Donald Trump’s second administration will have a strong pro-Second Amendment lawyer to provide him with principled legal counsel. 

In early December, President Trump announced that the National Association for Gun Rights Chairman of the Board, Dave Warrington, was appointed to serve as Chief White House Counsel and Assistant to the President.

Warrington, a partner at Harmeet Dhillon’s Law Group and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, has a long track record of representing pro-liberty freedom candidates and organizations as a constitutional lawyer, and has built a reputation for being one of the most esteemed litigators in the country.  

For example, Warrington was the general counsel for former Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. He subsequently came on board Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign during the Republican National Convention.

In Trump‘s first term, Warrington was the president of the Republican National Lawyers Association from 2019 to 2020. 

When the 2024 election cycle came around, Warrington lent his legal services to Trump and became one of his personal lawyers throughout his presidential campaign, effectively acting as Trump’s general counsel. 

After Trump was re-elected last November, Warrington was tapped by Trump to be the White House Counsel. He described Warrington as “an esteemed lawyer and Conservative leader.” By being tapped as President Trump’s lawyer, Warrington will be presiding over a team of close to three dozen lawyers. 

From a gun rights standpoint, Warrington’s body of work on behalf of the Second Amendment speaks for itself. 

In the 25 years of NAGR’s existence, Warrington was responsible for authoring several amicus briefs to the Supreme Court. Most noteworthy, Warrington filed an amicus brief for the landmark Supreme Court case NYSRPA v. Bruen, where he asked the Court to overturn the two-part interest-balancing test that lower courts used to circumvent the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions. The Court accepted Warrington’s request and ruled in the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision that the Second Amendment applies to not only owning firearms at home for self-defense but for the right to carry them in public. 

Additionally, Warrington authored an amicus brief in Smith & Wesson v. Mexico, which the Supreme Court is currently reviewing. In this case, the Mexican government filed a $10 billion lawsuit against prominent gun manufacturers for their alleged role in fomenting violence in the Latin American country. Never mind that Mexico is a borderline failed state that can’t get its public safety in order. At the end of the day, Warriongton recognized this as a ploy to bankrupt American firearms companies. 

Warrington also represented NAGR in National Association for Gun Rights, Inc. v. Mangan, when the pro-gun organization confronted the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan over free speech issues. 

Then, when the city government of San Jose, California slapped an arbitrary gun ownership fee, Warrington represented NAGR to challenge the city’s unconstitutional action, which was ultimately stopped in its tracks. 

Arguably one of Warrington’s greater 2A victories came in 2024, when he led the legal team handling NAGR & Texas Gun Rights’ lawsuit over the ATF’s prohibition on Forced Reset Triggers. He obtained six victories against the ATF and DOJ, which includes a summary judgment at the district court that was issued in July, ordering confiscated triggers to be returned to all members of NAGR and TXGR in addition to Rare Breed Triggers and their customer base.

When it comes to Texas Gun Rights, Warrington went the extra mile in 2019, when he represented TXGR President Chris McNutt in a highly publicized free speech battle against House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. Warrington demanded that Bonnen retract many false and defamatory statements he waged against McNutt, for whom he was trying to pin the blame on for the death of Constitutional Carry legislation in the Texas House. 

Ultimately, no lawsuit was filed on behalf of McNutt, but as a result of Warrington’s letter, Bonnen stopped fighting McNutt publicly and soon announced he would not seek re-election after quickly catching himself in yet another scandal with conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan.

One of the pitfalls of the first Trump administration was the lack of principled personnel to give the president sound guidance. 

The fact that Trump is now being advised by a pro-gun champion like Warrington, who has direct access to the President of the United States on a daily basis, is no small feat. That means Trump will be receiving principled pro-gun advice from an indefatigable warrior for gun rights. 

Let’s hope Trump will act on it.