NSSF is pleased to post the latest of our occasional Q&A features with an elected official who supports hunting and the shooting sports. We thank U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Michael Johnson, from Louisiana’s Fourth Congressional District. Serving in his fourth term, Speaker Johnson serves as the 56th Speaker of the House and was previously the Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference and served on the House Committee on Armed Services as well as the House Judiciary Committee. Speaker Johnson is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and the firearm and ammunition industry.
Who introduced you to hunting and the shooting sports?
I am a proud native son of Louisiana – “the Sportsman’s Paradise” – where hunting and shooting sports are integral to our culture and a big part of our lives. My grandfather was a competitive marksman, and my family was like most in our area, where it seemed that everyone appreciated and participated as we did in the great American pastimes of hunting, fishing, and shooting. Those traditions are still cherished where we live, and I have been happy to pass them along to my own children.
Describe your most recent hunting or shooting sports activity.
My most recent experience was the annual deer hunt I enjoyed last December with my sons and several of our close friends. Both of my boys had a successful hunt, and our time together at the camp and in the deer stands was priceless, as always. My role in Congress does not allow me many of these opportunities these days, so I cherish our time in the woods. I am very much looking forward to our short hunt this year after Christmas.
Describe your favorite hunting or shooting sports activity.
In Louisiana, I have always enjoyed any opportunity for deer and duck hunting, but in recent years I have also had great fun quail hunting with friends and colleagues in South Georgia. My family has also enjoyed our visits to the exceptional gun ranges in our area. My daughters and my wife are all excellent shots, and it is not unusual for them to win our family competitions.
Which piece of pending legislation related to the conservation, hunting and the firearm industry is particularly important to you and why?
In my seven years in Congress, I have supported countless initiatives to strengthen Second Amendment protections and expand conservation efforts and access for outdoor recreation. I’m a staunch supporter of H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would simply allow people who are eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to do so in any other state which also allows the concealed carry of firearms. I’m also proud to support legislation that prohibits federal funds from being used by states to establish or maintain firearm ownership databases. As the Biden Administration’s ATF becomes increasingly hostile to gun owners, it’s imperative that Congressional Republicans safeguard the Second Amendment and push back against executive overreach.
What do you see as the challenges and opportunities for hunters and shooting sports enthusiasts?
While I have always been blessed to live in a state where political leaders at all levels revere our hunting and shooting sports traditions, that is not the case in all 50 states, and certainly not at the federal level. The Biden Administration has routinely sought to restrict the Second Amendment, through executive action targeting firearms retailers, firearm possession, and ammo. I will always fight to preserve our fundamental freedoms to keep and bear arms and our essential American traditions, and work to advance policies that halt unconstitutional and oppressive government overreach.
This was nothing more than the usual blathering of inane platitudes and generic lip service to supporting the Second Amendment. I don’t give two turds about his love of “hunting traditions” and the rest. I wanna know what he would like to do to rein in the runaway ATF and its new activist Director. I need to hear that he’s going to do everything he can to dismantle the unconstitutional National Firearms Act of 1934 and its amending laws, particularly the egregious Gun Control Act of 1968. I want to hear that silencers/suppressors ought to be as easy to buy as a box of .22 rimfire ammo; that short barreled rifles and shotguns will no longer be under the purview of the NFA and Title II. I want to hear him promise that he will do everything he can to repeal the Hughes Amendment. I want him to shred the ATF altogether as a redundant, unnecessary and unwanted law enforcement agency that has a history of making more trouble than its ever been worth, and exists as an ongoing threat to all our liberties as free citizens.
When Johnson starts actually walking the walk, I’ll become more enthusiastic about him and his Speakership.
Chances are much better with Mike Johnson than most of the others…And chances are even better when Gun Owners such as yourself speak The Truth About Gun Control like this man…
“in any other state which also allows the concealed carry of firearms” tells us all that we need to know. He believes that the states have the authority to deny their citizens 2A rights including the right to self-defense. He does not support the 2nd amendment as it was intended.
RE: “I’m a staunch supporter of H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would simply allow people who are eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to do so in any other state which also allows the concealed carry of firearms.”
Hold onto your booney…With the recent election of a Republican Governor Louisiana is next in line for permitless concealed carry, show me where Mike Johnson ever oppposed permitless Constitutional Carry in LA or anywhere else?
“in any other state which also allows the concealed carry of firearms” may in your mind fit your narrative but that was not the whole enchilada.
“With the recent election of a Republican Governor Louisiana is next in line for permitless concealed carry,”
True, Governor elect Landry has clearly stated that he will sign a CC bill if placed on his desk. And with a majority republican House and Senate it is more than likely that the spring 2024 session will present such a bill.. The new Governor has already called for special sessions in January to attack crime. Going to be an interesting Spring in Baton Rouge in the coming year.
