A new Rasmussen survey released Friday was almost predictable in its numbers for Attorney General Pam Bondi, and she gets higher marks than her predecessor, Merrick Garland.
Her re-direction of the Department of Justice during Donald Trump’s first 100 days has been stunning, especially in terms of Second Amendment issues.
According to Rasmussen, a national online and telephone survey conducted April 15-17 found 42 percent of likely voters view Bondi favorably, while Garland’s favorability rating was 36 percent in August 2023. And 38 percent of voters “believe Bondi is doing a better job than most previous attorneys general, while 32% think she’s doing worse than most of her predecessors, and 21% say her performance is about the same.”
Rasmussen also revealed, “Among voters with a Very Favorable impression of Bondi, 93% think she’s doing a better job than most previous attorneys general.”
Bondi scored applause from U.S. gun owners last month when she announced the creation of a Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force to use the “full might” of the Justice Department “to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
When she announced the Task Force, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms hailed the move. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted in a statement, “We’re hoping this bold step by Attorney General Bondi brings an end to years of harassment and penalization of gun owners, and begins the process of dismantling unconstitutional laws and regulations at the federal, state and local levels of government.
“The Second Amendment protects a first-class right,” he continued, “and it feels great that after years of fighting this battle, gun owners now have support, rather than resistance, from the Department of Justice, and an administration that is definitely in our corner.”
Days later, CCRKBA sent a letter to Bondi, encouraging her to direct the Task Force’s attention to 12 states where Democrats have been enacting increasingly restrictive gun control laws. Those states have been dubbed “the Dirty Dozen.”
This was followed by an online petition allowing American gun owners to add their voices in a call for the Bondi DOJ to take action.
In a statement to the press, Bondi explained the Task Force’s creation.
“The prior administration placed an undue burden on gun owners and vendors by targeting law-abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights,” she said. “The Department of Justice’s new 2nd Amendment Task Force will combine department-wide policy and litigation resources to advance President Trump’s pro-gun agenda and protect gun owners from overreach.”
Has Bondi overcome the negative feelings many Florida gun owners have over her support of strict gun controls following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.? Time will tell, but the Rasmussen survey revealed strong support, with 60 percent of Republicans,36 percent of Independents and even 21 percent of Democrats saying they believe Bondi “is doing a better job than most previous attorneys general.” Predictably, 46 percent of Democrats say she is doing worse, and they were joined by 34 percent of Independents and 15 percent of Republicans.
Bondi is viewed more favorably by men (45%) than women (38%), according to Rasmussen, and in a breakdown of conservatives versus liberals, the numbers come in as expected: 65 percent of conservatives have a favorable impression, while 46 percent of liberals do not.
The survey was taken only a week after Bondi announced the Second Amendment Task Force, an idea certain to infuriate the gun prohibition lobby.
As reported earlier by TGM, Bondi’s assistant attorney general—Harmeet Dhillon—is already focusing the attention of the DOJ Civil Rights Division on Second Amendment issues. During an interview with Glen Beck, Dhillon observed, “Prior Republican administrations haven’t paid a lot of attention to affirmatively (protecting the Second Amendment), but in the wake of clear guidance from the United States Supreme Court, to own and use firearms…city after city or state after state are eviscerating those rights.”
Under Bondi, the DOJ is doing something it has never done before, which is to publicly support the Second Amendment. As previously reported by TGM, the Justice Department has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case challenging a Hawaii gun control law which declares, “The United States has a substantial interest in the preservation of the right to keep and bear arms and in the proper interpretation of the Second Amendment.”
This certainly would not have occurred during the previous administration, and it has sent a shockwave through the Second Amendment community.
