Who Is John Thune?

In this episode we look into John Thune, the new Senate Majority Leader, and his possible impact on the 2nd Amendment.

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Transcript

0:15

Well, welcome to the Live to Shoot podcast. My name is Jeff Doll and I have been a licensed farm dealer for the last 17 years, and this podcast will talk about all things related to Second Amendment, as well as anything else going on in the world or a sports story or, anything else I might find interesting, so welcome, welcome, welcome. Been a little bit out of it this this week so I haven't really been drilled into what has all been going on in the world. I've had some some personal issues, as you will probably hear during this podcast. I've been sick, so I will try and edit out any coughs and, and things, but I am. I haven't been feeling well, but the one thing I wanted to talk about is a small victory for me. I mean, we've had a lot of victories since the election and, you know, President Trump has been coming out strong with the people that he's going to recommend for appointments to his, his cabinet and other posts and they're all very interesting. I, You know, I support most of them. There's a couple that I have a little question on but you know It's going to be interesting to see he's coming out with all guns all barrels blasting and he's blowing up the liberals heads They're going crazy. But the one thing that was big that was going on also outside of the presidential side was the selection of the senate majority leader And if you've listened to this podcast, at all over the last a few years, you know I definitely do not like John Cornyn from my state of Texas and he was one of the that was up and being considered. It was John Cornyn, John Thune, and Rick Scott. And I was really hoping for Rick Scott. He did not get the votes. And so it came down to Thune and Cornyn. And John Thune won. In a 29 to 24 vote over Cornyn, so At least Cornyn did not get the senate majority leader because once you're in that position You control the money and that's been my biggest one. One of my biggest gripes about McConnell is that he only Supported people that would support him. If he'd done any investment in Cary Lake, we would have Cary Lake as a senator as well. I hope we can start making some changes there. But John Cornyn is a rhino. He he has supported more gun control measures than, than any other senator. He's been on the, the Democratic side on everything. He's, he's been bipartisan, I guess you would say. So I am can and motivated to remove him from as our state senator. And if he was majority leader, he he would that would make it even harder because he would be controlling the money and he'd be able to invest heavily in his own campaign. But John Thune, honestly, I wouldn't even know him if he was in the room with me. Don't have any idea is but I wanted to give a little background on what I found about John Thune And here this is just from his own senate website his his a little bit of his biography is he grew up in Murdo, South Dakota he played basketball He was interested in politics at a young age. And he received his undergraduate degree from Biola and got a master's degree in an MBA from the University of South South Dakota. He got married to his wife in 1984. And he started public service straight out of college after he got his, he went to Washington and worked for Senator Jim Abnor and then got appointed to the Small Business Administration under Reagan. He moved back to South Dakota where he ran the, the executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party in 1991. He became the state railroad director and then he became Executive Director of the South Dakota Municipal League. I don't know what that is. He won his first term as South Dakota's lone member of the U. S. House of Representatives in 1986. And then in 2004 is when he became the current senator for the state of South Dakota, one of the two senators. So he has been in politics his entire life and So he has quite a record, and from here, you know, quotes from, from Thune, Thune is, is, I strongly support the Second Amendment, which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. While others may disagree, I firmly believe the plain language of the Second Amendment guarantees the individual right of law abiding citizens to own firearms. He has he broke, this is one of my big things with Cornyn, he broke from McConnell and Cornyn and he opposed the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Community Act, which expanded you know, prohibited guns and expanded the background check on 18 to 20 year olds. Thune also voted against Universal background checks, proposals, and bans on the sale of popular firearms such as AR 15 and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Quote, he says, AR 15s are a sporting rifle. It's something that a lot of people use for purposes of going out target shooting. He says, in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints, Thune told the Washington Post. And, So I think there are legitimate reasons why people should, would want to have them. I think the challenge you have already is that there are literally millions of them available in this country. Instead he focused on trying to keep people who he arguably, were especially dangerous from getting a hold of those weapons. So I just think that the issues that they should be focused on is how to, How do you keep those types of weapons out of the hands of these young, in case, male, very deranged young men? Dunes has also posed reforms while also backing top priority of the gun rights movement and firearms industry over the years including concealed carry reciprocity interstate gun sales. He voted for the protection of lawful commerce in Lawful Commerce and Arms Act which provide the gun industry a legal shield against liability suits for criminals committed for crimes committed with their products Thune voted to force Washington DC to issue concealed carry permits and the national parks to allow load firearms on their premises He's also repeatedly voted to force states to recognize others in concealed carry permits. He says I am pleased he has remained an advocate of gun policy in recent years. In 2023, he produced a bill to bar the IRS from using special merchant categories tied to gun retailers so that they would know, you know, if you're buying guns from them. In September 2023, he introduced a bill to protect federal funding for hunting and archery programs. He says And he introduced a bill that would allow licensed dealers to sell handguns across state lines. So currently, I can't sell a handgun only to Texas residents, he said. Enabling licensed firearm dealers to sell across state lines strengthens law abiding gun owners Second Amendment rights and helps promote a marketplace of which many livelihoods depend. So, lawful South Dakota gun owners, including members of our armed forces, should have unimpeded access to exercise their lawful right to continue their business. So, he's 63, from a deep red state. Seems to have some pretty pro gun tendencies which is important. And, so I, you know, I will, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves me wrong. He has made some statements about trying to help get, you know, Trump's appointments through quickly. So, we'll see how that goes, if he throws up any roadblocks to some of the more, I'll say interesting picks, such as Matt Gaetz. That might be a sign of things to come. But, for now, he I don't have enough to judge him otherwise when it comes down to the, the next elections and we have senators who are either trying to displace an, an incumbent Democrat or senators that are in tough positions. tough districts and tough states and trying to gain re election and how he spends that money that he has access to as a Senate some pact, pact that, you know, Political Action Committee that the Senate has access to. We'll see how that goes. But for now it's not John Cornyn. That's the best. That's I guess that's not the best thing I can say But it's the the one thing that I can say for sure that I know is it he is not John Cornyn And we will see it's so tentatively. It is a good news for The Second Amendment and where we're gonna be but we'll see where it all falls out well, we will keep watching as President Trump continues to get his Appointments named and one after he's inaugurated. See how fast the Senate can get them Confirmed and that will be a telltale sign of what this new majority leader is going to be like so until then Enjoy your Upcoming week. We're coming up on thanksgiving. So I might not have you know as many podcasts coming up But we'll see things are interesting. It's fun to sit back and watch what's going on When we're on this side of the winning side, so take care and have a great one