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Jeff Sessions Confirmed as U.S. Attorney General with Strong NRA Support

Friday, February 10, 2017

Jeff Sessions Confirmed as U.S. Attorney General with Strong NRA Support

Jeff Sessions, the former U.S. senator from Alabama, was confirmed on Wednesday as the new U.S. attorney general. 

The NRA had heavily promoted Sessions’s nomination, and he enjoyed the support of the entire Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate.  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) also crossed the aisle to vote for the long-time Alabama senator.

In addition to a Senate career spanning more than 20 years during which he consistently enjoyed “A” and “A+” ratings from the NRA, Sessions brings a wealth of law enforcement experience to his new position. He began a career as a federal prosecutor in 1975. President Reagan then nominated him to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama in 1981, and he would occupy that position for the next 12 years.

For gun owners, Sessions promises to be a welcome change from his predecessors in the Obama administration, whose tenures were marked by scandals that included Operation Fast & Furious and Operation Choke Point and that diminished the prestige and integrity of the Department of Justice. The continual agitation from the Obama administration for new gun laws did not translate into a determination to maximize prosecutions under existing statutes, and near the end of his term Obama even pardoned or commuted the sentences of numerous serious firearm offenders

Sessions, by contrast, made clear during his confirmation hearing that he intended to use the resources of the Justice Department to vigorously enforce existing laws, not just lobby for new ones:

If I am confirmed, we will systematically prosecute criminals who use guns in committing crimes. As United States attorney, my office was a national leader in gun prosecutions every year. We will partner with state and local law enforcement to take down drug-trafficking cartels and dismantle gangs. We will prosecute those who repeatedly violate our borders. It will be my priority to confront these crises vigorously, effectively and immediately.

NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox applauded Sessions’s confirmation. “The NRA and our five million members would like to congratulate Jeff Sessions on his confirmation as attorney general,” Cox said. “He will make America a safer place by prosecuting violent criminals while protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

In another welcomed development for gun owners, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley appointed the state’s attorney general, Luther Strange, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Sessions until a permanent replacement is chosen in a special election next year. Strange, like Sessions, has an established history of supporting Second Amendment rights.

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Monday, October 13, 2025

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Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

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Monday, October 13, 2025

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Democrat Jay Jones, candidate for Virginia attorney general, still has not suspended his campaign, even as pressure mounts over disclosures that should disqualify, to put it mildly, any individual from serving as the chief law ...

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

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Monday, October 6, 2025

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California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

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Monday, October 13, 2025

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

Three years ago, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), writing for RealClearInvestigations, described how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was vastly undercounting, “by an order of more than three the number of instances in ...

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Monday, October 13, 2025

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Today, the National Rifle Association—along with Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members—filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Glock ban.

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

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Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

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Today, the National Rifle Association announced the filing of a petition for rehearing en banc in Siegel v. Platkin, a challenge to New Jersey’s carry restrictions.

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

The 36th Legislature of the US Virgin Islands is continuing to advance sweeping gun control measures through the legislative process.

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on ...

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

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Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

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NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.