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The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) is a
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
gun rights advocacy group based in the United States, which is dedicated to "providing
working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
people the information they need to be effectively armed for self and community defense." The group advocates for Second Amendment gun rights from a
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
perspective.


Background

The Socialist Rifle Association was created as a
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
page in 2013, initially as something as a joke. As time went on, its supporters decided to make it a reality, and incorporated as a
limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-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 of ...
(LLC) in
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. On October 8, 2018, the Socialist Rifle Association Inc. was founded in
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
, under the
501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. ยง 501(c)). Such organizations are exempt from some Taxation in the Un ...
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 supremacy#United States, 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, whi ...
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,
League of the South The League of the South (LS) is an American White nationalism, white nationalist, Neo-Confederates, neo-Confederate, White supremacy, white supremacist organization that says its goal is "a free and independent Southern republic". Headquarte ...
and Jason Kessler, the lawsuit also listed two anti-racist groups, the original SRA group and the left-wing gun group Redneck Revolt.


Natural disaster mutual aid


Hurricane Michael

In response to the landfall of the category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2018 and the perceived inadequate response of
Federal Emergency Management Agency 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 Exec ...
(FEMA), both the SRA and the Tallahassee branches of the Democratic Socialists of America and the
Party for Socialism and Liberation The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist party, communist political party in the United States, political party in the United States. PSL formed in 2004, when its members split from the Workers World Party. PSL describes it ...
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 LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
and 8 percent are
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
. 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 alternative 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 social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
,
communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
, and anarchists 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.


See also

*
Antifa (United States) Antifa () is a left-wing politics, left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of leaderless resistance, autonomous groups that use nonviolent resistance, nonviole ...
* Huey P. Newton Gun Club * Liberal Gun Club * National Rifle Association of America * Pink Pistols * Redneck Revolt


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 Rifle associations Gun rights advocacy groups in the United States Multi-tendency organizations in the United States Organizations based in Wichita, Kansas Organizations established in 2018 Working-class culture in the United States Left-wing militant groups in the United States Left-wing politics in the United States