Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Guns and Gadgets, your premier source for Second Amendment news. And I’m starting a new series, don’t know what I’m going to call it yet. Maybe that’s something you can leave down in the comments. But I want to bring you face to face at an intimate level with the heads of the groups that are fighting for us to push back the infringements of government here. I have my personal friend Eric Pratt, who is the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America. You’ve seen him here before. You’re going to see him here over and over until he stops doing what he’s doing.

But Eric, I know you have a crazy schedule. First off, thank you, my friend, for giving me, you know, half hour of your time. I understand everything you’re doing and, you know, folks are going to start, they’re, they’re eager to learn from y’all. So I’m glad you could do this for us. Thank you, buddy. It is my pleasure to be with you, Jared, and count you as a friend. And it’s. So thanks so much just for, for having me and talk about all the issues that are going on because there’s exciting things going on. Well, let’s, let’s jump right into it, why don’t we, I’ll give you the floor.

Maybe tell some folks some updates. I understand you have something that’s really, really, really cool to tell us about. Tell the folks about some, where some cases are or what you have in the oven and wherever you want to go from there, My brother. Absolutely. So in terms of cases, I mean, we have, we’re very active. We’re involved in over four dozen cases right now and probably 90% of them, you could categorize them in three different categories. Abolishing gun free zones, advancing open and concealed carry, and reining in the atf, which of course is huge. The big breaking news is that we’re appealing our Antonio case to the Supreme Court.

We filed a petition for cert earlier this week. And so of course that would fit into the abolishing gun free zones category. Now, I’ll just say up front, we’re involved all over the country in terms of trying to overturn sensitive places, so called gun free zones. But New York is the premier effort simply because it’s so directly related to the last Supreme Court case or one of the more recent ones. You’ll remember with the Bruin case, the Supreme Court said that people have a right to carry outside their home. Well, New York basically gave the court the middle finger Right.

They banned most places that you can conceal carry. In fact, you might remember Governor Kathy Hochul saying kind of sarcastically, oh yeah, there’s probably a couple streets that people will be able to carry now as a result of the law that she was signing. So anyway, we sued New York in federal district court. We secured a preliminary injunction striking down most of the gun free zones that New York just passed. Well, of course New York appealed. It bounced up and down in the courts. So where we stand now, we’ve still got some gun free zones removed from the original law, but some remain.

And in particular there’s that pernicious good moral character test. You know, you can’t carry unless you demonstrate good moral character. So we appealed last year to the Supreme Court. They GVR’d our case. In other words, they sent it back down telling the 2nd Circuit, you have to reconsider your decision using our recent Rahimi decision. Now, Rahimi totally undermines the good moral character test that New York has. I mean, Rahimi basically says you can’t limit gun ownership to people that, that the government wants to define as responsible. You know, that’s too broad. But that’s what New York does on concealed carry.

They use good moral character to say that people are dangerous not merely because of criminal conduct, but because of things like their traffic record or, you know, other non criminal acts. In fact, one New York judge even said that good moral character is beyond living a life free of criminal record. I mean, imagine how broad that is. So anyway, the lower court, the appellate court, was told to, you know, to fix their errors. They didn’t. They ignored the Supreme Court and they pretty much just reissued their same anti gun opinion. So that’s why we’re now petitioning for cert to the Supreme Court just this week.

I mean, Jared, you and your viewers should keep your eye on this because this could become the huge Second Amendment case of 2026. Yeah, let’s, let’s, before we go to the next one, let’s talk about what you just said, 2026, immediately. I know most people who aren’t. I mean, a lot of my viewers just come for the information because they don’t have the time in busy lives to dig through court cases or read legislation and they really might not have a grasp on how the Supreme Court operates and why years and years and years pass before maybe we get a final decision.

So explain why you said 2026. Right. So there’s a whole long process where the court basically take, takes their time in deciding whether they’re going to take your case or they’ll even consider taking it, and then they vote on whether to take it. And so we’re at the point right now where we’re pretty close, where if, if they come down and say, yeah, we’re going to take this case, they may not hear it until much later in the year. And then of course, the decision wouldn’t be revealed probably until June of 2026. So, you know, it’s a long, slow, fingernail yanking process that we have to go through.

