United States Concealed Carry Association Rolls Out New Political Advocacy Group
Jose Nino
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Towards the end of September, the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) rolled out a new non-profit arm. The USCCA is the nation’s largest concealed carry organization.
The US Concealed Carry For Saving Lives Action Fund (USCCA-FSL Action Fund) has plans of advocating against gun control at all levels of government across the nation. This is a 501(C)(4) with Katie Pointer Baney at the helm. She said the organization would concentrate mainly on training gun owners in how to become better political activists.
“At USCCA, we always tell our members that it’s their personal responsibility to be trained, that being a gun owner is a huge responsibility. I think the same applies to being an American citizen,” Baney said to The Reload in an interview. “We’re blessed to live in this country, but there are individual civic responsibilities that we need gun owners to step up and take hold of.”
Baney claimed tha USCCA counts on the support of over 800,000 members across 48 states. It should be noted that New York and New Jersey prohibited insurance products such as the one USCCA offers over the last few years.
Nevertheless, USCCA has experienced notable growth in the last two years, when it initially boasted 600,000 members.
“This growth really has been has been exponential. And we’ve also seen it cut across typical gun ownership demographics,” Baney observed. “I think that’s where the USCCA is uniquely positioned to use our resources, our national platform on behalf of all gun owners instead of taking a really partisan bent towards our political advocacy.”
USCCA plans on using donor funds to primarily train activists through several events and rallies nationwide. The first of these events took place in New Mexico, where the group launched a protest against Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency suspension of people’s right to carry in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County,
“We want to teach people how to be engaged in the political realm. We’re going to provide them with the resources, tools, and education necessary in order to equip them to make a difference and to get involved,” Baney stated. “So, the Action Fund will use our national platform, our resources, compiling all of that from the USCCA, but we also want to empower people to get involved at the local, state, and federal levels ahead of the 2024 election.”
Baney noted that although the Supreme Court scored a solid victory for Second Amendment supporters, USCCA still believes “many battles lay ahead.” She noted that the new political campaign will concentrate on education and training for activists to combat “attempts to further restrict where law-abiding citizens may carry or proposals to ban entire classifications of firearms.” She stated that the group has plans of taking a different approach by avoiding petty partisan squabbles and instead concentrate on mobilizing the diverse group of people who bought a firearm for the first time in the last three years.
“I think this is a huge opportunity to look at the millions of gun owners who have entered the space over the past couple years and provide the experiences of in-person events for them to come out and get involved and understand what it means to be a gun owner and voting that way,” Baney stated.
It’s good to see another pro-gun organization rise up to the occasion. We need more of this energy at a time when our rights hang in the balance. Political complacency during times of crisis is asking for the forces of tyranny to come out on top.
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