Relative to House Speaker Johnson, he cannot be expected to address each individual 2A issue every time he is ask a question. Like Walter said, “He’s doing the best job possible with what he has to work with.”
Those were his words, not mine. Recently siding with the democrats on several issues leads me to believe he’s just another RINO. I could be wrong, and I hope I am but his words and actions are telling in my book.
@VNvet69
Are you sure that wasn’t just a statement from a practical politician doing the best he can to make progress in an extremely difficult environment?
IMO – The questions in this interview are more informative regarding who is doing/supporting what than the answers are…
Johnson had no chance to discuss actual 2nd Amendment issues.
I regard NSSF with an extremely hirsute eyeball when it comes to 2nd and 4th Amendment rights.
A man should say what he means and mean what he says. He’s also sided with the democrats on several issues since elected to the speakership. His words and actions say RINO to me. I hope I’m wrong but he’s going to have to prove it.
It is a little too early and premature to use the term RINO relative to the new Speaker Johnson. Of course, time will tell and presently too little water has flowed under the bridge to make a judgement call. As for me, I support him until such time as he proves to be something other than a straight arrow shooter.
@Vnvet69, I think dacian and the limey are writing a book, but they are arguing over which colors to color it with.
We need everything H Allen Davis mentioned above. It only sounds radical to the uninformed. Passing completely unnecessary multi-trillion dollar spending bills with imminent inflation and record debt is actually what is doing real damage to this country. The sheep worry about suppressors, SBRs, etc. because they do as they’re told. It’s amazing how many people still believe the propagandists. If Russiagate and the Kavanaugh lies (not to mention the 2020 cultural revolution) didn’t wake you up, then you’re probably hopeless.
ATF is not going away, neither is the machine gun ban.
Never-Going-To-Happen !!!
Be happy that a McCarthy or Pelosi is not the Speaker.
The Speaker IS NOT a dictator, there are limits to what they can do.
Unfortunately the person doing the interviewing didn’t bother to ask real questions. So answers were not given.
Hunting is a fine hobby.
NATIONAL RECIPROCITY NOW.
I support the Speaker. He’s doing the best job possible with what he has to work with.
Too many people in DC spend all of their time focused on the wrong things in this life. This interview is a great example of that.
Lip service but what the heck do you expect from from the soft ball levels of questions NSSF would ask
100%!
“Lip service but what the heck do you expect from from the soft ball levels of questions NSSF would ask.”
Not sure why people expect NSSF to be a 2A advocacy group. Their mission is utterly clear…”Shooting Sports”. The question should be, “How well are they succeeding at their mission?”
Hunting and competing are not targets of the anti-gun mob. Staying clear of 2A advocacy might seem a wise move to preserve “Shooting Sports”. Apparently, the judgement of NSSF is that in a highly restrictive firearm restriction environment, firearm sports will still be allowed, much like in the UK.
A good citizen should be able to exercise their 2A rights in any state and no state should be able to restrict that right. Again, there is no “But” in the 2A but there sure is a lot of BUTTS in politics.
“I’m a staunch supporter of H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would simply allow people who are eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to do so in any other state which also allows the concealed carry of firearms.”
If they whine and snivel about untrained people carrying guns, tell them the answer is universal gun training in high schools, the same way driver’s ed is taught to the kids.
That way, *everybody* gets training… 😉
That is the trap that miner49er supports. If you don’t get the training in school? Do you lose your 2a rights? What if you don’t graduate? A poorly funded, poorly staffed inner city school can’t deliver the training?
No poll taxes. No literacy tests on a basic human right.
Shouldn’t have Gun Ed because “poll tax”??
Huh??
There should be no requirements to exercise a right. No training or .gov permission.
Should you get training? Yes. But not required. What will happen if you start having gun training in school is the pols will then make it a requirement.
“There should be no requirements to exercise a right. No training or .gov permission.”
JWM, you don’t think that literally knowing what end of the gun the bullet comes out of isn’t something people should know?
How about if your granddaughter gets killed because some twerp thinks the 1911 is unloaded because the magazine was dropped?
Teaching that shit is literal ‘gun safety’ that saves lives… 🙁
geoff, why don’t we just ban guns? That way nobody will ever be accidentally killed?
It is a slippery slope. No mandatory anything for exercising a right.
There is no basic human right to guns.
The 2nd amendment disagrees, unless you’re going to argue that guns are not “arms”?
Guns ARE arms.
Guns are an American right. They are not a basic human right. What is a basic human right is self defense which is not the same thing. The American Constitution through the 2nd Amendment forbids government from disarming Americans. Something the left violates regularly. GFZ’s are an example of this.
Humans have a God given right to self defense (that includes Israel).
