Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota will be the next majority leader.
His colleagues voted for him 29 to 24 over Texas Senator John Cornyn after earlier eliminating Florida Senator Rick Scott from the contest. Thune was the candidate with the strongest record of bucking gun-control measures. Unlike Cornyn and Scott, Thune hasn’t supported significant new gun restrictions since entering office in the late nineties. However, he has signed on to several bills seeking to expand lawful access to firearms and gun carry.
“I strongly support the Second Amendment, which protects ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms,'” Thune said on his campaign website. “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.”
Senate Republicans picking Thune to succeed long-serving Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as majority leader may impact the likelihood of new federal gun legislation for decades to come. Thune’s advocacy for broader gun protections and resistance to gun restrictions, even those supported by some of his Republican colleagues, may impact the overall direction of his caucus in the coming years. His climb to the top of the Republican leadership ladder could make pro-gun legislation more likely and simultaneously diminish the odds of new gun-control legislation.
Most recently, Thune broke with McConnell and Cornyn in opposing the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was the first law to expand who is prohibited from owning guns in decades and expanded the background check process for 18-to-20-year-olds looking to buy a gun. Cornyn helped craft the bill in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, and McConnell shepherded it beyond the 60-vote threshold needed for passage by getting 17 Republicans on board. Scott initially co-sponsored the bill before eventually voting against it.
However, Scott signed a series of gun-control measures as the governor of Florida in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting. He barred anyone under 21 years old from buying guns and created the state’s first so-called red flag law, which allows law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms from those a court has deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Thune has voted against universal background check proposals and bans on the sale of popular firearms, such as the AR-15, and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
“[AR-15s] are a sporting rifle. It’s something that a lot of people [use] for purposes of going out target shooting — in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints,” Thune told The Washington Post in 2022. “And, so, I think there are legitimate reasons why people 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 the idea of trying to keep people, who he argued were especially dangerous, from getting ahold of the weapons.
“So I just think that the issues that they should be focused on is how do you keep those types of weapons out of the hands of these young — in this case, male — very deranged, young men,” he told the paper.
Thune has opposed those reforms while also backing top priorities of the gun-rights movement and firearms industry over the years, including concealed carry reciprocity and interstate gun sales. He voted for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which provided the gun industry a legal shield against liability suits for criminal acts committed with their products by third parties. Thune voted to force Washington, DC, to issue concealed carry permits and for National Parks to allow loaded firearms on their premises. He has also repeatedly voted to force states to recognize one another’s concealed carry permits, even co-sponsoring a 2009 effort that garnered 58 votes.
“I am pleased to introduce legislation that strikes a balance between state’s rights and individual’s Second Amendment rights outlined by the Constitution,” Thune said in 2012. “Rather than establish a national standard, our bill will ensure that law-abiding citizens are able to carry concealed firearms while at the same time respecting the laws of the respective states they visit.”
He has remained active on gun policy in recent years as well. In March 2023, he introduced a bill to bar the IRS from using special merchant category codes tied to gun retailers as the basis for investigating those businesses. In September 2023, he introduced a bill to protect federal funding for hunting and archery programs in schools. In July 2024, he introduced a bill that would allow licensed dealers to sell handguns across state lines.
“Enabling licensed firearm dealers to sell across state lines strengthens law-abiding gun owners’ Second Amendment rights and helps promote a marketplace on which many livelihoods depend,” Thune said in a statement. “Lawful South Dakota gun owners, including members of our armed forces, should have unimpeded access to exercise their lawful right to keep and bear arms.”
During his 2022 re-election bid, the National Rifle Association gave Thune an A+ rating. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, gave him an A+ rating in its 2024 report as well.
Not every gun-rights group is pleased with Thune’s record, though. Gun Owners of America, which said none of the majority leader nominees had “no compromise” records, gave him only a 70 percent rating. The group’s most recent scorecard dinged Thune for backing a pair of omnibus funding bills, one of which reauthorized a ban on guns that can pass through metal detectors without setting them off.
Thune is 63 years old and represents a deep red state. His Wednesday victory in the majority leader race sets him to lead the Republican Senate Caucus for a long time.