But anyway, that’s why I’m saying probably don’t expect a decision on this this year. Yeah. And I actually have the Supreme Court calendar up while you were talking. I already had it here. The next possible opportunity where they even distribute cases for consideration is February 21st. So that’s why there’s this gap. Guys and gals, they don’t work like the rest of us. They don’t work 40 hours a week. They don’t put in overtime. They do as little as possible nowadays. But hopefully they do the right thing. So, Antonio, hopefully the Supreme Court kicks New York in the teeth with that one.

And again, thank you on behalf of everybody in New York for doing that for, you know, one of the first ones to jump in the fight. And, and you’re taking it all the way to the end. So I know the folks there are very, very grateful. So thank you for doing that. Absolutely. What else you got on your docket, brother? So there’s a couple other categories. One of them is, of course, advancing open and concealed carry on both coasts. We’re fighting for out of staters to be able to carry in New York and in California. And it’s kind of a back door to reciprocity because if those two states will issue out of state permits, then you’re now to the point where out of staters can carry in 49 states.

Now, that’s still a hassle when you’re talking about having to go to that other state and get an out of state permit. Much better to have reciprocity. We can talk about that later. We’re pushing legislation that would do that. But we’ve also been active in the courts. And so the New York case actually involves any of you. Watch Newsmax at 5:00 Eastern. There’s Carl Higbee. Well, he’s our plaintiff because he lives in Connecticut. He travels into New York City to do his show and he wants to be able to carry. So. But up until now he’s not been able to get A permit.

Now, as a result of that lawsuit that we’ve initiated with him as plaintiff, New York City just kind of preemptively put up the white flag and said, all right, we’ll start issuing permits. And believe me, it’s onerous. There’s a lot of hurdles to jump over, but you can now get one, and that’ll allow you to carry throughout the rest of the state. Now, ironically, in the rest of the state, they’re still digging in their heels, and so that’s why the lawsuit continues. We’re still going on California. We got a preliminary injunction there. So right now they’re having to issue out of state permits, but California is still trying to get it.

The case thrown out. But for right now, we’re winning there. So, you know, that’s kind of the bookends. There’s carry bans that we’ve been fighting. Jared, you’ve reported a lot on the one in New Mexico. I mean, that one is still going where the governor had started by issuing a ban on, you know, certain counties you couldn’t carry. So we’re fighting that. And. And down in Florida, we’re fighting for open care. I mean, ironically, Florida is a Republican state, and it’s the only one that doesn’t allow for open carry. This is just. Blows your mind. The chief plaintiff in our case is a dad who was arrested for open carrying in his own front yard, which, actually, I believe according to Florida law, you’re protected on your own property.

Didn’t matter. He was in his own front yard, and he was defending his daughter from. From an aggressive pit bull. So, I mean, just two things that you would have thought would have been a slam dunk. This guy should be able to do what he was doing. But no, you know, he was brought into the legal system. So anyway, we’re defending him. Another person involved in that case is our own representative in Florida, Luis Valdez, who’s former law enforcement. He is a great guy. And. And one of the reasons why he’s a declarant in this case, while he was a cop, he was held at gunpoint by other officers because his shirt rode up on him while he was riding his motorcycle.

Now, he was off duty at the time. So here they thought, oh, you know, here’s this criminal Latino guy, you know, open carrying. And the only reason why he wasn’t arrested was because he had his police credentials on him at the time. Sounds like cop privilege to me, right, Jared? Anyway, all joking aside, Luis is a great guy, and that’s why he’s fighting for everyone in this case because actually he can’t open carry now. He’s no longer a cop. And so he’s fighting for everybody on that. So, you know, fighting for open carry, concealed carry, dismantling gun free zones.

Those are two of the types of lawsuits that we’re currently involved in. I’ll start this one by saying, you know my personal opinion, shame on the cops who decided to go after a guy protecting his own daughter against the vicious dog in his own yard. I mean it takes somebody really, really special to do that. But you, you, we just heard a retweet that we were just talking about before we get on air related to Florida. Why don’t you tell folks about that? Yeah, I haven’t even seen it yet, but my staff told me that, you know, we’re trying to put heat on the legislature to take up open carry legislation.

