April 12, 2013 11:06 AM UTC

Meet Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Lynn Bartels of the Post updates with a quote from Lasamoa Cross, girlfriend of Aurora shooting victim A.J. Boik:

“At the time, pundits like Larry Pratt rushed in to do media tours claiming that the shooting was some kind of United Nations conspiracy,” she said, in an e-mail. “Now a bunch of fringe gun groups are bringing him into Colorado for a fundraiser. This is not only an insult to me, but shows how completely out of touch these guys are.”

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The Denver Post's Lynn Bartels posted a brief blog last night about an upcoming fundraiser in Durango for the group seeking the longshot recall of Rep. Mike McLachlan. Speaking at this fundraiser is one Larry Pratt, the director of Gun Owners of America. As Bartels reports, Pratt has a number of most immoderate viewpoints, including a theory that the shooter in the Aurora theater mass murder last summer "didn't act alone"–and that the killing was related to "the United Nations’ small-arms treaty negotiations." As Mother Jones reported at the time:

Larry Pratt—the president of Gun Owners of America, a far-right Second Amendment group that's backed by prominent people like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—has a different theory. Pratt believes the timing of Holmes' rampage, which left 12 people dead and 58 wounded, seemed designed to coincide with the upcoming negotiation of the United Nations Small Arms Treaty. A press release sent out to radio bookers on Tuesday advertising Pratt's availability noted that, "In an article posted at The New American…one expert even outlined a theory that Holmes didn't act alone, but was possibly 'enlisted' to carry out his violent act." Pratt, the publicist stated, was free for interviews on Holmes' "impeccable" timing.

As Bartels reports, Pratt was briefly associated with the 1996 campaign of Pat Buchanan, where she notes briefly he was "branded an extremist." That's about as far as she gets in exposing Pratt's background, and the link under the word "extremist" is apparently broken. A cached copy says this:

"It's astonishing to me that a guy who has gone to meetings with really stone-cold Nazis and white supremacists is a welcome lobbyist on Capitol Hill," said Kenneth Stern, the American Jewish Committee's expert on anti-Semitism and hate groups.

Pratt's role in an important Republican campaign poses a graver threat than many realize, Stern said, partly because of his access to conservative members of Congress.

Pratt's gun control activism "bridges the gap between the far right, anti-Semites, racists and members of Congress," said Stern, whose book "A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate" was recently published. [Pols emphasis]

Here's a little more about Larry Pratt. Much more recently than 1996 or even last summer, PFAW reported in February:

Pratt claimed that “some kind of social implosion” is inevitable during Obama’s second term, and that “it would be a wonderful surprise if it did not happen.” [Pols emphasis]

Another 2013 interview:

Pratt predicted that President Obama may begin confiscating guns in order to provoke a violent response to justify further oppression, which host Stan Solomon feared would lead to the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people…

“If Obama can take your guns away he can take your car, he can take your home, he can take your bank account, he can take your very life,” [blogger Greg] Howard said.

Unsurprisingly, Pratt agreed with their insane ramblings: “I do agree that the Obama administration would definitely be capable of something as evil as you were suggesting.” [Pols emphasis]

However, Pratt warned that “a lot of people resolved, ‘no more free Wacos,’” and that if Obama “starts playing the massacre game the way you did at Waco, well, you’re going to get surrounded, you won’t be able to go home safely, your family won’t be safe.”​

We suppose there's only so much you can fit into a blog post, and the crazy stuff about the Aurora shooting is the most relevant to a local audience. But the full picture of Larry Pratt reveals, in just about every way, the very worst of the contemporary right wing–openly racist, conspiratorial, and apocalyptic, as surely as a separatist crackpot in northern Idaho but walking the halls of Congress instead. Pratt is further confirmation of a point we've been making again and again as the local media grants dubious legitimacy to the pro-gun "backlash" against Colorado Democrats: if the public knew who was behind these efforts, and what they really believe, all of this talk of recalls and "sleeping giants" would come to a screeching halt.

These people belong on the front page, not the political junkie blog.