Chris McNutt

Chris McNutt (born 1986) is an American conservative activist and gun rights lobbyist. He is the executive director of Texas Gun Rights and the South Central Regional Director of the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that serves as an umbrella coordinator for various state-level pro-gun organizations. McNutt graduated from the University of North Texas at Dallas and lives in Richardson, Texas with his wife, Murphy.

McNutt's political activism began in 2011 as a Precinct Chair in the Dallas County Republican Party. He served as First Vice President of the Southwest Dallas County Republican Club until 2014, and took various leadership roles at the Republican Party Senate District and State Conventions as Chairman of the Rules Committee.

McNutt volunteered and worked on several political campaigns, including campaigns for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Texas State Representative Jonathan Stickland and former Texas State Representative Matt Rinaldi. McNutt briefly worked for Americans for Prosperity before joining the office of former Texas State Senator Don Huffines as District Director.

After joining Texas Gun Rights in 2017, McNutt advocated for Constitutional Carry legislation, also known as permitless carry.

As executive director for Texas Gun Rights and following the Santa Fe High School Shooting, McNutt helped organize the effort to stop Governor Abbott's request for the study of “Red Flag” gun confiscation laws during the 2018 interim. After a July Senate Committee hearing, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick declared “Red Flag” legislation “dead on arrival” if it reached the Senate floor.

During the 2018 primary elections, McNutt's group was accused of attacking then candidate for Texas State Senate Angela Paxton, wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, shortly after an affiliate of its parent organization received a $150,000 donation from the campaign account of Senator Don Huffines. Huffines' twin brother, Phil Huffines, was Paxton's opponent. The NRA Political Victory Fund sent an alert to their members calling the attacks on Paxton "fake news." Paxton defeated Huffines with 54.4% of the vote and went on to become the next State Senator for Texas Senate, District 8.

McNutt's activism also extended to the city of Richardson in 2018, where he and his wife created the “Vote NO 4 RISD TRE PAC” to oppose the Richardson Independent School District’s tax ratification election. In spite of record turnout, the 12.5% property tax increase passed with 53% of the vote.

McNutt appeared on the November 5, 2018 cover of TIME Magazine's “Guns in America” issue as the executive Director for Texas Gun Rights.

Following the 2019 Texas legislative session, McNutt asked Governor Abbott to use his line-item veto to remove funding for a Department of Public Safety gun storage program. According to a statement from Texas Gun Rights, "Speaker Dennis Bonnen slipped a $1 million spending spree for the promotion of 'safe gun storage' into the states budget bill."

Controversy with Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen

During the 2019 legislative session, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives Dennis Bonnen accused McNutt of threatening behavior while trying to pass gun rights legislation. McNutt claimed that Bonnen's statements were a deliberate exaggeration of his actions while canvassing Bonnen's neighborhood with flyers, which alerted his constituents to call him to advance a Constitutional Carry bill. Bonnen says that McNutt's actions were the reason he declared McNutt's bill dead.

Bodycam footage later obtained from the Texas Department of Public Safety was released to the public by gun rights activist and founder of Open Carry Texas, CJ Grisham. According to text added to the video by Grisham, Bonnen’s media narrative surrounding McNutt was false and the DPS footage exonerated McNutt of Bonnen's claims.

Bonnen confronted McNutt at a Republican Party fundraiser dinner and left the venue before his scheduled speaking engagement. Witnesses confirmed that Bonnen was the aggressor, but Bonnen claimed that he was setup by McNutt.

On April 23, 2019 McNutt was joined by Dudley Brown, President of the National Association for Gun Rights, and attorney Jesse Binnall, at a press conference in Austin to demand a retraction and an apology from Bonnen for his statements about McNutt in the media. McNutt also said he was considering legal actions against Bonnen.Bonnen claimed that McNutt flashed his gun while visiting lawmakers’ local district offices, but McNutt said he was unarmed.

During an interview with NBC DFW, Bonnen referred to gun rights activists who support Constitutional Carry as people who live "out in the woods or in a cave somewhere."