By Illinois Review
Larry Smith, a member of the Illinois Republican Party State Central Committee and chairman of the LaSalle County GOP, reportedly urged people not to attend a pro-Second Amendment grassroots meeting last Saturday in Livingston County, according to multiple sources.
Smith, who previously served as co-chair of the state party’s Grassroots Outreach Committee, was reportedly upset that Newsmax columnist and Illinois Review editor-in-chief Mark Vargas – who works closely with the Trump administration and longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone – was the featured speaker.
Smith has had a longstanding feud with Illinois Review, the state’s largest conservative news publication. In 2024, President Donald Trump shared an IR article on his Truth Social account, demonstrating that both the President and his team actively follow the Illinois-based outlet.
The event, organized by volunteers affiliated with the Illinois State Rifle Association, was the group’s regular monthly grassroots meeting, designed to rally support for gun rights and discuss efforts to protect the Second Amendment in Illinois.
In May 2023, IR reported that during a local Chicagoland radio interview, Smith criticized the IL GOP’s grassroots base, calling them “keyboard warriors that never built anything in their life.” His comments sparked a firestorm of negative reactions on social media from grassroots activists who had tuned in expecting the committee co-chair to defend the conservative base he is meant to represent.
In June, Vargas joined tribal leaders in Washington for a high-level meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel, focusing on the agency’s recent commitment to increase federal resources to combat human trafficking, unsolved violent crimes and cartel activity on Native American reservations.
Public safety on Indian reservations is severely underfunded, exposing these communities to exploitation, drug cartel activity, violence, and human trafficking.
Operation Not Forgotten builds on efforts initiated during President Trump’s first term through Executive Order 13898, which established the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.
This marks the third deployment under Operation Not Forgotten, which has supported investigations in over 500 cases over the past two years. Together, these operations have led to the recovery of 10 child victims, 52 arrests and 25 indictments or judicial complaints.
The Illinois State Rifle Association has long been at the forefront of defending Second Amendment rights in Illinois, actively challenging restrictive gun laws through both litigation and advocacy.
Notably, the ISRA sponsored the landmark McDonald v. City of Chicago case, which resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments via the Fourteenth Amendment, effectively overturning Chicago’s handgun ban.
More recently, the ISRA has filed lawsuits challenging the state’s “Protect Illinois Communities Act,” arguing that the ban on commonly owned firearms violates constitutional rights. Supporting these efforts, the U.S. Department of Justice recently filed an amicus brief with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, aligning with the ISRA’s position.
The ISRA hosts monthly grassroots meetings across Illinois, featuring speakers from throughout the state.
