opinion

How a lifelong anti-gun liberal became an NRA life member

One guy held a gun in my face and the other held a gun to the back of my head. But after 33 years of being an anti-gun advocate, my views didn’t change overnight.

I was 14 years old when John Lennon was killed — it affected me deeply and it was the biggest event that led to my anti-gun feelings. As I got older, my heroes were JFK, RFK and MLK, which furthered my anti-gun sentiments.

By my late teens I thought the Second Amendment was not relevant to our modern-day society and it should be repealed. The Second Amendment was only relevant to muskets, right?

In 2012 I tweeted: "@BarackObama please repeal the 2nd amendment and stop the @nra."

Then in 2013 I tweeted: "I was mugged, two guys with guns, right after getting off 19 at Polk and Francisco last night about 10.30. @mayoredlee @sfmta_muni"

In early 2016, I decided to leave San Francisco and to build a house in Washington. Previously I lived most of my life in apartment buildings with security entrances that provided a tad more security, but as my house was being built I started wondering what I would do in the event of a home invasion. I knew right away becoming a gun owner was going to be the best way to defend myself. I gave it a lot of thought and decided I was going to purchase a gun and learn to shoot it and decided I was going to get a concealed carry permit. After researching the gun restrictions in California, I decided to wait until I moved to Washington where they recognize the right to keep and bear arms.

I moved into my house in July 2016 and purchased my first gun in October 2016 and then immediately applied for my concealed carry permit.

I was a lifelong Democrat. In the 2016 presidential debates I watched as Hillary Clinton said “I support the Second Amendment.” I didn’t believe her for a minute but at the time of the election I had been a gun owner for less than two weeks so I voted for her anyway.

I started going to the range and discovered that I really enjoyed target shooting. I joined the NRA in late 2016. At first I was a little turned off by how often the NRA spoke out against the left, but I gradually came around to see how extremely anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment the left was. For a large portion of them, their ultimate goal is a full gun ban and to repeal the Second Amendment — I know I was one of them.

In February 2017, I upgraded my NRA membership to become a life member and it was around this time that I renounced the Democratic Party because they were so anti-gun and anti-Constitution.

I guess I was an independent for a few months and I gradually started to realize that deep down I had always been conservative on many issues and that my liberal views had changed on guns and a few other issues. When I came out as a conservative, an NRA member and a Trump supporter, a few people started a campaign to get me fired from one of my social media jobs after I retweeted Tucker Carlson, Dana Loesch, Laura Ingraham, President Trump and the NRA on my personal Twitter. The companies I work for are nonpartisan so my personal views are irrelevant to my work. My views are my own, yeah?

Conservatives need to stop being the silent majority and speak up as proud Americans, supporters of the Constitution, the NRA and of President Trump. We can’t let the left silence us on social media and stop us from speaking publicly. They want to take away our First and Second Amendment rights but we are not going to let them.

To my easily confused friends on the left — no, I am not calling for violence; no, I am not a terrorist, no, I am not racist. Peace.

Ryan Moore is a social media strategist and writer. He is @RyanMoore on Twitter and Instagram.