So we’ve been tweeting or ex posting about this and the governor retweeted our own Luis Valdez and said, yeah, the legislature needs to take this up. We need to become like all the other states that allow for open carry. So that’s pretty exciting. The governor’s putting pressure on the legislature and we applaud him for, for doing that. And if you’re in Florida and you’re watching this, your state representatives and senators need to hear from you and say, hey, stop, you know, dragging on this because quite, it’s mindboggling. They are a super majority controlled Republican state and they do not want to touch the gun issue right now.

And so we as the grassroots need to light a fire under them. So please, you know, call your state reps and centers. We’re going to be putting out alerts on this as well. So if you’re already receiving our alerts, you know, stay tuned for that. If you’re not getting our alerts, by the way, you can sign up@gun owners.org subscribe. They’re free, but it’ll make you part of that grassroots army that specializes in putting the heat on your elected officials. Speaking of that, if you’re not a member, guys and gals of Gun Owners of America, I don’t know what you’re waiting for.

Skip a large pizza for once in a year and you can join Gun Owners of America. We the members, I’m a life, lifetime member of goa. We are the lifeblood of these organizations. You, you always, everybody always says like why aren’t, why isn’t you always suing? Well, first they need the money to do it. Then they need a plaintiff to do it. And that comes from us, the membership, most of the time. So join goa. If you, if you’re already a member, then maybe skip a second pizza and send them another 25 or 50 bucks because a little bit goes a long way.

You can also join them by supporting my company, Blackout Coffee, who’s a sponsor of this series. For every item you buy of the GOA roast, you can see it right behind Eric over his right shoulder as well. We give $2 for every item right back to Goa. It’s our profit plus it’s our way of helping them support us in the fight. So you can join them directly, donate directly. If you really want some great coffee, you can, you know, have their blend and you’re still going to donate them. So it’s ways that we can help GOA fight the good fight.

Eric, where do we go with Florida? It’s, it’s so important that folks in Florida understand that they have to be loud, they have to be proud. Like you said, it’s a super majority of. I’ll say it, there’s a lot of rhinos in Florida. Yep. A lot of the ones who passed the gun control after the, you know, the incident, they’re still in power and they kill a lot of the, the pro gun bills coming out. And they’re always worried about the big thing that they say they always quote is the tourism dollar. What’s your message as somebody who wants a allowed grassroots group of people in a state to get fired up, what’s your message for them? Well, if you want to have these rights reclaimed, we can’t stay silent.

You can’t just rely on Luis or some professional lobbyist to do it. We have seen so many cases. Just speaking of Florida, not too long ago, we got an improvement in the law and carrying in Florida churches. And that came about because we were putting heat on the legislators. And it was interesting. There was a Democrat, I believe it was an African American Democrat representative who opposed the legislation. And she admitted publicly, I got so many calls and postcards and emails on this legislation, I’m voting for it, you know, for the positive change. That’s what grassroots can do and can accomplish.

So, you know, if you want these things, don’t be an armchair, you know, sitting on the sidelines kind of person. We need you to sign up for our free email alerts and then when we notify you, just with a click, a couple clicks of your mouse, you can send these alerts off. And Jared, I appreciate the fact that, you know, in Your videos, you explain kind of blow by blow how people can take action. Sometimes you’ve done that and I appreciate that. That really, you know, maybe helps demystify this for a lot of people. And actually we have several podcasts, Minuteman, Moment law and ammo.

One in the Chamber. And it’s with our upcoming One in the Chamber YouTube podcast. We’re going to do a full segment just showing how you can take action. You know, when you receive our postcards or when you get email alerts or how to make a call. And you’ve pointed out, you know, when you call, you’re not actually talking to the legislator, you’re talking to somebody who’s maybe just out of high school or just out of college. And you know, they’re 99.9% of the time they’re very polite and they just want to hear what you have to say and record it.

