Gun Owners of America isn't an organization known for having annual events such as the SHOT Show or the NRA Annual Meeting. Those events provide an opportunity for numerous people in the gun rights community to get together and discuss things. This year, though,  that changed as they hosted their first  Gun Owners of America’s Advocacy and Leadership Summit, or GOALS.

Pretty cool.

They had a lot of speakers, including Erich Pratt, Dana Loesch, Brandon Herrera, and many others.

One of those was former President Donald Trump.

In a press release, the organization praised the former president's pro-gun comments.

On Saturday at Gun Owners of America’s inaugural Advocacy and Leadership Summit, President Donald Trump virtually addressed the crowd of attendees with both words of encouragement and a warning about the siege facing Second Amendment rights in the lead up to the November election.  

President Trump’s speech, which was warmly received by the crowd, comes at a time when Second Amendment rights face some of their greatest threats in history. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the anti-gun tyrants in Congress and state legislatures across the country have unleashed a relentless assault against guns, owners, and dealers nationwide. 

In his speech, President Trump addressed Gun Owners of America by name, saying among other things: 

“When I am President, I will always listen to Gun Owners of America. I want to congratulate all of you, because you’ve really come a long way in a short period of time...” 

“Kamala Harris has supported gun confiscation schemes throughout her career...”  

“I ask all of the gun owners to get out and vote...” 

Watch the full video address here. 

Tim Macy, the Chairman of Gun Owners of America, issued the following statement:  

“We’re incredibly grateful to President Trump for taking the time to address our attendees. Without a doubt, this was President Trump’s strongest take on gun rights to date, and coupled with Senator Vance as his running mate, gun owners have a clear choice this November.” 

Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, added: 

“Our rights are absolutely on the ballot, and it's essential that gun owners do everything we can to turn out the pro-gun vote and ensure Kamala Harris is not the next occupant of the White House.”

 I wrote on Wednesday about the importance of gun owners turning out and becoming gun voters. It's clear that our gun rights are on the ballot, as Pratt noted, and Trump has vowed to defend them. Considering that his opposition doesn't even acknowledge the Second Amendment's existence in their party's platform, that's an important distinction.

I've never believed Trump was an unmitigated good for the Second Amendment. We've seen too many cases where he's been willing to advance an anti-gun item in the name of political expediency. Whether that was more due to his volatile nature and something that would settle before he could actually do anything or not, it made me more than a little uncomfortable.

Does anyone else remember the bit about taking guns and then going forward with due process? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

But it's important to also remember that he didn't do it.

Now, he's vowing to defend gun rights and I'm prepared to take him at his word. More importantly, even if I weren't, he's still better than the alternative--no, RFK, Jr. isn't really an alternative, nor are any of the third-party candidates you care to name. He might be interested in considering a red flag law or a bump stock ban, directing his ATF to take that step, but considering what Vice President Kamala Harris wants to do, that's still a far sight better.

We need to rally. We need to get out to vote and we need to vehemently oppose Kamala Harris.