How the Senior Senator from Louisiana Betrayed Gun Owners
Next month, Louisiana Republicans head to the polls to decide who represents them in the United States Senate.
While incumbent U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy has outspent both of his opponents combined by a margin of 3-1, every single independent poll has him within the margin of error of not even making the runoff after the May 16th Republican primary.
For Louisiana gun owners, there’s a simple explanation for this: Cassidy has betrayed a core tenant of his campaign promise – the Second Amendment.
Cassidy Hands Biden Biggest Gun Control Victory in 30 Years
Gun Control vultures had been circling for years over a comprehensive gun control package tackling an array of issues that, if passed, would deal an absolute body blow to the Second Amendment.
Enter the crown jewel of the Biden administration’s legacy: the so-called “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”
But the Senate was split 50/50, and 60 votes were needed for it to pass. Democrats knew they couldn’t get this done on their own. They knew they would need Republican votes.
Cue Bill Cassidy.
Cassidy was one of 15 Republicans to join with the Democrats in passing this gun control monstrosity.
Here’s just a small taste of what Bill Cassidy handed the red-blooded patriots that put him in office:
- $750 million to bankroll “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation: The bill didn’t just permit “Red Flag” laws — it paid states to adopt them. These are laws that allow a court to order the seizure of your firearms based on an accusation, before you’ve been convicted of anything, sometimes before you’ve even been notified. No trial. No jury. Due process? Optional. Cassidy voted to put three-quarters of a billion federal dollars behind that scheme.
- A ban on private gun sales: As gun owners, we have always had the right to sell a firearm from our personal collection… Until Bill Cassidy said otherwise. Cassidy handed the ATF the ability to reclassify regular people as federally licensed DEALERS — that means we now have to undergo background checks, paperwork, and risk potential federal prosecution just to sell a gun to our neighbor. NAGR warned this was coming. Cassidy voted for it anyway.
- A lifetime ban for many young gun buyers: Because of Cassidy’s vote, those under the age of 21 are now subject to an expanded background check process that introduces mandatory juvenile record reviews and a new federal data collection framework. When you build a government database around gun buyers, you’re building a registry. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t being straight with you.
This is to say nothing of the provision in the bill that allows your gun to be banned if you’ve ever gone on a bad date. This opened the door to disarmament based on vague, unsubstantiated accusations.
Biden described this bill as “the closest thing we have to universal gun registration.” Just like NAGR warned, the bill was never about stopping criminals — it was about laying the groundwork for massive registration databases that Biden’s ATF would go on to weaponize against gun owners.
After the vote, the Bloomberg-backed gun control lobby sang Cassidy’s praises:
Repealing this mess will take years. Maybe decades. But this wasn’t Cassidy’s first betrayal.
Cassidy Votes to Confirm Merrick Garland, Biden’s Anti-Gun Attorney General
What good is a gun control law without someone to enforce it with maximum aggression?
A year prior to the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” Cassidy laid the groundwork for enforcement of the bill by voting to confirm Merrick Garland as Biden’s Attorney General.
That vote put Garland in charge of the Department of Justice — and the ATF — for four years.
What did Garland do with that power?
He oversaw the ATF’s pistol brace rule, which redefined millions of legally owned pistols equipped with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act — turning roughly 40 million law-abiding Americans into potential felons overnight unless they registered or destroyed their property.
He directed the ATF’s Frame or Receiver rule, which upended decades of settled law around what legally constitutes a “firearm” and effectively banned so-called “ghost guns” — a move that had nothing to do with criminals and everything to do with expanding federal control over private gunsmithing.
He used the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the bill Cassidy helped pass — as a legal crowbar to revoke the licenses of hundreds of federally licensed firearms dealers on technicality grounds, shrinking the nation’s gun retail infrastructure and making it harder for everyday Americans to buy firearms legally.
Cassidy didn’t just vote for the gun control law. He confirmed the man who turned it into a weapon against gun owners. He loaded the magazine and handed it to the Biden administration.
Louisiana Deserves Better
Like most establishment incumbent Republicans, Bill Cassidy is relying on his voters to see the “R” next to his name and pull the lever of the name they’ve heard the most without thinking twice.
But the $17.4 million he’s spent on campaign mailers, TV ads, and endorsements from Beltway insiders have failed to drown out the one thing he can’t spin away:
His record.
Because when you look at what Bill Cassidy has actually done in the United States Senate — not what his campaign commercials say — a very different picture emerges than the one his campaign is selling.
Primary elections are accountability elections. They’re the one time voters can look a sitting senator in the eye and say: this is not acceptable, and there are consequences for betrayal.
Bill Cassidy is betting that gun owners have short memories.
It’s time Bayou State gun owners prove him wrong.
About the Author
Taylor Rhodes is the Director of Communications at the National Association for Gun Rights. A seasoned political strategist and unapologetic defender of the Second Amendment, Taylor has led high-impact campaigns at both the state and national levels. He lives in Hoover, Alabama with his wife, Madison, and enjoys bourbon, golf, and collecting firearms—especially his 12.5” Geissele Super Duty.
