Under the gun

A couple weeks ago, we detailed Kris Kobach's connections to a web of anti-immigration groups.

Now, his connections to an extremist gun group and its leader has been revealed by Laura Ziegler of KCUR. She details Kris Kobach's ties to a radical gun-rights group and its extreme leader in an excellent Monday report.

Larry Pratt, director of the Gun Owners of America, has ties to white supremacist and anti-Semitic organizations, according to the highly regarded Southern Poverty Law Center*, which is dedicated to rooting out racism and extremism, and author Leonard Zeskind, who Ziegler also interviews.

According to these sources, Pratt promotes vigilantism and says all gun laws are unconstitutional. On his website, Pratt also wrote that gun control led to the 9/11 attacks being successful, that welfare was worse for black families than slavery, and that teachers should be issued guns.

Kobach, who like GOA, opposes the assault weapons ban, met with Pratt and accepted $3,000 from his organization. Kobach says that he was unaware of Pratt's past associations when the two met, but even after reviewing the public record on Pratt and Gun Owners of America, he says "If it turned out that their organization was supporting things that I regarded as too extreme or beyond the pale, then of course I would consider returning the contribution."

Tuesday Kobach told Brad Cooper of The Kansas City Star he would not return the contribution. Apparently the public record we link to above isn't too extreme for him.

Pratt resigned from Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential campaign after information on his views and ties to extreme groups came to light. Yet, in the KCUR interview, Kobach even goes so far as to defend Pratt, decrying "smear tactics" by opponents of Pratt.

We think the voters are in greater need of defense here: from Kris Kobach and yet another of his extreme supporters.

Oh, and Kris, good luck with your continued courting of labor unions. We're sure they'll really appreciate you implying in the Star that unions are tied in with the mob.


Related stories:
Lift of weapons ban worries police (AP)
Some fear ban's end may trigger violence (LJW) -- Kobach never called the reporter back to comment on this one


Update: ThirdDistrict.org is wondering about the radio report which started it all. As we mentioned above, it is KCUR, not Air America, which aired the report. And we thought you read us regularly.... [sniffle, tear]