So, you know, it’s nothing to be. Feel squeamish about. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s something that I, when I first got started, I was very intimidated by. It’s natural. Something that’s not, you know, people don’t normally do it in their lives, but we can change that. I’ve done a couple videos, like Eric said, where I literally film myself calling my new representatives and senators here in Tennessee live. So you can just watch that video. It’s easy to do and just know realize that they work for you and if they don’t hear from you, then they don’t know how you feel on stuff and pass that around to your friends because we have to, we have to use the left’s tactics against them.

The squeaky wheel always gets the grease and you always hear moms demand action and Giffords and all of them, you know, screaming bloody murder. Anytime something goes on, we stay silent. And it’s tough to get support, especially in the federal level, from, you know, senators or, you know, reps that are on the line if we’re not pushing our side. So get involved, guys and gals, seriously, we need you in the fight. Don’t think just because we had a pretty big win here in November that we’re okay and we can coast for four years. I, I will, I will stress that that is exactly the opposite.

We need to be putting the pedal to the metal right now. Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, getting back to the legal work, if I could, just one last area that’s been really big at GOA and, and I tell you, pe, it’s because of the, the memberships that people, their support for us that allow us to be doing this, this kind of work. But we’ve been very involved in reigning in the atf. We’re trying to do this legislatively as well, but we’re also working this in the courts. And you know, as you know, Gun Owners of America secured a preliminary injunction for our members against Biden’s pistol brace ban two years ago.

And so as a result, ATF has not been able to enforce that rule against our members, which is really awesome. We also secured a preliminary injunction for our members against Biden’s universal registration check. Now, that was last year, the backstory being Biden’s ATF was requiring almost every private gun sale to go through a background check. And really what they were after was using that to compile a 100% universal gun registry because even private transfers would be recorded on the 4473 form. So we sued the ATF, got a preliminary injunction. That means they can’t enforce that rule against GOA members.

That’s huge protection for our members. So those are a couple of recent past victories we’ve had against the atf. But then there’s two key lawsuits that we’re actively engaged in right now. You know, first of all, you’ll remember that Biden ordered that gun records that are 20 years old cannot be destroyed. It used to be that dealers could destroy those older records. Well, we are challenging that in federal court in the eighth circuit. So, you know, we’re trying to end that, that rule. Secondly, we’ve also launched several challenges aimed at ending ATF’s zero tolerance program. Now we’ve got cases in several states and defending dealers in several states.

ATF is, as you know, Jared has been putting dealers out of business for mere clerical errors. The exciting part is, if you like baseball, we have a thousand batting average defending gun dealers against being put out of business in these cases. And that’s really awesome. Although there’s a downside to that. Sadly, in each case, we were trying to bring down the entire zero tolerance policy. But every time we come in to a dealer’s defense, The ATF does a 180 and stops pursuing revocation. So it moots the bigger challenge. So basically, we’re a victim of our own success.

Winning each battle keeps us from winning the bigger war. But anyway, we’re being a thorn in their side. We’re protecting dealers, and that’s a good thing anyway. Well, you’ve talked about the litigation side g oas and some people understand that, some don’t. You’re very, very involved on the legislation side as well. Could you maybe talk to some folks about some bills that you all had a big part in getting submitted or something that may be coming down the line? Yeah, absolutely. So I. We were just talking about ATF abolishing the ATF registry, which is huge because they have about a billion gun records.

Over 900 million of them are digitized. And Freedom of Information act request from GOA has found out that they can search that digital record. I mean, obviously, duh. But I mean, we’ve got it in writing from the ATF themselves. So I met recently with Senator Risch of Idaho and cut a video with him to. To push his legislation, which is S119, if people want to take notes on this. S119 would abolish completely that ATF registry of 4473 forms. The version in the House is Michael Cloud’s bill, HR563. So both of those bill. And by the way, you know, we want to go even further to abolish the atf, obviously.

But let me just say here, I think there’s a lot of momentum right now building for getting rid of that registry even before we get to the abolish the atf, which is the end goal. Now there is legislation. Thank Representative Eric Burleson. He has legislation to abolish the atf. And importantly, you know, and this was something that was near and dear to our heart, we met with them and we said, you know, we really like your. Your legisl legislation, but, you know, we agree with Brandon Herrera that you can’t just abolish the atf. Right. You know, you’ve got to cut their spending, you’ve got to repeal the gun control that they’re enforcing, or else the FBI will just enforce it, and we don’t want that.

