The first session of the 89th General Assembly has just kicked off in Des Moines, and our team has been working for several weeks to lock down our legislative programs for the year, along with the budget to fund them.
Like every other gun owner in America, I had hoped that President Trump would be in the White House for four more years.
But with the Supreme Court refusing to hear any cases challenging the election, and Congress certifying the results of the election recently, gun owners must get ready for four years of non-stop attacks on our right to keep and bear arms.
So while I would love nothing more than to put all of our energies into the fight for gun rights here in Iowa, we clearly need to devote significant resources to holding the line for freedom at the federal level, too.
That’s why I am writing you today.
Iowa Gun Owners needs to decide how and where to focus our time and our donor-provided financial resources in 2021 — and we need to decide very quickly.
And unlike federal gun groups that simply harvest their members donations and spend them on shopping sprees, private air travel, and massive salaries, IGO is a grassroots organization that works for you. So, we need to hear from you, right away.
That’s why we have prepared your 2021 Iowa Gun Owners Membership Ballot, so we know where you want us to focus this year. Please read this update and then complete your ballot IMMEDIATELY!
The truth is that Iowa Gun Owners poured out almost $75,000 in hard-hitting radio and digital ads last fall, exposing anti- gun radicals like Congresswoman Finkenauer, Senate hopeful
Theresa Greenfield, 4th Congressional District candidate J.D. Scholten and more. It was an incredibly successful program. Finkenauer was kicked out of Congress. Greenfield and Scholten lost, too. And state level gun grabbers were defeated by gun owners as well!
But it came at a cost.
As things stand today, Iowa Gun Owners has the resources we need to run a solid legislative program in Des Moines — or make sure that Iowa’s Congressional delegation feels the heat at the federal level by mobilizing tens of thousands of gun owners — but we can’t do both.
But before you tell me where you want us to focus in 2021, let me explain where things stand in Congress and in Des Moines.
If Joe Biden is sworn in as President, he won’t waste any time before ordering Nancy Pelosi to unleash a massive attack against our right to keep and bear arms.
And while there are dozens of threats that we will have to fight against, Michael Bloomberg spent $100,000,000 trying to save Nancy Pelosi’s majority, and he has three primary goals.
At the top of the list, is passage of a national gun owner registration scheme, which is being sold to gun owners as harmless ‘Universal Background Checks.’
Make no mistake, there is nothing harmless about ‘Universal Background Checks.’
This legislation would criminalize all private party firearms transfers in America — even those between fathers and sons — requiring you to be tracked, traced and registered like a sex offender every time you buy a gun!
Of course, the real purpose of this legislation isn’t to stop violent crime, as background check have been proven to be utterly ineffective at stopping violent criminals and mass shootings.
No, Bloomberg and the radical left want to use these background checks to build a list of every gun owner in the country. Because before they can confiscate our guns, they first need to know where they are!
But as badly as they want to pass this national gun registry, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi are hoping that 2021 will be the year they finally ban our AR-15’s (along with over 200 similar rifles) and every single magazine that holds over ten rounds of ammunition.
We all know why.
The AR-15 is the best tool available to proud Americans who want to guard against criminals and tyrants alike. That’s because it’s lightweight, holds plenty of ammo, and can be customized to almost any desired specification.
With an estimated 20 million of these rifles in circulation, it’s clear that the AR-15 has become THE symbol of American defiance to tyranny.
Joe Biden and his even more radical handlers know that they can’t succeed in turning this great country into a socialist nation — where only the government has guns — as long as rifles like the AR-15 are in private hands.
They simply must outlaw them!
But we can’t forget about the dangers facing us if Joe Biden is able to pass a national ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ law.
As you may know, ‘Red Flag Gun Seizures’ would allow government agents, teachers, even a bitter ex-spouse, to make up wild stories about you that would give liberal judges the ability to order your firearms to be seized before you’ve been charged or convicted of anything!
Worse, this legislation is drafted to allow the entire court proceeding to take place ex-parte (in secret) so you would have no ability to be present and defend yourself in court.
Some of the evidence that can be cited against you includes the recent purchase of a firearm or ammunition! So the mere fact that you exercise your Second Amendment rights can be used against you in a ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ hearing!
What makes this legislation a major threat in 2021 is the number of sell-out Republicans — like Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, John Thune and many others — who have already expressed their support for it.
Of course, these are just three of the threats that Iowa Gun Owners will be on guard against next session.
The good news is that if we can pour enough pressure onto Capitol Hill, we can defeat this entire agenda in the House of Representatives, as Nancy Pelosi lost over a dozen seats last fall (two of them right here in Iowa!) leaving her with the smallest Congressional majority in 100 years!
