A 10,000 member-strong group called the Socialist Rifle Association has been conducting weapons training for transgender and Marxist-Leninist extremists, and its members have been linked to at least four major crimes, including the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, a Daily Wire investigation found.
Members stock up on assault rifles and tactical gear like gas masks, and receive membership cards bearing an image of Karl Marx and the quote, “Any attempt to disarm workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” Videos show them preparing for engagements that look more like war than self-defense, running through the woods and hitting long-range targets. A common logo is the transgender flag with an assault rifle and the phrase, “defend equality.”
SRA members say their interest is to defend against fascists and Nazis. But according to court documents, they apply those labels loosely, citing incidents like the January 6 Capitol protests, where guns were largely absent, as reason to prepare for war.
Radical leftist organizations have come under increased scrutiny since the assassination of Charlie Kirk. On Wednesday night, for example, Trump declared Antifa, the violent “anti-fascist” network known for its street protests, as a terrorist organization.
The Socialist Rifle Association has a chapter in chapter in Utah, where Kirk was shot. It advertises “inclusive firearms education,” with a rainbow-colored target and the tagline “women-friendly, BIPOC-friendly, queer-friendly.” One of its posters says “I will die fighting for this cause,” a quote attributed to John Brown, “a radical abolitionist who was murdered by the capitalist slave-owning class.” On June 19, the Utah chapter asked members to “Support Arturo Gamboa, an Antiracist accused of murder.”
The chapter and SRA’s national headquarters both told The Daily Wire that Tyler Robinson, who is charged with murdering Kirk in that state, was not a member, but did not answer whether his transgender-identifying boyfriend Lance Twiggs was, with national citing confidentiality policies.
The radical organization has, however, spread disinformation to label Kirk a threat. On SRA’s Reddit forum, a thread falsely claimed years ago that “Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, is openly calling for the lynching of transgender individuals.” After Kirk was assassinated, SRA members mocked him, expressed enthusiasm, and wished that the man who shot President Donald Trump had similar marksmanship.
Four of the 13 national leaders currently listed on SRA’s national web page go by “they” pronouns. On September 13, hours after Kirk’s assassination, the organization put out a statement that did not mention Kirk, but instead said, “The Socialist Rifle Association opposes in the strongest terms the stripping away of gun rights for our trans comrades.”
Kwesi Andoh, secretary of the Maryland chapter of SRA / Arming the Left documentary
“Hospitalize your local fascist”
The Daily Wire was able to identify several violent crimes linked to Socialist Rifle Association members, with indications in each case that the violence was politically motivated.
On July 4, a group of militants allegedly swarmed law enforcement at an ICE facility in Alvaredo, Texas and “opened fire at the unarmed DHS correctional officers.” One of them, Benjamin Hanil Song, is charged with shooting a police officer in the neck. Song was a member of the Socialist Rifle Association’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, a fellow group member told KERA. Of the 10 co-defendants charged with attempted murder of a federal officer, at least two claimed to be transgender: Cameron Arnold, who went by Autumn Hill, and Bradford Morris, who went by Meagan Morris. Authorities recovered nine firearms in the home where Arnold lived with about six other transgenders.
On March 18 in Las Vegas, Paul Hyon Kim set on fire and shot up five Teslas, leaving a Molotov cocktail inside one, charging documents said. Teslas had, of course, been treated as a political symbol by the left because of Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump.
The court papers said “Kim has an Instagram page where he follows the Socialist Rifle Associations’ page. In a post from October 2018, on the Reno Socialist Rifle Association’s Instagram page, is a picture of a subject that appears to be Paul Kim training with firearms.” Law enforcement said it retrieved a bolt-action rifle, an AK style rifle, and a newspaper article “about a mass shooting incident” from his apartment.
On January 20, the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Adam Matthew Lansky allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. He returned to the same dealership a month later and shot it up using a semi-automatic rifle with a suppressor, according to court documents.
“Lansky is a competitive shooter and a former member of the Socialist Rifle Association. He is skilled and well-practiced in the use of firearms and combat scenarios. The [improvised incendiary devices] used by Lansky were all manufactured by him,” prosecutors said.
Court papers say this is Adam Lansky
In October 2021, Daniel Alan Baker of Florida was sentenced to 44 months in prison for threats. After the pro-Trump Capitol protest on January 6, 2021, Baker offered “cash rewards for information leading to the verified identification of an and every individual in this video. Don’t worry, I wont ne [sic] going to the cops. We have decided to handle this ourselves.”
Prosecutors said “Baker has made multiple violent threats to those he claims are white supremacists, fascists, United States persons with different ideologies than his, and allies of the United States. In addition, Baker has promoted the killing of United States military officers.” In 2017, Baker joined “a sub-affiliate of Kurdistan’s Working Party, which has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” they said.
As the 2020 election approached, he wrote “God I hope the right tries a coup Nov 3rd cuz I’m so f–king down to slay enemies again.” On December 14, 2020, he posted a photo to his Instagram account that read “Hospitalize your local fascist” and “#stabnazis.”
Baker told prosecutors that he was a member of the Socialist Rifle Association, and said, “I believe that the philosophy of an anarchism leads to socialism. And I believe that the government should provide for everyone’s housing, healthcare, food. I even believe that the government should distribute weapons to people who are loyal citizens.”
SRA Founder Alex Tackett / Imgur
‘As a transgender socialist, half the country wants me dead’
The Socialist Rifle Association was incorporated in Kansas in 2019 by Alexander Tackett, who later began identifying as a woman named Alex Norma Tackett. A website for a queer bookstore he owned said, “Lilith [it/she] & Alex Tackett [she/it] are a trans lesbian couple living in Wichita with their six-year-old son.”
Its co-founder was Faye Ecklar, who explained that “I believe firearms ownership is necessary because as a transgender socialist, half the country wants me dead, and the other half is happy to watch. Plus, the means of production won’t seize themselves.”
According to Ecklar, a survey of SRA’s members found that it was 30% anarchist, 30% Marxist-Leninist or Maoist, 30% Democratic Socialist, and 10% other. One-third were “LGBTQ” and 8% were transgender, according to a 2019 New Republic article titled, “How Antifa Is Arming Itself Against a Trump Crackdown.”
With chapters in states across the country, organizing for in-person events and online on Discord, by 2020, the group claimed “10,000 comrades.” According to the IRS, federal tax-exempt status was revoked in May 2023 after it failed to file financial returns for three years. The IRS said it could not comment.
Arming the Left documentary
The nonprofit is still credentialed at the state level in Kansas. Its 2022 and 2023 filings listed Christopher Killips as president, but in internal documents he went by a gruesome female name, “Killashandra Killips.” Its most recent filing, in 2024, lists as president Brett Bieder, who goes by “Whargoul” and serves as vice president of the Nippersink Library Board of Trustees in Illinois.
A documentary crew interviewed members of the Maryland chapter, which included many members who shared fixations that have become a recurrent theme in shooters. The chapter’s treasurer described himself as “a non-binary, trans-femme, commie gun-owner” who likes “video games and martial arts.”
The chapter holds “Queer Range Days” and “POC Range Days.” On September 10, it announced an upcoming event training “Arab folks and those hailing from the middle east” in firearms, advertising it with a picture of what looks like Osama bin Laden and Keffiyah-wearing Hamas terrorists.