Americans have the right to guns.
If anyone outside of America wants their own version of the 2A, they can have that. Oct7 would have looked very different if everyone in Israel were armed. Why they haven’t learned that lesson from WWII remains a mystery. But every nation on Earth should have a 2A. There just simply are too many dictators and tyrants running them to allow for that. We have plenty of tyrants here that try very hard to take it from us.
The purpose of the BoR was to identify rights considered to be “basic human rights” and prohibit government from restricting or abolishing those rights. That the governments of other countries don’t recognize those rights does not mean that the right doesn’t exist, it means that the people tolerate their government’s denial of them.
There is nothing about the BoR or the Constitution that says that the US has the right to enforce it’s will on other nations. Although many of our elected’s think it does. The 2A is uniquely about the US. the philosophy that produced it is something that does apply to everyone though.
I’m all for the citizens of other nations being armed. I truly believe if that were the case we could put an end to totalitarian tin horns and various dictatorships across this planet very quickly. But those people will have to ‘fight like hell’ to make that happen. That’s on them.
@prndll Nowhere in the constitution is the right of the nation to “enforce its will on other nations” stated, inferred, or implied. In your way of thinking, it is the government that grants us the rights in the BoR. I can assure you, that is not what the founders thought or intended. They believed that the rights specified were those of all people, that they were not granted by governments but, are inalienable (which is about as close to basic human as you can get without using the exact words). That citizens of other nations are unable or unwilling to fight as our forefathers did for the RTKBA or other rights in the BoR has no bearing on whether or not the right exists. The right exists, it simply isn’t honored by most governments.
No, I never said the government grants any rights. What I actually did say was the exact opposite. The 2A is there to tell our government not to get in the way because we have a right to guns. There is no right at all granted to us by government. This is a message TO OUR government. No other nation is part of this.
Yes but the message is: These rights are “inalienable” (“basic human”). Your initial statement was that there is no “basic human right to guns.” If they are not “basic human” then they must be granted by government, otherwise, they would not exist. What other nation’s governments and their citizens do or don’t do does not change the fact that the right is inalienable.
But let’s agree to disagree on this. I think we’re going in circles and probably even have the same overall philosophy regarding rights anyway.
The right to defend one’s self is an inalienable right and should be obvious to any person no matter where they live. The 2nd amendment merely states:
“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The right to keep and bear Arms is not an inalienable right, but it is a right for every American granted by the Bill of Rights.
The key word is inalienable.
“Why they haven’t learned that lesson from WWII remains a mystery.”
Something that I asked my first wife’s parents. Hardcore democrat voters to the end. Actual survivors of the holocaust. They couldn’t give me a coherent answer. Mind boggling!
Geez not this again. In nearby INDIANA there’s NO training or gubmint licenses required to carry a gat! Sure get training if you so desire. And which state is “safer”>Illinois or Indiana??? You’re absolutely right jwm!
“If they whine and snivel about untrained people carrying guns, tell them the answer is universal gun training in high schools, the same way driver’s ed is taught to the kids.”
Showing your age. Driver’s Ed, thanks to Republicans wanting private enterprise to run everything, is now a for profit business in many states and has nothing to do with school.
Lots of todays kids are forgoing learning how to drive.
Still wondering where Mike hides his money.
Geoff, Works for me!
have tuo been oaying any attention to the “produc” cranked out by the school driver education attempts? Young drivers are pathetically bad, it is obvious t=no one has reallly given them much in way of decent instruction.
And you advocate the schools take care of firearms training too?
Nope.
Not a good idea.
and mandating “training” t any level is also wrong. that means Dad cannot teach his own kids. Yes, too many Dads can’t because they are unqualified. The answer lies, as ever, in the local community where thhe kids grow up. Chicago will never have a high percentage of children properly trained and skilled, because its not a gun cultre area, at least not the type of gun culture WE want passed on.
Mike, in the itnerview, lays out how its spozed ta be done.. Fathers teach your children. Keep gummit out of it.
Lookit the mess CAlifornia are trying to make of their mandated training requirement “lw”. NRA are not even qualified in their brains.
“The answer lies, as ever, in the local community where the kids grow up.”
As in “It takes a village”? Fuck that! It take two parents in the best possible scenario.
He goes hunting. ok. and?
This is being presented to us like a commercial as if the 2A is about hunting. We need people in power that will uphold the rule of law and the word of the Constitution. I’m not really interested in any kind of interview with the NSSF. Hunting is a tiny facet in a very big diamond. Something that wont even matter if we lose our Republic.
