The far-right American Firearms Association is telling its supporters to prepare for “battle” at the U.S. Capitol this week amid Senate talks on potential legislation for relatively small gun safety reforms.
“They’re coming after us right now,” warns the subject line of a Monday fundraising email, signed by AFA president Christopher Dorr.
The AFA’s warnings echo the nightmarish statements made by former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, when he whipped up his supporters at a rally to storm the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as president. That led to a violent insurrection.
“We fight like hell,” Trump told his supporters before they marched to the Capitol that day. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
AFA’s wildly overheated rhetoric doesn’t match what senators are considering doing, which is very little in response to the ongoing epidemic of gun violence. The bipartisan package currently being negotiated by senators, which could still fall apart, would include provisions to narrowly expand gun background checks, enhance school safety, incentivize states to implement so-called red flag laws, and provide resources for new mental health programs.
Separate from the Senate, the House is considering its own mix of gun safety bills, including measures to raise the age for buying AR-15s from 18 to 21, and to require gun owners to register homemade firearms through the federal background checks system. But none of the House proposals are expected to move in the Senate, so all eyes are on what meager legislation can possibly move in the upper chamber.
You wouldn’t know any of this by the language in AFA’s email.
The AFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what it meant by its calls for “battle,” and whether it is concerned that its overheated rhetoric could drive some people to head to the Capitol to cause violence.
