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“Attorney General Chris Koster received the National Rifle Association’s nod Tuesday for Missouri governor over GOP rival Eric Greitens, yet another endorsement for the Democrat from a group that typically supports Republicans.” Huh? Are they insane? Well, no. Koster isn’t your typical Democrat.

The NRA’s political action committee cited Koster’s record as a state senator and attorney general, including his support of a sweeping bill to expand gun rights that Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed this year. The gun rights group also highlighted that Koster supported a concealed guns law in 2003 when he was a state senator, as well as a more recent constitutional amendment aimed at making gun-control restrictions subject to strict legal scrutiny.

It should be noted that the NRA’s backing of Democrats hasn’t always worked out well. They tend to migrate — with alarming regularity — to the anti-gun party line as they ascend in state and national politics. But Missouri could be the exception that proves the rule. Outside of St. Louis and Kansas City urban Democrats, support for gun rights is unusually strong on both sides of the aisle in the Show Me State. Then again, Koster’s a St. Louisan who also lived and worked in Kansas City.

But there’s a fair amount of suspicion about Koster’s ex-SEAL opponent’s recent conversion to the GOP.

Greitens is a former Democrat and first-time GOP candidate who’s touted his military service and gun rights support. In one of his most attention-grabbing campaign ads, he shoots a big gun and causes a fiery explosion.

Hold on though…Koster used to play for the other side, too.

Koster, a former Republican state senator, is the only statewide Democratic candidate to earn an NRA endorsement. In an email, Koster pledged to “continue to protect the traditions and values of people across Missouri” if he’s elected governor.

So Missourians are either fortunate to have two such staunch 2A-supporting gubernatorial candidates from which to chose, or they’re rolling the dice on both sides that the next governor is who and what he says he is. We live in interesting times.

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44 COMMENTS

  1. It should be remembered that the NRA is a “single issue organization”, that being protection of 2nd Amendment Rights. Political party is not a criteria for support or condemnation.

    • Right. I live in MO and very much have a horse in this race. Pro gun? Check! Pro union? Check! Pro law enforcement? Check! I will have absolutely no problem voting for this democrat.

      • well, if he does not get the seat, can we have him over in CA? We can only seem to get democrats elected here and I like the cut of this ones jib.

      • Sheriff David Clarke is a Democrat. Principal over Party.

        This last election cycle I voted for Republicans, Democrats and third party party. Interesting political times we live in.

        • Sheriff David Clarke is a DINO. He runs on the democrat ticket because no one can run on the republican ticket and win. Said so himself. Milwaukee is one of those places where almost everyone picks up a party ballot, and his name would not appear ion the Democratic Party ballot if he did not run as a democrat.

    • Yup. And as far as I know, they can’t predict the future so they can only know how well candidates are supporting gun rights ‘now’ (as opposed to ‘down the road’).

      Makes sense to me.

      • That said, I think they’re basically zero-for-what-few dems they’ve endorsed, as far as them being steadfast allies. At least a Governor’s betrayal is limited to his own state, so evidence based support is an option. I think we’ve had enough of giving pro gun dems who vote at the federal level the benefit of the doubt (Reid)

        Let me guess, the reason the Republican candidate is so terrible is because they flew in out of nowhere in the primaries with lots of promises and dubious support to steamroll the legitimate opposition? Lot of that going around this cycle.

      • Yeah, tough one here. They’re both apparently solidly Pro-2A but one of them has a voting record and the other doesn’t. I like Greitens, though.

    • What party gave us every major gun law? From the early Colt laws to the NFA, GCA, Hughes, AWB and countless local and state laws/bans again?

      Which party gave us those?

    • You’re correct. The NRA’s endorsement of or opposition to a candidate is based on gun legislation alone. I’m sure there are many more issues for Missouri voters to consider before they make a choice in this race. One question that I have is why did the AG switch to the traditionally anti-gun Democrat party? Seems very strange given his apparent views on guns.

      • Koster was a Republican in the legislature (can’t remember house or senate) but was dismayed at the pro-life stance on embryonic stem cell research, so he switched parties. So yes, he’s pro-gun, but not pro-life.

        I might write-in someone for Governor this year; neither candidate is really pro-life. Not shedding innocent blood comes before gun rights for me. (c.f. Genesis 9:6)

    • Funny, seeing how the NRA supported Romney and flat out lied about his lengthy anti-gun record. That’s when I canceled my NRA membership.

  2. The MO legislature will reconvene on September 14. Please call your state reps and have them vote to override Nixon’s veto of the constitutional carry bill.

    • Thanks! I forgot the date.

      As for this, I think it’s another example of why I am a GOA member too. I usually have to hold my nose when I send my NRA check. Their mailer’s reek of greed with a side of gun rights.

      I actually like Greitens; he seems to have that outsider flare that ruffles the establishment’s feathers. It will be the first time I’ll vote for a Republican governor in over a decade.

  3. Once they make it to Washington, it is made very clear what will happen to a D if they don’t march in lock-step with DNC policy.

    You will get zero assistance from them in your re-election bid and may even challenge you in your primary with a candidate of their choosing.

