Gun Owners of America (GOA)

California Origins

GOA traces its origins to California in the mid-1970s, when the political climate around gun rights in the state was deteriorating fast. H.L. "Bill" Richardson, a Republican state senator from California, had already been watching the legislative left chip away at firearms ownership for years.

In 1975, a bill to ban all handguns in California gained serious momentum — backed by elected officials and mainstream media. Richardson mobilized gun owners statewide through direct mail, helped kill the bill, and in doing so created the organizational blueprint he'd use nationally.

National Expansion

Gun Owners of California came first, then Gun Owners of America followed shortly after. GOA was officially founded on November 9, 1976. Richardson brought to the effort a background that was equal parts political strategist and outdoorsman — he'd been elected to the California State Senate in 1966 alongside Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial win, chaired the Senate Fish and Game Committee, and served on the NRA Board of Directors for over a decade before concluding that the NRA's willingness to cut deals was a structural problem, not a tactical one.

Richardson's philosophy was laid out explicitly in his book Confrontational Politics, which argued that political fights are contests of competing ideology — not negotiations to be managed. That worldview became GOA's operating doctrine.

Leadership Transition

He remained chairman until retiring in 2017 at age 89. He passed away on January 13, 2020, at 92.

Tim Macy, who had been on the board since the organization's founding, succeeded Richardson as chairman. Erich Pratt serves as Senior Vice President and primary national spokesman, having held multiple roles within GOA over more than three decades. John Velleco serves as Executive Vice President, previously directing federal affairs for the organization.

GOA's stated mission is to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners — full stop. There's no nuance in the framing, and that's intentional. The organization sees firearm ownership as a freedom issue, not a sporting or public safety tradeoff, and it measures legislation and candidates against that standard with no curve.

Where the NRA has historically accepted incremental restrictions in exchange for other concessions, GOA treats that approach as capitulation. It has publicly criticized the NRA on multiple occasions for exactly this — including giving John McCain an F− on Second Amendment issues in 2008 while the NRA's PAC gave him a C+. GOA's scorecards tend to be harsher and its endorsements rarer, which means something different when they do come.

GOA frames its mission around reclaiming rights already lost, not just defending the current status quo — a distinction that shapes how it chooses legislative and legal battles.

GOA is not a shooting sports organization in the traditional sense — it doesn't sanction matches or run marksmanship programs. Its programs are almost entirely legislative, legal, and grassroots in nature.

Legislative Programs

Outreach Initiatives

The GOALS Convention — GOA's annual conference, officially the Gun Owners of America Liberty Summit — brings together members, speakers, vendors, and legal advocates. For its 50th anniversary in 2026, the event moves to the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, with over 150,000 square feet of exhibit space planned. Previous events have been smaller regional gatherings; the 2026 edition represents a significant scale-up.

GOA runs several sub-branded outreach efforts including:

• Second Amendment Hunters — Outreach to hunting community
• 2A Defenders — General advocacy program
• Empowered 2A — Women-focused initiatives
• Fuerza 2A — Spanish-language communications
• State organizations in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas

GOA offers three membership tiers:

• Annual Membership — Standard yearly membership
• Patriot Membership — Higher-tier recurring membership with additional engagement
• Life Membership — One-time payment for permanent membership

Specific pricing is subject to change and is listed at gunowners.org. Members receive email and text alerts on active legislation, access to the Congressional Scorecard and voter guides, and communications from GOA's legal and lobbying teams when significant actions are underway.

Membership is not tied to any shooting sport participation or firearms qualification. GOA's membership base is defined by political interest in Second Amendment preservation, not range activity.

The organization claims 2 million+ members and activists — a figure it has cited consistently since at least the early 2000s. Independent verification of that number is not available through public filings, and the term "activists" broadens the count beyond dues-paying members.

GOA points to a range of legislative and legal victories across its history.

Federal Legislative Wins

State-Level Victories

The Vitter Amendment (2006) prohibited the use of federal funds to confiscate weapons during a declared state of emergency, passing 84–16. GOA lobbied hard for this measure in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina-era confiscations in New Orleans.

The Pence Amendment (2007), passed 309–115, blocked the FCC from using the Fairness Doctrine to restrict political speech by organizations like GOA over the airwaves.

GOA's legal victories also include the ATF Harassment Remedy, which secured the right of gun owners to sue the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for damages resulting from harassment and unlawful seizure of firearms, and the USPS Firearms Shipping Victory, through which the affiliated Gun Owners Foundation secured a legal victory over U.S. Postal Service restrictions on firearms shipping.

GOA publishes a "Top Ten" accomplishments list annually, covering both federal and state-level wins across legislation and litigation.