100 percent agree… our Mn. commie ex teacher bank robbing idiot Gov. Walz makes a big to-do about the governors fishing and hunting openers, and the news stations and talking heads eat that shit up. Then he goes back to the capital afterwards and pisses all over the Constitution with a quick scribble of souvenir Sharpies. Fuck ALL of these so called second amendment “supporters”, they wouldn’t go on any of these photo ops if the big ass resorts weren’t fronting a lavish week for them and a bunch of cronies.
If he chose the questions, that is one thing.
I doubt that he did. National Reciprocity ain’t about hunting, and he went there at 1st (and only) opportunity.
It doesn’t matter who chose the questions. The focus is all wrong.
“It doesn’t matter who chose the questions. The focus is all wrong.”
What if the intent of the questioning was only to ascertain whether the new Speaker (same as the old Speaker) would protect “Shooting Sports” from attempts to add further restrictions on firearm ownership?
Not aware NSSF ever published a claim of being an advocate for 2A absolutism, or taking much interest in guns for the general public, beyond “Shooting Sports”.
Right? Would have been nice if the “Interviewer” had asked serious questions.
“The Biden Administration” got news for ya the last one did stuff too and the one before that …..
NONE of you politicians are to be trusted
Fair enough Matt, but I’ll take Trump over the potato any day. Biden isn’t running this show. Pull the curtain back and Vallerie Jared, Susan Rice, Obama, and many other true seditionists are running the show.
Wow these politicians would be shit out of luck using gunms as a, Vote for Me, if both parties believed in honoring the Second Amendment.
It’s nice to see a father and son/grandson out enjoying the “FAMILY HOBBY” together. But the 2A has nothing to do with hunting.
A hunter who doesn’t understand the importance of carrying a side arm. Does not understand that he can become the hunted out in the woods.
It’s surprising to me. The number of hunters who actually brag about not owning handguns. But they do own 5 or 10 shotguns and rifles.
A hunter who does not understand the importance of the civilian population, possessing at least, the same fire power as the military and police forces.
That person is not a supporter of the Second Amendment. They’re really just supporting their expensive hobby. It’s not cheap to hunt for your source of protein.
The price of one Buck deer can buy 3 or more cows in some places.
Horns cost money.
Ground up horns make you horny…
you never realize how vulnerable you are out in the woods….[it was a “hunting accident”…right?]….until you have an experience like that….
Fudds gonna Fudd.
This guy isn’t much better than that last RINO they flushed after he showed everyone what deep-stage stooge he was.
We are screwed as a nation with all of the deep pockets deciding our fate…
@VNVet69
“Those were his words, not mine. Recently siding with the democrats on several issues leads me to believe he’s just another RINO. I could be wrong, and I hope I am but his words and actions are telling in my book.”
He was an all-in fanboy of the previous Speaker, and the choice of the previous Speaker to succeed him.
The fact that there are only 52 members of the House “Freedom Caucus”, out of 435 Representatives should tell the story.
@jwm December
“It is a slippery slope. No mandatory anything for exercising a right.”
Isn’t the core issue whomever is declaring something mandatory, and what specifically it is that is being made mandatory?
It is a slippery slope for for freedom: who sets rules, and what rules are being set. In all instances where formal government is setting rules, freedom loses.
Exactly. Start a program for safe gun training in the schools and before you know it the .gov will require that passing grade or no guns for you. And no summer school to make up a failing grade.
“and before you know it the .gov will require that passing grade or no guns for you.”
No Gun Ed in public schools because gummint sure fire gonna pounce later? That’s hypothetical.
Driver’s Ed and Gun Ed, also Nutrition Ed and Money Ed, should be mandatory to _graduate_, that is, obtain a high school diploma.
“Sorry kid, can’t let you buy those groceries, you didn’t take Nutrition Ed…”? Don’t think so.
mandatory training for first time hunters in many places…probably not a bad idea for first time gun buyers…as long as you keep it simple and inexpensive….
…”probably not a bad idea for first time gun buyers…as long as you keep it simple and inexpensive…”
But again, who mandates, who structures the training, who determines the interval between training renewals, who enforces? Those questions determine the angle of the slippery slope.
Not to mention mandatory training meets neither Heller, or Bruen.
A good teacher:
In this class there are no B’s or D’s, you either pass or fail. I will instruct you, and you will pass.
My wife’s CCW class instructor said that everyone passes the live fire range session unless they shoot themselves or someone else. They shot 5 rounds of .22LR through a little semi-auto pistol one at time with the instructor right there. They do this class twice a week so they have a good safe system. I tagged along to watch and the instructor was cool about that.
Each student was given their own magazine and 5 rounds to load into them up before they even went into the range. One student tried loading the shells backwards but was instructed. Nobody failed…
@Hush
“It is a little too early and premature to use the term RINO relative to the new Speaker Johnson. ”
Is it? Johnson was number one fanboy of McCarthy, and his number one pick to succeed him.