Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, praised lawless Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's actions in a sparsely attended speech outside the National Rifle Association's annual meeting.

“I think that this is a very positive development that came out of the confrontation out on that ranch,” said Pratt, who regularly sits for credulous interviews with mainstream media outlets. “And hopefully we will look back on what happened there as a turning point in modern American history. The American people are saying 'Enough, no farther.'”

After Bundy refused for decades to pay the government fees required for his cattle to graze on public land, federal officials attempted to execute court orders to confiscate and sell the cattle to pay off the more than $1 million he owes the public. Bundy became a right-wing folk hero after he threatened violence against those officials, drawing the support of both conservatives in the media and hundreds of armed men -- including militia extremists -- who descended on Bundy's ranch, triggering an armed standoff with the government.

When the government stopped the confiscation fearing an outbreak of violence, Bundy's supporters cheered, but most of those allies abandoned him last week after The New York Times reported Bundy's racist comments, in which he questioned whether black Americans were “better off as slaves” or “better off under government subsidy.”

But on April 26 Pratt praised the rancher's standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, which he described as “an illegitimate entity” whose employees “shouldn't have guns, not as government officials.” He linked the event to the surge in sheriffs who have said they will refuse to enforce expanded federal or state gun laws.

“I think we really are hopefully on an upswing,” he said to a group of roughly 20 onlookers, including a Media Matters reporter. “We are seeing, finally, a proper, legitimate, lawful response to illegitimate, unlawful exercise of government power, particularly on the federal level.”

Pratt frequently appears in the media as an advocate for gun rights, most recently responding to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's expanded gun safety efforts in a New York Times article earlier this month. The Times profiled Pratt and his “upstart group” that takes positions “farther right” than the NRA in April 2013, featuring praise from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Dean Heller (R-NV), and reported that the organization has been successful in “freezing senators, particularly Republicans” from taking positions in support of gun violence prevention legislation.

But Pratt also has a long record of anti-government extremism; he was forced out of his position as co-chair of Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential run following the “disclosure that he had spoken at rallies held by leaders of the white supremacist and militia movements,” as the Times reported at the time. More recently, he has suggested that the shooting at the Aurora, CO, movie theater may have been staged and flirted with the claim that the Sandy Hook shooting was a government “programmed event” designed to build support for stronger gun laws. 

Pratt's speech came during a “Safety & Self-Protection Showcase” held in the park across the street from the Indiana Convention Center, where 70,000 members of the NRA were meeting this weekend. The event was sponsored by groups including Moms With Guns Demand Action, Gun Rights Across America, American Gun Rights, Indiana Moms Against Gun Control, 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control, 2A Friendly, and Armed American Women. Other speakers included Jan Morgan of Armed American Women, Indiana state representative Jim Lucas, Doc Greene of Raging Elephants Radio, and Nikki Goeser, author of “Denied A Chance.”

From Pratt's April 26 speech: