologetic fight for gun owners and hold every politician accountable-–regardless of party.

Texas Democrats just showed gun owners the next phase of their plan to flip Texas.

The money is already flowing from George Soros & coastal elites.

The target races have already been identified by state & national Democrat interests.

Now, they are trying to sell the same radical agenda with a softer label.

At their state convention in Corpus Christi, Texas Democrats left confident, organized, and openly focused on breaking Republicans’ three-decade hold on statewide offices.

And while party leaders tried to dress it all up as “kitchen table” politics, gun owners should not be fooled.

The Left’s new message is simple: stop talking about the radical agenda, and start pretending this election is only about affordability, schools, health care, and corruption.

They even claimed the “culture wars are tired.”

But the gun confiscation agenda is not tired. It is still sitting right there in their candidates’ records:

Red flag-style gun confiscation.

Gun owner registration schemes.

Bans on commonly owned rifles.

Magazine restrictions.

Mandatory storage laws.

Attacks on Constitutional Carry.

Restrictions on lawful carry.

And every other scheme the gun confiscation lobby can use to make the Second Amendment harder to exercise.

Bernie Sanders Was the Tell

A party trying to look moderate does not close its convention with Bernie Sanders by accident.

Sanders urged Texas Democrats to embrace a bold left-wing agenda, giving their activist base exactly what it wanted to hear.

That tells gun owners what all the “kitchen table” talk is really about.

Texas Democrats know Beto O’Rourke’s “hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15” moment became a political disaster. So now they are trying a different approach.

They soften the language, avoid the scary details, talk about “common sense” and “public safety.”

But behind the rebrand is the same old gun ban agenda Texans have rejected for years.

Talarico and the Democrat Slate Cannot Hide Their Records

James Talarico is the face of this statewide push.

He can talk about faith, civility, and kitchen-table issues all he wants, but his record is already clear.

Talarico opposed Constitutional Carry, backed red flag-style gun confiscation schemes, supported gun owner registration policies, and pushed restrictions on law-abiding Texans.

He is not an exception in today’s Texas Democratic Party.

He is the model.

The same party cheering Talarico in Corpus Christi is trying to elect anti-gun Democrats up and down the ballot — from statewide races to the Texas House.

That is why gun owners cannot afford to sit back and assume Texas is safe.

The Left believes Texas can be flipped.

They are raising money like it.

They are training volunteers like it.

They are building the machine like it.

And now they are trying to hide their gun ban agenda behind a new campaign message.

TXGR Will Expose the Record Behind the Rebrand

Texas Gun Rights is not going to let anti-gun Democrats rebrand their way into power.

“The Texas Democratic Convention made one thing clear: the Left believes Texas can be flipped, and they are building the machine to do it,” said Chris McNutt, President of Texas Gun Rights.

“They can call it ‘kitchen table’ politics all they want, but the candidates they are pushing support the same red flag laws, gun registration schemes, AR-15 bans, and attacks on Constitutional Carry that gun owners have rejected for years. Texas Gun Rights is going to make sure voters see the record behind the rebrand.”

Gun owners fired John Cornyn because they refused to forget his betrayals.

Now they must make sure James Talarico and the entire anti-gun Democrat slate cannot hide theirs.

Texas Gun Rights will keep exposing the gun grabbers, mobilizing pro-gun Texans, and making sure voters know exactly who is trying to turn Texas into the next front for the gun confiscation lobby.

Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights expose the gun ban agenda before November.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the Biden Administration, ATF, and Everytown for Gun Safety coordinated behind the scenes to wage lawfare against America’s firearms industry.

If true, it is exactly what gun owners have warned about for years.

The ATF is not just an agency that “enforces the law.”

In the hands of anti-gun politicians, it becomes a weapon against gun owners, gun dealers, gun manufacturers, and the entire Second Amendment.

Now Congress wants answers.

According to a June 24 letter from House Oversight Chairman James Comer to ATF Director Robert Cekada, the Committee is seeking documents and communications between ATF, Biden Administration officials, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Everytown Law related to lawsuits against firearm manufacturers.

The issue centers on Glock.

THE GLOCK LAWFARE SCHEME

According to the Committee, the Biden White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention privately met with Glock on December 20, 2023, and pressured the company to change its pistol designs.

Three months later, the City of Chicago sued Glock in state court.