So we are working with congressional leadership not only to cut their funding, but Burleson is on the right track here because not only is he trying to abolish the ATF and has introduced legislation to do that, he’s introduced legislation to repeal the nfa. And that’s what you have to do. You know, it’s kind of like that. There was a Movie in the 90s, George Clooney was in it, where to disarm a bomb, you had to clip two wires at the same time. If you did only one kaboom. Right. You had to do both of them at the same time.

That’s kind of like what this is here. Yes, abolish the atf, but at the same time or even maybe a little prior repealing gun control so that no other federal agency then get t gets tasked to do it. So both of those things are really important. Repeal gun control, abolish the atf. All right, here’s your opportunity to give a pep talk to someone who’s watching us or someone who comments in my videos regularly and knows that all these bills we have right now that are very pro 2A still need 60 votes in the Senate to have a prayer.

What’s your attaboy Win one for the Gifford type speech on how we should still say stay motivated in that fight to get 60 in the Senate. Absolutely. It’s the same way the Democrats get gun control passed. You put it on must pass legislation. And when The Democrats between 20 and 22 had that trifecta, House, Senate and White House, that’s what they did to us. That’s what we’re doing right now, working with House leadership, actually first and foremost to get concealed carry reciprocity because that has super support. I mean, last I saw a couple days ago, 169 co sponsors, that screams huge support.

And so we’re working with House members and Senate leaders to get that put on to must pass legislation vehicles that are moving. And so that’s how you get around that stymie in the Senate. There is a way to do that. In fact, years ago we worked with Senator Tom Coburn to get an amendment onto just it was a credit card bill that Obama wanted to sign. And so we got a repeal of the national park’s gun ban put onto that bill. Well, he didn’t like that provision. Obama didn’t. But he did want that credit card bill and so he signed it.

And that’s how we got the repeal of the, the national parks. And that was specifically goa working with Senator Tom Coburn to do that. So the point is it can be done. But here’s the key. It’s not going to happen by lobbyists whining and dining elected officials and asking them to do this. They need to hear from you. And that’s why again, I, you know, I, and I, I implore you. Our alert list is free. We do not sell it out, rent it out, give it out, nothing. It is for us only to mobilize you and it but it is crucial because this is how not only we kill bad legislation, but how we get things like this.

Like, oh, you know, maybe we should do this because, you know, I’m hearing everywhere I go, I’m, I’m hearing, let’s get this on must pass legislation. So the end around the Senate there is a way to do it. It just takes some intestinal fortitude. But if they don’t hear from us then they will follow the path of least resistance which is, oh, we’ll give you your vote in the House and the Senate and oh gee, if it doesn’t pass the Senate, so sorry. No, we, we’re not dumb. We know that they know how to do it and that’s how we need to press them to do it.

That’s awesome and I’m glad you said it that way because I’ve been trying to tell people the same deal and you know, you know, don’t give up faith yet. We’ve just, we’re 11 days into this four year period or two year period rather that we gotta, we got a few things in store. Give everybody the elevator pitch of what GOA is, what’s the mission and why they should join. Absolutely. Well, you know, for me personally, I mean I’ve been here for, for, seems like forever, Jared. Yeah, since 1990. I mean you probably have viewers who weren’t even alive at that time.

Right, sure. But, but obviously GOA precedes me. And I tell you what, I’m walking in the footsteps of giants. Our founder was a state senator. My father was executive director of Gun Owners of America for over 40 years. And they were the original no compromise champions. And all that time GOA has never supported any gun control. And quite frankly, it’s because of their leadership that we enjoy a lot of the freedoms that we do. And I, I will tell you Jared, I, I personally believe this, that if GOA was not here, we would already have universal background checks and we would not have 29 constitutional carry states.

And the reason I say that on constitutional carry, we were the original national organization pushing constitutional carrying when many pro gun people during that time, this was back in the 90s, were still entrenched in favor of having permits only. And in some cases pro gun legislators were telling us, hey, we’re being threatened with F ratings for introducing constitutional carrying. We told these legislators, we got your back, you will get an A for doing this. And we gave them the courage to introduce those bills in the early days and it was because GOA was there to back them.

