GOA's Larry Pratt Makes Comments Against LEGAL Non-Citizens Carrying

[Tess]

I'm going to preface this with my ugly American clause. I have no tolerance for forigners being here either legal or illegal.

I hadn't realized you are 100% North American Indian. Yes, the rest of us took your land.

That said, it gets more complicated. They are here and they are here for a variety of reasons. Many are here because they live in such poverty they can't feed their families back home and the government is so bad, there is no chance to legally earn a descent living.

Nor is there a chance to LEGALLY earn a decent living here, unless they follow immigration laws. What's the difference?

While I don't want them here, I can understand that reason and I don't believe in treating someone as a criminal just because they're trying to live and work. We'd all do the same thing in their situation.

Except that they've broken the law, and based their lives on that broken law. They had to break laws to get here...and they know it. They can't claim ignorance of the law.

I am no more willing to deny them the tools to defend themselves than I am to deny them food from a grocery store or services from a hospital.

Life is never simple!

You're right that life is not simple. We could make it simpler, though. I would deny all but emergency (i.e. life-threatening emergency) services at a hospital, and food from the store if they cannot pay for it. And yes, I have had times in my life where I didn't know where I would sleep tonight or where the next meal would come from. I thank the gods those times were few and far between, but I've been there. Didn't go to someone else's country illegally to make up for it.

 

[Repeater]

Larry Pratt sets the records straight

H/T David Codrea:

Fox News Got it Wrong

As much as I appreciate Fox News, they misstated my position on the Wayne Smith case arising out of South Dakota. So let me break it down:

1. As I have stated all along, I do not agree with what South Dakota is doing in denying the right to keep and bear arms to alien residents. Wayne Smith SHOULD BE ABLE TO OWN A GUN!

2. Our fundamental rights do NOT come from government, the Bill of Rights or the Constitution … they come from God. Hence, law-abiding citizens should be able to carry concealed firearms as a matter of right (without permission from the government) and that is why GOA has consistently supported legislation modeled after Vermont’s successful permitless carry law.

3. Aliens living in this country still possess their God-given rights. Note, however, that within our constitutional system of government, some rights of citizenship (such as the right to vote) are fully protected only for actual U.S. citizens. This is, perhaps, where the confusion has arisen. On the one hand, I argued that aliens should not be able to vote in our country. But fundamental human rights such as the right to self-defense as embodied by keeping and bearing arms, on the other hand, SHOULD MOST DEFINITELY extend to everyone, period.

4. As for the xenophobia that some have accused me of because of the misunderstanding relating to Wayne Smith … well, that’s laughable. I’ve been happily married to a Central American immigrant for nearly 50 years -- and I fully support her right to keep and bear arms as much as I support Smith’s … and yours.

-- Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America

Lesson: Media outlets -- including Fox News Channel -- can get facts wrong. It's important not to jump to conclusions.