Of course, we have a fundamental obligation to safeguard our gun rights here in Iowa, too.
The members of Iowa Gun Owners did a fantastic job at CRUSHING Michael Bloomberg’s plan of flipping the Iowa House during the November elections.
Despite the MILLIONS of dollars that he spent attacking pro-gun candidates here in Iowa, gun owners ensured that House Republicans actually increased their majority by six seats.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s high time that Republican leaders in the House and Senate repay their debt to gun owners by finally passing Constitutional Carry legislation!
Once passed, Constitutional Carry law would allow every law-abiding citizen in the state to be able to carry a firearm for self-defense — WITHOUT having to add your name to a government database or pay fees to the government!
In other words, if you are legally able to own a firearm, you are legally able to carry it, just like our Founding Fathers intended it.
A whopping sixteen states (almost a third of the country) already have this law on the books — including neighboring states like Missouri and South Dakota — and it’s on the move in at least four other states right now.
Legislative moderates like House Majority Leader Matt Windshitl have been blocking this legislation in committee for several years, so we’ll need to push hard for it this year!
At the same time, with Joe Biden and his allies bent on passing the gun control legislation I laid out above, Iowa Gun Owners will also be working to advance the Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) this year in Des Moines.
SAPA legislation is designed to protect the gun rights that you and I currently enjoy here in Iowa from federal infringement by mandating that Iowa peace officers only enforce Iowa’s gun laws, and only if they comply with the Second Amendment!
This legislative concept got started during the Obama Administration, but was flawed in that it required the state Attorney General to prosecute violations of SAPA law.
And with Attorney General Tom Miller — one of the most anti-gun AG’s in America — at the helm here in Iowa, we all know that would never have happened!
That’s why the SAPA legislation we will be filing allows individual gun owners to take government officials who violate SAPA law and enforce unconstitutional federal gun control to civil court for damages and injunctive relief.
Our sister organizations in Missouri and Wyoming are doing the same thing, knowing that if federal gun control should pass into law under a Biden Administration, SAPA legislation will be the only protection that we have left!
But given how much weakness we’ve seen from Iowa’s ‘pro-gun’ majorities, passing SAPA legislation is not going to be an easy task. In fact, I expect it will be a fight from the beginning of session until the end. And we need your help.
I’m sure you can see why I’m so torn, there just aren’t any easy options.
We absolutely must do everything we can to hold the line against Joe Biden’s federal gun control agenda! But we also have to do everything we can to pass Constitutional Carry and SAPA legislation here in Iowa, while we have the votes to do it.
But I have to be realistic.
And right now, after our expensive election program last year, I just don’t have the funds to run a full-scale program at both the state and federal level at the same time.
That’s why I’m counting on you to please fill out your Iowa Gun Owners’ Member Ballot and tell me where to focus the resources that we have.
Of course, when you do so, you’ll notice that I have included another option on your membership ballot — an option that we haven’t talked about yet, because it’s just not possible without a major influx of funds.
Nevertheless, it’s the option that I am secretly hoping you will choose. And that’s OPTION #3: “FIGHT LIKE HELL TO CRUSH JOE BIDEN’S GUN CONTROL AGENDA WHILE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ADVANCE BOTH CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT PRESERVATION ACT IN IOWA! FIGHT EVERYWHERE!”
Please note that if you select this option, I need you to dig deep and be as generous as possible, to help us put this plan into action.
I simply can’t afford to run a state and federal program at the same time without it. But with everything we are facing this year, we need to push back with everything we have RIGHT NOW!
That’s why my hope is that you will agree to a generous gift of $100 or even $250 right away.
I know that’s a lot. I know I’m asking you to dig deep.
But our Second Amendment freedoms and our very way of life are being threatened in a way that we’ve never seen before, and our children and grandchildren are counting on us to preserve their freedoms, as our forefathers did for us!
So if $100 is just too much, won’t you please agree to $75, $50 or at least $25?
The General Assembly has already convened, it’s important that I hear from you as soon as possible.
Please complete your Membership Ballot right away, and please make an emergency donation so that we can fight for you!
For Freedom,
Aaron Dorr
Chairmam
Iowa Gun Owners
P.S. With the 2021 legislative session underway, I need to make some very difficult decisions about where to focus our resources and our time this session.
After the expensive (and very successful) election program we ran last year, we don’t have the resources we need to hold the line against the mounting gun control threats that are forming in Congress, while still working to advance Constitutional Carry in Des Moines.
So I need your immediate advice!
Please weigh in immediately!