USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- This week on Riding Shotgun With Charlie we take a ride with Lara Smith the National Spokesperson of the Liberal Gun Club.
I met Lara at GRPC in Chicago in 2018. When I was looking for interviewees this year, she jumped at the chance.
Lara Smith grew up anti-gun. She grew up in a well educated, liberal household. But she makes sure that she isn’t labeled as a Democrat. She was nervous and scared about firearms. After being married to a former Marine who often told her she was wrong about the information she was using about firearms, he told her she needed to get educated on firearms. As a lawyer, it’s hard to say you’re wrong. She had to break it to her husband about her new hobby.
She joined a pro-gun organization but didn’t quite fit in. So Lara searched for something that is more of her demographic. Googling things like “liberal gun owners”, “women gun owners”, and “unconventional gun owners”, she came across A Girl And A Gun. After talking with, Robyn Sandoval, one of the founders of AGAG and attending their conference, she fit right in!
She went out and bought her own firearm to use, a Ruger Mark II, .22 caliber pistol. She found out that not only was she good at it, she had fun as well. She enjoys trap, skeet, and sporting clays. She likes the shotgunning. But she’s also got a blue AR.
She also found The Liberal Gun Club. At one of their events, she volunteered her way up to becoming the Vice President of California Chapter of The Liberal Gun Club, then the club’s President. While the President, she got a call from the LA Times when they were seeking to talk to gun owners. That lead to being interviewed on the BBC!
We didn’t talk about it, but she is a member of The DC Project. We’ve talked to many of the women in The DCP in previous episodes of RSWC.
The one question I had for her was about being a Liberal and a gun owner because in my mind, those often don’t mix. Many times, we think that conservatives are the ones who are concerned about self-defense and gun ownership. Lara makes it clear that her team is equally concerned about personal and family safety and that not everyone wants to own a firearm for defense.
This year, Lara and a few other non-traditional gun owners gave a group presentation at AMMcon. AMMcon is the Alternative Multi-Media Conference, which has been held the day before GPRC for the last 3 years. The others with her were Tiffany Johnson, Annette Evans. They talked about broadening the tent of gun ownership. None of them fit into the traditional gun owner stereotype. You can watch their presentation thanks to CloverTac who record the whole event. https://youtu.be/yeFH-ervVSA
We do hit a drive-thru Starbucks. Lara has a hot chai tea. I order a black coffee, three sugars, and of course the worker called it a Vente (?).
I learned Lara is hardcore, she has a Trump Resister tattoo but I didn’t ask to see it.
Here’s a couple of quotes from the show that I enjoyed.
“Shooting is fun! Nobody said shooting was fun!”
When talking to anti-gun folks, I “listen to what they’re saying and not the words they’re using”.
Here are some links to their social media outlets.
- The Liberal Gun CLub: https://www.facebook.com/LiberalGunClub/
- The Liberal Gun Club Website : https://theliberalgunclub.com/
- [email protected] is her email address.
If you like Riding Shotgun WIth Charlie, please share it with others. That’s how we get the Stagecoach Across America.
Riding Shotgun With Charlie
Riding Shotgun With Charlie isn’t about firearms. Its about having an intimate conversation with 2 people talking. You’re the fly on the rear view mirror. Many passengers are involved in the firearm community, but not all of them.
This is a more intimate conversation than a phone, radio, or Skype interview. You get to see the passengers. And you’ll see where the road and the conversation takes you! www.ridingshotgunwithcharlie.com , Facebook
The Liberal Gun Club is flawed from the start……they can say they support 2nd Amendment Rights but all the ones I have seen will vote for democrats in every election. They vote for the very people who are going to take their gun Rights away. Any vote for a democrat at any level of government is a vote to end the 2nd Amendment…..this is why I am not a fan of the Liberal Gun Club…
Correct. Progressivism is a religion and not a political theory. That is why they are confused.
Not confused. Evil.
You are correct!
Next time you see this group out in public….ask them who they would support for President in the next election….or congress….that will show you their level of dedication to the 2nd Amendment.
More than likely they will give you the Rachel Maddow New Left Progressive answer: liberty is good for me but not for thee. They will assume that being a member of the supporting class for a Bloomberg or a Biden they will be exempted from any restrictions. Famous last words.
Most gun control advocates are incapable of reasoning in their minds the reason for such an increase in crime in areas that have extreme restrictive gun control laws. They are incapable of realizing restrictive gun control laws take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens not the criminals. No one anywhere can pass a law that takes guns out of the hands of those who do not “obey” the laws. Consequently those laws help the criminal and make the law abiding citizens more vulnerable not less. That also goes for law enforcement as well! It also puts our… Read more »
This is why the American people are confused. Labels get convoluted and perverted so they no longer mean what they mean. Case in point is the term “liberal.” This term used to describe our basic political philosophy as a free market, Constitutional Republic based upon the foundation of individual liberty, natural law and the common law. Along the line ideologues and pundits perverted the term to provide cover for progressives. Progressives reject the aforementioned foundation of our Republic. Progressives tried to pass under the sheep hide of “liberal” after the term “progressive” lost favor in the 1940’s. And now progressives… Read more »
There are very few Kennedy democrats left in America now. Therefore the speech he gave when he was sworn in as president asking Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country” will never be uttered by a democrat again. No democrat I know of meets the dictionary definition of liberal. Those who have never read it should and I’m sure they would understand if not agree! The democrats are actually no longer democrats or liberals they are a form of socialism either communism, marxism or fascism. Take you pick… Read more »
Essentially, this is an advertisement for Riding Shotgun with Charlie. Okay, I guess. Not personally interested but some here may be so… thanks for the information? I had heard of the Liberal Gun Club but didn’t give it much attention then and this article didn’t make it any more likely. The only thing I would like to hear someone ask them is how they reconcile their support of candidates that oppose their expressed views on a fundamental right? How in the world does that compute?
It is a bit confusing. Simply the best thing I have recently seen on the Second Amendment and our rights as well as info on the NRA and a couple of other gun issues is at mantalkblog.com