RSWC #062 Lara Smith 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 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 woman 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 to recorded 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.

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