To stupid to know they are the problem........

They Make Viral Gun Videos—With Hardline Christian Values

T.Rex Arms sells gun accessories. According to one expert, “The product is ideology, too.”

LILA HASSAN

At the start of a slickly produced 19-minute YouTube video titled “How T.Rex Arms Got Started,” Lucas Botkin, the company’s 30-year-old founder, runs through an obstacle course. A guitar-­heavy soundtrack plays as Botkin, decked out in tactical gear and filtered through overwrought video effects, picks off targets with a variety of handguns and rifles. We briefly see the course from his eyes, first-person-shooter style.

When the drums bang to a halt, the video cuts to an interview where Botkin explains his company’s mission. “We try to produce thought-provoking content and educational content that inspires people to understand their obligations to God and country and their responsibilities,” he says, over more shooting footage. “Then we equip them with the equipment necessary so they can fulfill those obligations and those responsibilities with maximum effectiveness.”

T.Rex Arms, a Tennessee-based, family-­run, Christian firearms accessory company—think holsters, body armor, and the like—is at the forefront of what extremism researchers call GunTube, an ecosphere of gun influencers whose videos peddle a wide range of conservative content. The company has more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers; its origin story video has been viewed more than 900,000 times. Botkin, who can cut a nerdy presence when digging into gun minutiae, has nearly half a million Instagram followers and enough right-wing cachet to have been an ambassador for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and have earned an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show the month before he left the network.

“They are jacks of all trades,” says Meghan Conroy, who monitors extremist influencers for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. What separates T.Rex Arms from the rest of the gun community, she says, is its “masterful ability to create content that appeals to so many different people.” While some of its most popular videos offer product reviews and shooting tips, they are accompanied by a wide range of political content, including interviews with conservative officials and activists. In weekly “T.Rex Talks,” Lucas and his brothers sit in a dimly lit studio to discuss America in decay, and how like-minded, God-oriented people can save it. They often reference the end times and urge their viewers to seize control before things get worse. “They’re selling products,” says Max Rizzuto, another Atlantic Council researcher, “and the product is ideology, too.”

For example, in the days following the 2020 election, Lucas and his older brother, Isaac, a designer at the company who frequently appears on T.Rex Talks, discussed journalism. “We’re at a place right now where a lot of people don’t trust the mainstream media,” Isaac said, to which Lucas quickly replied, “Reasonably so.” The brothers argued reporters should be held accountable for their coverage of topics like Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter protests. “I’m starting to wonder when a news network will be actually prosecuted for things that they say that result in the death of people, which I think has happened in the past four years,” Lucas said. “It results in people getting killed, or businesses just getting burned, looted. Theft. And they’re not being held responsible for it.” Lucas went on to predict that economic collapse was “very likely” in his lifetime: “The way we live can be radically different 30 years from now.” In another stream, he warned of the “apocalyptic” prospect of a nationwide gun ban.

“They were pushing every single one of the narratives that we’ve seen emerge out of the right-wing space,” says Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, who reviewed T.Rex Arms’ videos at Mother Jones’ request. By pairing Second Amendment fearmongering with broader culture war issues, he says, the Botkins have identified a “common enemy” for their large, mostly male audience: “It’s laying it out there that tyranny is coming and needs to be resisted with arms.”

Their core messages, Lewis adds, are similar to what 70-year-old family patriarch Geoffrey Botkin has also promoted on YouTube—but to a much smaller audience. The elder Botkin is a preacher and author who adheres to a hardline version of Christianity and is an advocate of the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement, which encourages women to live with their parents until marriage, after which they are meant to give birth as much as possible so Christians can rule over society. He and his wife, Victoria, have seven children, including two “stay at home daughters” whose own website features discussions of “proper” womanhood and Christianity. (“Put simply, we’re two very unworthy daughters of a merciful Heavenly Father,” they explain.) On Instagram, Lucas has called his father, who serves on the company’s board, “the man responsible for much of the backbone and principles behind T.Rex Arms.”

Geoffrey was once a senior consultant to the Western Conservatory of the Arts and Sciences, an organization offering advice on family building and religious living; Lucas, Isaac, and other family members have held positions with the organization. He also is the author of several self-published books, including Father to Son: Manly Conversations That Can Change Culture—which features a young Lucas on the cover. In it, Geoffrey argues that Jesus commands men be armed to resist “tyranny,” that gun control laws lead to dictatorships and genocide, and that boys have “militant natures” and a “natural desire to fight” that fathers should nurture.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic lockdowns and their cultural upheaval, Geoffrey launched “Stand Up and Lead,” a series of videos and podcasts responding to topics like critical race theory, the Covid vaccine, and election fraud. But his view counts can’t compare to those racked up by the videos put out by his sons’ company. And while Lucas has said he doesn’t agree with all of Geoffrey’s opinions, T.Rex Arms content is infused with an ideology that jibes with his father’s beliefs. “Weapons are a part of my religion—not in a ceremonial way,” Isaac says in a video where he claims the Founding Fathers drew on “scriptural tradition” when framing the Second Amendment. “Using tools to fulfill the responsibilities that I believe that I have because of my religion is very important…weapons are sometimes the tools required.”

These sorts of messages fit into a larger Christian nationalist framework, says University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry. “Along with the support for authoritarian violence is undeniably a view that ‘we have been persecuted, done wrong, that we are hated, that the left is in control of our society and we have to take it back,’” Perry says. “It’s difficult to talk about guns and the celebration of gun culture without talking about the patriarchy, the fascination with high-fertility families, and the fascination with violence and the broader populist movement. It’s all in there.”

Despite the Botkins’ avowed distaste for the state, Lucas has boasted on various platforms, mostly in now-deleted posts, that T.Rex Arms offers drills and training to law enforcement and the military. While the Botkins did not respond to requests for comment, Mother Jones found no evidence to back these claims. Spending records confirm local governments do purchase T.Rex Arms equipment—like batteries for swat gear and uniforms.

T.Rex Arms also encourages its fans and customers to play an active role in state politics. In a video titled “How to Pass Pro-2A Legislation,” the T.Rex Arms team outlines the lobbying strategy it deployed to successfully press Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to repeal the state’s ammunition tax in 2019, and pushed viewers to engage in the same kind of work.

During his March 2023 interview with Carlson, Lucas claimed he uses T.Rex to educate people on why “communism is a bad idea, and why capitalism can be a good thing.” He added: “That’s really where the conversation needs to be. A lot of people focus on the gun part, which is frustrating to me, when it really should be a focus on culture in general, and principle in general. The gun is just a piece people bring up as a talking point.”

When Lucas later suggested his company might eventually sell ammunition, Carlson praised him as “smart” and said that T.Rex Arms was a “multimillion-dollar company.”

“Your parents,” Carlson added, “did an amazing job at transmitting their values.”