Everytown Law, the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, was listed as counsel for the city.

Then, on the same day the lawsuit was filed, Everytown President John Feinblatt posted publicly about federal officials recently contacting Glock.

Chairman Comer says that raises serious questions about whether Everytown had inside information from the Biden Administration’s private meeting with Glock.

In plain English, Congress is investigating whether federal officials pressured a regulated gun company behind closed doors, then shared or coordinated information with anti-gun activists who turned around and sued that company.

That is not normal oversight.

That is government-backed lawfare.

THE REVOLVING DOOR WITH EVERYTOWN

The Committee also pointed to the revolving door between the Biden Administration and the gun confiscation lobby.

Rob Wilcox, who served as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, previously worked at Everytown for nearly eight years.

Marianna Mitchem, a former ATF Associate Assistant Director, later went to Everytown as Senior Firearms Industry Advisor.

That should alarm every gun owner in America.

The same gun-ban radicals pushing lawsuits against the firearms industry were not merely lobbying from the outside.

They had allies and former colleagues inside the federal government.

And now Congress is trying to determine whether those relationships were used to help attack private gun companies through litigation.

THIS IS HOW THEY WORK AROUND THE SECOND AMENDMENT

The gun confiscation lobby knows it cannot always pass its agenda through Congress.

So it uses every other pressure point it can find.

Regulatory harassment.

Backdoor rulemaking.

Politically motivated lawsuits.

Pressure campaigns against manufacturers.

Attacks on dealers.

Leaks to activist groups.

And bureaucratic threats designed to make lawful gun commerce too risky, too expensive, and too legally dangerous to survive.

That is the real scheme.

If anti-gun politicians cannot ban guns outright, they try to bankrupt the businesses that make and sell them.

If they cannot repeal the Second Amendment, they try to make exercising it impossible.

If Congress will not give them the gun control they want, they use agencies like ATF to do the dirty work.

REFORM IS NOT ENOUGH

This is why “reforming” the ATF is not enough.

A friendly administration can change leadership.

It can reverse bad rules.

It can issue better guidance.

It can tell the agency to back off.

But the machinery remains.

And the next anti-gun administration can re-weaponize it all over again.

Gun owners saw it with pistol braces.

They saw it with forced reset triggers.

They saw it with “zero tolerance” attacks on FFLs.

They saw it with ATF’s endless attempts to stretch federal law beyond recognition.

And now Congress is investigating whether the Biden Administration and ATF were part of a broader effort to coordinate with Everytown-backed litigation against firearm manufacturers.

That is not a personnel problem.

That is a structural problem.

“The ATF does not need a makeover. It needs to be abolished,” said Texas Gun Rights President Chris McNutt.

“As long as Washington has a federal gun control bureau sitting there, the next anti-gun administration will use it to target gun owners, dealers, manufacturers, and anyone else standing in the way of their agenda. Gun owners cannot settle for temporary relief while the weapon stays loaded.”

TEXAS GUN RIGHTS WILL NOT BACK DOWN

This investigation is another reminder that the fight for the Second Amendment is not limited to one bill, one lawsuit, or one election.

Texas Gun Rights must keep fighting in the Texas Legislature, in Washington, during elections, in the courts, and in the court of public opinion.

TXGR is fighting to pass Kyle’s Law.

TXGR is fighting for the Second Amendment Preservation Act.

TXGR is fighting to abolish taxes on guns, ammunition, and accessories.

TXGR is fighting to end “gun-free” sitting duck zones.

And TXGR is fighting to abolish the ATF once and for all.

Because gun owners do not need a kinder, gentler federal gun control bureau.

They need their rights restored.

Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights keep fighting to defend and restore the Second Amendment — without compromise.

The Department of Justice is warning California that its new “Glock ban” violates the Second Amendment — and a federal lawsuit may be coming next.

According to The Hill, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom warning that California’s Assembly Bill 1127 tramples the constitutional rights of Californians by blocking them from acquiring modern handguns for self-defense.

The law, set to take effect July 1, prohibits licensed firearm dealers from selling or transferring what California calls “machinegun-convertible pistols.”

In reality, California is targeting Glock and Glock-style semi-automatic pistols because criminals can illegally modify them with aftermarket conversion devices.

Current owners would be allowed to keep their firearms, while law enforcement and military sales are exempt.

