The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) is an American

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

firearm organization that is dedicated to "providing working class people the information they need to be effectively armed for self and community defense." The group advocates for

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

gun rights from an expressly left-wing perspective.

Background

The Socialist Rifle Association was initially created as a Facebook page in 2013, as "something of a joke". As time went on, supporters decided to make it a reality, and incorporated as a

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability ...

in New Mexico. On October 10, 2018, the Socialist Rifle Association Inc. was founded in Kansas under the

501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...

tax code provision. On October 16, 2018, a merger agreement was agreed between the two extant SRA nonprofits.

''The City of Charlottesville, et al. vs. The Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, et al.'' (2018)

Individuals associated with an unrelated community Facebook page calling itself the SRA attended the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Kl ...

on the counterprotest side and were subsequently sued for their involvement. In October 2018, the city of Charlottesville filed a lawsuit against 25 groups and individuals for alleged paramilitary activity based on a recently adopted state statute. In addition to several white supremacist figures and organizations such as the

Traditionalist Worker Party The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) was a far-right neo-Nazi political party active in the United States between 2013 and 2018, affiliated with the broader "alt-right" movement that became active within the U.S. during the 2010s. It was consi ...

League of the South The League of the South (LS) is an American white nationalist, neo-Confederate, white supremacist organization, headquartered in Killen, Alabama, which states that its ultimate goal is "a free and independent Southern republic". The group ...

and Jason Kessler, the lawsuit also listed two

anti-racist Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

groups, the original SRA group and the left-wing gun group

Redneck Revolt Redneck Revolt is an American far-left socialist political group that organizes predominantly among white working-class people. The group supports gun rights and members often openly carry firearms. Its political positions are anti-capitalist ...

Natural disaster mutual aid

Hurricane Michael

In response to the landfall of the category 5

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ma ...

in 2018 and the perceived inadequate response of

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...

, the SRA and the Tallahassee branches of the DSA and the PSL formed the Hurricane Michael Mutual Aid project which sought to distribute direct relief to those in need, including those who were unable to receive FEMA relief due to their undocumented status.

Hurricane Dorian

On August 29, 2019, the SRA began a fundraiser under the new organizational name "SRAid" for Hurricane Dorian disaster relief. On September 5, the SRA announced it had several volunteers staging equipment on the east coast in preparation for supply deliveries to under-served communities in Charleston, South Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Lumbee Tribe in Robeson County, North Carolina.

Membership

In July 2019, a third of the SRA's 2,000 members identified as

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

and 8 percent are

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

. The organization claimed 10,000 active members in November 2020. The SRA has 52 local chapters operating in 33 states. The organization is headed by a National Assembly consisting of elected representatives from each chapter.

Ideology

The SRA describes the goal of their organization as "to provide an alternate to the mainstream, toxic, right-wing, and non-inclusive gun culture that has dominated the firearms community for decades. We seek to provide a safe, inclusive, and left-leaning platform for talking about gun rights and self defense, free from racist and reactionary prejudices, while providing a platform for the working class to obtain the skills necessary for all aspects of community defense." The group describes itself as "working class, progressive, anarchist, socialist, communist, eco-warrior, animal liberator, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, PoC, LGBTQ-plus."

Points of unity

Membership of the SRA is predicated on the acceptance of particular points of unity: * We are working class and poor people dedicated to educating our class in the safe use of firearms for personal and community self-defense as well as recreation and subsistence hunting. * We are a multi-tendency association of

social democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, and

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

united by class, for our class. We respect one another's political stances and differences, especially when we disagree. * We are dedicated to Liberation and Freedom of ALL people and therefore oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation. * We are party to our local communities and as such we volunteer in various ways to further the connections between leftist political radicals and the unorganized communities in which we live. We help feed, house and protect other working class and marginalized folks. * We stand against the disarmament of the working class. * We are dedicated to arming the working class, both physically and mentally.

References

External links

* {{American socialism navbox Anti-capitalist organizations Anti-fascist organizations in the United States Anti-racist organizations in the United States Far-left politics in the United States Firearms-related organizations Gun rights advocacy groups in the United States Multi-tendency organizations in the United States Organizations based in Wichita, Kansas Organizations established in 2018 Socialist organizations in the United States Working-class culture in the United States Left-wing militant groups in the United States