They were willing to go out on a limb. And then the momentum grew and now we have 29 states and real quickly on universal background checks. Boy, how could you forget the huge battle in 2013 after that very tragic Sandy Hook shooting, Right? And if you remember Jared, the question was not if gun control would pass, it was how much and that many. I mean, everybody, even in the pro gun movement was saying that like gun control is going to pass. And so some were saying so we’ve got to give something. And no, we fought everything.

GOA fought every piece of legislation. In fact, the New York Times don’t normally appeal to them, but they credited GOA with killing universal background checks that year because we put the heat on lawmakers when Senate Republicans were working with Democrats to hatch a compromise and that’s what finally turned on the light bulb for them and and coerce those Republicans to back away from a compromise. So, you know, my pitch to people is, you know, we’ve been there throughout the decades doing the heavy lifting. No compromise. We’ve never compromised. But the key is we work in partnership with you.

We need our grassroots because you know, you, the grassroots are the ones that convince the Senate Republicans to back away from the compromise. It wasn’t just us telling them. It’s when they started getting the phone calls from our members and the postcards and the emails from our members. That was the game changer. So again, gun owners.org subscribe. That’ll get you on the email list. That makes you like the minute man of the modern 21st century. That’s awesome. Before we do our close out, a little bit of trivia for people watching. Eric mentioned that many, many moons ago they were the first to push constitutional carry.

Leave a comment down below of what it was called back then. It’s a little trick. If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know what it is. Yeah, but I’m sure somebody will get it. That’ll be cool to read those. Eric, thank you so much for your time. I, I know you’re so busy and I thank you for carving this time out for our viewers. Guys, support goa. If you’re not a member, join. There’s an easy link down below if you just want to click a link and go. If you don’t want to type it into your search bar, donate to them if you can.

Regularly you can buy coffee and support them. There’s all kinds of way you can support goa. And my hope is that you take what Eric has told you about and maybe fired you up a little bit and you help us get involved. We need you. You know, don’t just think that Eric’s gonna handle it all. It’s not how it works. And for those in Florida, I know we talked a little bit about Florida. Eric and I will be down there at the The. What’s it called? The Freedom Fest. Freedom Fest in it’s on February 22nd. I don’t have my calendar open in front of me, but I think it’s February 22nd.

I think you got it. Okay, we’ll be down there. If you’re going to be in the area for the Freedom Fest, come say hi and there’ll be a lot of good people out there talking about freedom and hopefully giving you ways that you can help locally as well. Eric, anything else for the folks who are watching? Yeah, just. Jared, to you, thank you for all that you do. And I will tell you, I. I drink and my wife will tell you out of my GOA coffee mug every single day of the year. But for today, in honor of you, you may have noticed I am drinking the Guns and Gadget mugs, so thank you, brother.

And I’m sure you’ve probably got that on your website somewhere for people to get. People go. Go get a good guns and get. If not, maybe I shouldn’t be advertising. Yeah, you just, you just put me out there. I might have to make a few more of them. That was a very limited edition thing we did. Sorry. Okay, well then in the meantime time, we do have GOA mugs, so I wasn’t gonna push our mugs, but forget I even said anything about the mug. So sorry. Anyway, in all seriousness, thank you for what you do, man.

We really appreciate you here. And just, you know how you were mentioning earlier the help that you give through the coffee that’s sold with great coffee by. Actually, people can go buy the coffee, right? I mean, that’s good coffee. And, and it does help us show your friends, irritate your friends because it, you know, no compromise coffee. Anyway, Jared, thank you again so much. Uh, we, we love what you do and really appreciate you brother. It’s my honor to have you on here and I’m so grateful that you, uh, have agreed to do this regularly for our viewers.

Yes, guys and gals, if you haven’t subscribed, do it now. Eric will be here once a month to keep us informed about what’s going on with goa, where their cases are in the system, maybe hopefully some wins that we have along the way. And I hope you will join us during this journey, guys and gals, until we see each other again, be safe, stay vigilant and carry a gun to keep you, your friends, your family, your community safe. It’s our right, not theirs. Take care, America. Sa.
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