So once again, anti-gun politicians are telling ordinary citizens they cannot be trusted with the same arms the government reserves for itself.

DOJ PUTS CALIFORNIA ON NOTICE

Dhillon’s letter makes clear DOJ has authorized the filing of a federal complaint unless California agrees to back down.

According to The Hill, DOJ is demanding that California immediately stop enforcement, acknowledge the law is unconstitutional, and enter a court-enforceable consent decree permanently blocking the state from enforcing this law or similar restrictions.

That is an aggressive demand.

And it should be.

California is not regulating some obscure product. It is targeting some of the most common handguns in America by pretending criminal misuse turns ordinary semi-automatic pistols into contraband.

Glock switches are already illegal.

Machine guns are already heavily regulated under federal law.

But the gun confiscation lobby wants to go further.

Instead of prosecuting criminals who illegally possess or use conversion devices, California wants to punish peaceable citizens who want to buy common, modern handguns for lawful purposes like self-defense, home protection, training, and concealed carry.

That is the same tired gun control formula:

Blame the gun.

Punish the law-abiding.

Exempt the government.

Call it “public safety.”

THE BACKDOOR BAN STRATEGY

The Glock ban is bigger than Glock.

If anti-gun politicians can ban Glock-style pistols because a criminal can illegally modify one, they can use the same theory against almost anything.

Semi-automatic rifles. Standard-capacity magazines. Triggers. Parts. Accessories. Common handguns.

The gun confiscation lobby is always searching for the next label, loophole, or scare campaign to turn ordinary firearms into contraband.

They tried it with forced reset triggers, pistol braces, bump stocks, and so-called “assault weapons.”

Now California is trying it with Glock-style handguns.

The goal is not safety.

The goal is to shrink the Second Amendment one category at a time until peaceable citizens are left with whatever outdated, overregulated, government-approved options anti-gun politicians are willing to tolerate.

A CALIFORNIA FIGHT WITH TEXAS TIES

At first glance, this may look like a California issue.

But this fight has direct ties to Texas Gun Rights.

Harmeet Dhillon is no stranger to the fight TXGR helped wage against federal gun control. Her firm, Dhillon Law Group, spearheaded the forced reset trigger lawsuit where Texas Gun Rights joined the National Association for Gun Rights and Rare Breed Triggers in taking on the DOJ and ATF over their unlawful attempt to classify forced reset triggers as machine guns.

That fight ended in a major victory for gun owners.

Now, Dhillon is leading the DOJ Civil Rights Division as it threatens California over another “machinegun” scare campaign aimed at restricting common firearms.

And she is not the only Texas connection.

Barry Arrington, former Chairman of the Board of Texas Gun Rights, now serves as head of the DOJ’s Second Amendment Section, a new civil rights unit created to defend the right to keep and bear arms.

That should send a clear message to every TXGR member and supporter: the fights Texas Gun Rights takes on do not always stop at the Texas border.

TXGR’s work in Texas can help shape national legal strategy, influence federal action, and build the political and legal infrastructure needed to fight back against gun control across the country.

“California’s Glock ban is not an isolated stunt. It is the next phase of a national strategy to turn common firearms into contraband with scary labels and bureaucratic word games,” said Texas Gun Rights President Chris McNutt.

“The fact that leaders with direct ties to fights TXGR has waged are now pushing back at the national level proves why this work matters. When Texas Gun Rights fights, the impact can reach far beyond Texas.”

TEXAS MUST KEEP FIGHTING

California is the warning.

Texas is the target.

The same gun-ban radicals trying to ban Glock-style handguns in California want to bring that agenda everywhere.

They want to ban semi-automatic firearms, outlaw standard-capacity magazines, tax guns and ammunition, sue manufacturers and dealers out of existence, and turn technical classifications into backdoor gun bans.

That is why Texas Gun Rights must keep fighting in the Texas Legislature, in Washington, during elections, in the courts, and in the court of public opinion.

TXGR is fighting to pass Kyle’s Law, advance the Second Amendment Preservation Act, abolish taxes on guns, ammunition, and accessories, and end “gun-free” sitting duck zones.

The gun confiscation lobby is not slowing down.

Neither can Texas gun owners.

Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights keep fighting to defend and restore the Second Amendment — without compromise.