    A Progressive is, above *all* else, a Progressive *first*…

    • Governor’s race, not Senate/House Rep, so the gamble isn’t AS risky, at least. But just watch ANOTHER democrat senator veto ANOTHER bill for constitutional carry or similarly important gun bill.

      He’s pro-union, though! (morons)

      • I’m going to break a personal rule and be an asshole on the internet… FLAME DELETED. Thanks for telling me how I get to pay for my kids future. I have worked in a right to work quagmire (Arkansas) and got paid half the wages and half the benefits.

        • People with useful skills don’t need to resort to mafia tactics to get good wages, they get paid good wages by being valuable to the company. But only approximately 25% of Americans even have a bachelors degree, so it’s not surprising to see the unskilled masses feeling entitled to something that they didn’t earn.

        • What an adorably quaint delusion, or regurgitation of propaganda.

          The suggestion that people are paid good wages because they have a useful skill-set out of the goodness of employer’s hearts is beyond ludicrous. Computing, construction, machining, manufacturing are all ‘desperately seeking new workers’, yet they have millions of trained people who they won’t hire because they can’t live on chump change – some H1B Indians can sardine pack themselves into apartments though, or Mexicans in the case of construction. All to fatten the bottom line for the guy at the top.

          Skilled people are routinely downsized, replaced with someone – often a foreigner – that will work for a third of the wages.

          Productivity of the American worker has skyrocketed, yet for the last 20ish years, wages have remained essentially flat. People who have jobs should at least have a much higher wage were all this ideal capitalism going on. Only union people have seen some of those gains, or at least, haven’t lost as much.

        • I live in Arkansas and am glad my wages don’t get garnished by the union ilk. It’s also one of the reasons we have such a low cost of living. Go tell Detroit how much better off they are with their unions. Stay out of my state.

        • LOL, I hope your kids starve. I avoid buying anything union-made, because you mouth-breathing inferiors can only get work through mafia tactics, which tells me a lot about the garbage you are producing. I’d rather buy things made by competent people, not fat, lazy, mentally retarded subhumans like yourself.

        • Yo, Eric! Did you ever think, maybe you *earned* half the wages and half the benefits? If you have a problem with your earnings, better yourself! There are opportunities everywhere, although it may require giving up a few nights a week at the bar. If you think the socialistic politics of the next state over will allow you to leech off the actual earners, move to the next state over! And good luck to you!

  4. “Here we see one off the rarest of small game in its natural habitat; the Allegedly Pro-Gun Democrat. Though its markings are visually indistiguishable from its more common lesser cousins, some believe its complex re-election ritual dance is somewhat different at times”

  5. Well, you can’t predict the future with politicians. All you can do is look at their stances/views, and then compare their record to the stances they say they hold, and if the two match, and you agree with the stances, then give that person your vote. Frankly, all true liberals and progressives should be for gun rights, if they truly were liberal in the classic sense of the word. Besides, gun rights is equal rights anyway: https://mattsamerica.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/why-progressives-should-love-the-2nd-amendment/

  8. I have a personal experience in MO with the NRA and state politics. My brother ran for the MO House as a pro-gun Republican, NRA Life Member, in a district that had a lot of NRA members. His opponent was a liberal, openly anti-gun Democrat who had “inherited” her seat from her late husband. But she made a deal with US Representative Volkmer (D-MO) (of the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986, aka the McClure-Volkmer Act fame) to get the NRA endorsement for that race. Yes, it’s true Volkmer had done gun owners and the NRA a favor, but that favor got repaid in a bad way. Ironically, Volkmer retired after that and never got to sponsor or vote on another gun bill for the NRA.

    The NRA makes deals that run contrary to their mission. I’m sure they will say it’s for the greater good. Maybe it is, but it is not true to the principles they are supposed to uphold.

  9. Politicians who switch parties are usually just weather vanes who point whatever direction the wind is blowing, for their own sake. Usually. Ronald Reagan being a notable exception. Once in a blue moon, somebody wakes up and smells the tyranny.

    But until they earn my trust, I don’t trust an aisle-jumping politician any further than I can spit.

  10. Good luck on override in 7 days.

    To bad public transport and campus is dropped from this and unlicensed open carry is more restrictive then if it goes law bill but 2017 is near for more !

  11. If the NRA only supported republicans they would be far less powerful.

    Supporting pro gun democrats is arguably more important than supporting pro gun republicans.

    • That’s a great point.
      Politicians have no reason to pay attention to the NRA if they know they’ll automatically get an endorsement, or not, depending on which party they belong to.

      Not all Republican voters are concerned about gun rights. Suburbanites, for example.

      And not all Democrat voters are against gun rights. Rural coal mining areas, for example.

  12. A pro-gun Democrat running for governor in Missouri? This must be why my ex is fleeing the state and moving to California- the state isn’t liberal enough for her!

  14. Meh. I live in Illinois where there ARE pro 2A dems. You have to decide for yourself if you want to go D. And WE have scum of the earth Mark Kirk(RINO)…

  17. Problem is that you are voting for a partisan system and government voting and policy blocks. Most mavericks tend to hew the party line when it comes down to brass tacks.

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