Rep. Rich McCormick’s blunt warning against handing out tax breaks to new data centers lands at the exact moment the AI boom is driving a land rush for server farms, and the Second Amendment community should pay attention. Every new rack of GPUs needs megawatts of reliable power, and the same politicians who once promised “temporary” incentives for data centers are now eyeing the same tools—zoning overrides, eminent-domain shortcuts, and sweetheart utility rates—to fast-track them. Those shortcuts often come with quiet side deals that restrict firearm transfers, mandate “safe-storage” ordinances, or green-light local gun-free zones inside the very industrial parks being subsidized by taxpayers. When government picks winners with other people’s money, the Bill of Rights rarely makes the priority list.

The deeper issue is philosophical: if a data-center operator can’t turn a profit without confiscating wealth from gun-owning neighbors, maybe the project isn’t as economically vital as its lobbyists claim. McCormick’s stance echoes the broader conservative argument that genuine enterprise doesn’t need political privilege; it competes on a level field where property rights—including the right to keep and bear arms—are secure. For 2A advocates, the lesson is straightforward: oppose corporate welfare not only because it distorts markets, but because concentrated government power is the same force historically used to disarm citizens under the guise of economic development.