Gun rights groups all, ostensibly, work toward the same goal: Protecting our rights.

In reality, there are varying degrees of whether they actually do what they claim and, if not, why.

For example, the NRA has long done a lot to defend our rights but has also capitulated a couple of times, which has angered a lot of people. The fact that Wayne LaPierre managed to live the good life while doing so hasn't helped people accept the NRA as the true arbiter of our rights.

Most of us know most of the national groups, but there are a plethora of statewide groups that serve a similar function and with similar variances. One of those groups is now coming under fire, and not because they support gun rights too vehemently.

Why do the leaders of Alaska Gun Rights attack conservative, obviously pro-2A legislators such as Representative Mike Cronk, Speaker Cathy Tilton, Representative Kevin McCabe, and many others?

See some of their attacks on their website; similar information and memes are being boosted on social media just days before the Primary election on Aug. 20: https://alaskagunrights.org/news/ and https://alaskagunrights.org/wall-of-shame-hb61/

Alaska Gun Rights (AGR) is a local offshoot of National Association of Gun Rights (NAGR), an organization which considers itself to be to the right of the NRA. Their board consists of L. Richard McClure, Jerad McClure, and Pat Martin.

Jerad McClure is David Eastman’s legislative secretary, and Pat Martin is Eastman’s best friend and stalwart defender of anything Eastman does, no matter how ridiculous or unethical.

AGR is particularly angry at a group of legislators who have decided they do not want to support some of the silly amendments that Representative Eastman puts forth, and they have chosen HB61 as their vehicle to beat up on these legislators. See my previous article about the tactic of punishing legislators who do not march in lockstep with the “champion:” 

House Bill 61 was House Speaker Cathy Tilton’s bill, a flagship bill of the NRA, and was passed last session. Significantly, she offered it three years ago and it was supported in a big way by both Eastman and AGR. HB 61 sought to protect gun rights from government intrusion in the time of an emergency.

It was known as the anti-Berkowitz bill, and was intended to prevent mayors and officials from closing down gun stores in an emergency, such as what happened in Anchorage during the Covid pandemic in 2020. What AGR takes issue with is that this bill (now law) does allow for the closing of gun shops and ranges. However, what AGR and McClure neglect to say is that the resulting law only allows for such closures if  all other businesses are closed as well. The rest of the bill put into statute that the government cannot otherwise interfere with your firearms rights.  

There are a lot of moving parts here, so you should read the whole thing. Further, it should be noted that the author is Linn McCabe, Rep. Kevin McCabe's wife, so she's hardly an unbiased observer.

However, let's look at the bill in question here.

Is it anti-Second Amendment to allow gun stores to be closed if literally every other business is closed? No, it's not. 

As noted above, this was in response to local officials trying to close gun stores during the pandemic. Let's remember that liquor stores, grocery stores, and a host of other businesses remained open and could do what they wanted, but gun stores had to be closed. That meant they were specifically excluded and created an impact on our ability to keep and bear arms.

But when all businesses are closed due to some circumstance--it's not difficult to imagine the weather getting so nasty in Alaska that officials don't want anyone on the road--then it's not nearly the same thing. Yes, you can't buy guns, but it also means that in order to keep gun stores closed, literally everything else has to be shut down as well, so it had better be for a good reason and for a very short duration.

McCabe argues that Alaska Gun Rights is basically serving as an attack dog for Eastman. That's a serious accusation, but considering some of what else is there, it seems like there's something going on.

There's nothing wrong with zealously guarding our Second Amendment rights or zealously trying to expand them. When it turns into a circular firing squad, though, it tends to do more damage to the right to keep and bear arms than anything else.