My respect for the right wing organization Gun Owners of America has just exploded a trillion fold. Let me ‘splain.
For decades, GOA’s dark vision for America was indistinguishable from Pete Hegseth’s vision for America. It probably still is. Try this quote on for size: “Our Founding Fathers embraced Biblical law as the basis for establishing this Republic’s laws. Biblical citations accounted for thirty-four percent of all works cited during the period. It would not be surprising that the Founders also held a Biblical view of the military.”
Or this quote: “It is dishonest for schools to ignore our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage. It is historical fact that our Founding Fathers were men of faith who took their Christian religion seriously, were well-schooled in the Bible, and believed that religion and morality are the foundation of good government.”
Or these: “Our founding fathers believed in Christ and devoutly followed the word of God, specifically that which was revealed in the Bible.” And “It is without doubt — America used to be a nation blessed by God. And why not? We set up a government based upon God’s word.”
If that sounds like a blueprint for a brutal Taliban theocracy, it is. Larry Pratt, former president of Gun Owners of America, was also a member of the board of directors for National Reform Association, an organization that has long advocated for the enactment of a brutal Taliban-like theocracy in the United States, under the guise of “Explicitly Christian Politics.“
No doubt about it: GOA has long supported implementing a brutal, crushing religious dictatorship.
Imagine my surprise, then, when Erich Pratt said this: “Bottom Line: You can peacefully protest while armed, full stop.”
And he said this: “Gun owners never thought they’d see the day, but Chuck Schumer just declared that “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Yes, you read that right. The same Chuck Schumer who’s spent decades trying to gut our Second Amendment just admitted what we’ve been saying all along.”
And he said this! “President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to use the “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster to reopen the government. Destroying the filibuster would be a disaster for the Second Amendment. The truth is, the filibuster is the critical tool that GOA has used for years to DEFEAT:”
And this! “Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ have a trick up their sleeve: they want Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation’s membership lists, all under the guise of “protecting” their members in a recent lawsuit. Thankfully, FPC and SAF refused to comply. But this is alarming. When the government has a list of people who belong to gun rights organizations, they effectively have a list of gun owners, which is the very start of a national registry. And we all know a registry can – and will – lead to confiscation.”
GOA, for all of its faults, isn’t enamored with MAGA’s ambitions to disarm the American public, either.
Make no mistake: GOA is still far from earning my first membership dollar. But they deserve full-throated kudos for truly being the no-compromise gun rights organization — even when the people who want to take our guns away are the people who otherwise share identical politics.