The Truth About Guns has long tracked the federal government’s habit of pushing past constitutional limits in the name of law enforcement. Now we have another example of the FBI taking an interest in a gun-rights organisation for reasons that remain unclear and unexplained.
Cato recently received a long-delayed response to a Freedom of Information Act request that shines a light on how the Bureau has been monitoring the Socialist Rifle Association. The SRA is a left-leaning group, but it is still a firearms training and civil rights organisation. Politics aside, the Second Amendment protects every American, including people the government might not agree with.
Here is how it unfolded. Back in late 2020, a FOIA request was submitted asking for FBI records mentioning multiple gun groups, including the NRA, GOA, state-level gun rights organisations, the NFAC, and the SRA. After almost five years, the FBI has only produced material on four of those groups. The NRA and GOA documents dealt with closed matters. NFAC records were largely press coverage. Nothing new there.
The SRA material was different. The FBI withheld at least 180 pages related to the SRA, specifically its Omaha and Chicago chapters. That number alone suggests agents spent real time and resources digging into a group whose members openly support gun ownership and training. The Bureau also withheld audio recordings, citing exemptions for privacy and investigative techniques. That usually means one thing: someone inside the organisation was being recorded or monitored.
The letter from the FBI FOIA office also acknowledged that additional SRA records are contained in an active investigative file. Those were withheld under exemption b7A, which is used only when the Bureau claims that releasing the information would interfere with an ongoing enforcement action. In other words, the FBI says this is still an active investigation.
The only released document is dated February 17 2021. Everything necessary in it was blacked out. There is no clear reason why the FBI opened a file on these chapters. Nearly five years later, there are still no criminal charges. That raises the obvious question: why was this investigation opened in the first place?
This comes on the heels of a high-profile attempt by the Trump administration to target transgender gun owners after a few widely publicised incidents. At the time, even major gun rights groups pushed back, pointing out that the government has no authority to restrict the Second Amendment based on identity or politics. The same logic applies here. The FBI appears to be scrutinising a group that happens to sit on the other end of the political spectrum, but still exercises a constitutional right.
There is no scenario where political affiliation should determine whether a gun rights organisation finds itself under federal investigation. If there was a credible predicate, the Bureau has had years to show it. Instead, we get redactions, withheld documents, and no charges.
Congress should start asking questions. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have the authority to demand answers about why the FBI is spending time and taxpayer money monitoring a group because its politics don’t align with the administration of the day. Federal law enforcement does not get to decide which Americans are allowed to exercise their Second Amendment rights. That applies to everyone, NRA members, GOA members, SRA members, and every law-abiding gun owner in the country.
Until we get transparency, the FBI’s treatment of the SRA looks less like law enforcement and more like political policing. TTAG will continue following the story.
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