Nobody should believe a word of this article. He is not soft on the 2nd Amendment. He was the guy who told the law abiding people of Detroit to buy a gun and defend themselves and shoot the criminals. This is an article by an outlet that is for RINOs by RINOs.
The only Republican presidents of the past 40 years that were worth anything (a lot) were Reagan and Trump. Both were ex-Democrats. The Republican presidents of the past 40 years who were worthless (Bushes, Sr. and Jr.) were lifelong Republicans. People and their beliefs can and do change; oftentimes, the convert is a much stronger advocate of their adopted views.