GOA operates as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, which allows it to lobby directly — unlike a 501(c)(3), which is restricted in how much lobbying it can do. That structure is central to GOA's function; lobbying is the mission.

The Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) is GOA's affiliated 501(c)(3) and serves as the research and litigation arm. GOF can accept tax-deductible donations, runs educational seminars, and handles the legal challenge work that GOA's lobbying status doesn't cover directly. GOF has pursued Second Amendment litigation in courts across the country.

Gun Owners of America Inc. Political Victory Fund is GOA's federal PAC (FEC ID: C00278101), used to support pro-gun candidates at federal, state, and local levels.

The board collectively claims over 100 years of combined experience in firearms legislation and politics, per the organization's own description. GOA's headquarters are at 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 202, Springfield, Virginia 22151.

NRA Dynamics

The relationship between GOA and the NRA is the most defining external dynamic the organization has. GOA was founded, in part, because Richardson believed the NRA was too willing to negotiate. That position has only hardened over the decades. GOA has publicly criticized the NRA for:

• Supporting the Hughes Amendment (1986 machine gun registry closure)
• Handling of bump stock legislation
• Pattern of accepting legislative half-measures

The NRA is substantially larger — with claimed membership around 4–5 million and a budget many times GOA's — but GOA argues that size creates institutional pressure to compromise. Whether that critique is fair or self-serving depends on where you sit politically, but the tension between the two organizations is real and well-documented.

Allied Organizations

GOA has warmer relationships with the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), often working in parallel on litigation and legislative pushback, though each organization operates independently.

At the state level, GOA's affiliated organizations — Gun Owners of California, GOA Florida, GOA Pennsylvania, and GOA Texas — act as regional extensions of the national mission, monitoring state legislatures and running their own alert systems.

If you're already a dues-paying NRA member and happy with it, GOA isn't trying to replace that — it's trying to be something different. The pitch is that the NRA negotiates and GOA doesn't. That's an oversimplification, but there's enough of a track record behind it to take seriously.

GOA is most useful if you want a lobbying organization that grades legislators harshly and doesn't soften its scorecards for political convenience. Their Congressional Scorecard ratings are genuinely stricter, and that means something when you're trying to figure out which candidates actually hold the line versus which ones have learned to talk the right way around election time. The voter guides and alert system are functional and come without the baggage of NRA Institute for Legislative Action's occasionally tortured endorsements.

Where GOA is weaker: the $2 million member claim stretches the definition of "member," their financial disclosures are thin in the public domain, and the organization's confrontational-politics-only approach means they sometimes burn bridges that could have produced incremental wins.

Not every gun owner agrees that no-compromise is always the right tactical posture — sometimes it results in worse outcomes when the legislative math doesn't add up.

GOA's litigation work through the Gun Owners Foundation has produced real results. The USPS shipping case is a recent example. If you care about courtroom wins as much as legislative ones, the GOF donation track (tax-deductible, separate from GOA) is worth knowing about.

Who gets the most out of a GOA membership: people who follow federal and state legislation closely, who want aggressive scorecards for their representatives, and who are frustrated by what they see as the NRA's willingness to cut deals. Who gets less out of it: shooters primarily looking for competition access, training resources, or range benefits — GOA doesn't offer those.

At the annual membership price point, joining GOA alongside an existing NRA or SAF membership is not an unusual move for politically engaged gun owners. They're not substitutes for each other; they're pulling at the same rope from slightly different angles.

• Gun Owners of America. "About GOA." https://www.gunowners.org/about-goa/
• Gun Owners of America. "Accomplishments." https://www.gunowners.org/ptype_sections/accomplishments/
• Gun Owners of America. "GOALS 2026 Press Release." August 10, 2025. https://www.gunowners.org/gun-owners-of-america-celebrates-50-years-of-no-compromise-with-nations-premier-2a-convention-in-the-heartland/
• Wikipedia contributors. "Gun Owners of America." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Owners_of_America
• OpenSecrets. "Gun Owners of America Profile." https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/gun-owners-of-america/summary?cycle=A&id=D000026353
• Library of Congress. "Gun Owners of America (GOA)." https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0011514/
• The Trace. "Gun Owners of America: An Introduction to the Country's Most Controversial Gun Lobbying Group." December 2015. https://www.thetrace.org/2015/12/gun-owners-of-america-larry-pratt/
• Gun Owners Foundation. "Gun Owners Foundation Celebrates 40 Years of Defending the Second Amendment." https://www.gunowners.org/gun-owners-foundation-celebrates-40-years-of-defending-the-second-amendment/

Last Updated: February 24, 2026