TEXT OF EMAIL from Iowa Gun Owners
January 2, 2012
Iowa Gun Owners wants to inform you about where the candidates
stand on your gun rights.
First some good news:
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Congressman Ron Paul (in
alphabetical order), were the two candidates to complete the survey
100% in favor of your gun rights. This means that, amongst other
things, they’ve pledged to:
• Repeal any legislation that would re-institute the so called “Assault
Weapons Ban.”
• Repeal the 1993 Brady Bill which allows the government to track what
guns you purchase, setting the stage for a national gun registry.
• Repeal legislation that bans guns on school
zones, which leaves tens of millions of school children virtually
defenseless as their teachers can’t carry a gun.
• Stop any attempts to pass a UN Small Arms Treaty.
Congressman Ron Paul has recently introduced legislation to
deal with some of the issues mentioned here – thus putting his money
where his mouth is.
These are the candidates that are not afraid of the anti-gun
special interest groups, their pals in the media, and their friends in
Congress. No one else has the record and the survey results that
Congresswoman Bachmann and Congressman Paul.
But that’s where the good news ends.
We should mention that Senator Santorum has completed the survey as
well. On his second attempt he answered the questions correct. However
Senator Santorum has a history of anti-gun votes during his time in the
US Senate - and it took a lot of activism on your part to get a signed
survey.
Santorum voted for the NICS compliance act, mandating that you alert
the federal government in nearly every case where you buy a firearm.
That’s the last thing gun owners want – their government knowing that
they are a gun owner.
Santorum also voted to mandate trigger locks on all new guns being
sold. As Iowa Gun Owners documented recently, this has led to horrific
murders in cases where victims couldn’t unlock their guns in time.
Yet Santorum refuses to apologize for these votes. His poor initial
survey response, combined with his history of anti-gun votes leave us
very concerned about his willingness to fight for gun owners should he
be the GOP nominee or the President someday.
Newt Gingrich refuses to answer our survey, after his staff assured us
that we would receive it. Gingrich used the power of his office and
Speaker of the House to voice tremendous support for the Brady Bill.
He even said that he wants to take away more of your freedoms by
mandating that you surrender your thumb print to the government to be
able to buy a firearm. Imagine being treated like a common criminal for
wanting to exercise a constitutionally guaranteed right!
It’s no surprise then that Newt’s State Chairwoman is none other that
House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer. Upmeyer broke her written promise
by working to KILL Constitutional Carry last session in the House.
Mitt Romney also refuses to answer our survey. But this should be no
surprise. Romney
has loudly proclaimed his support for mandatory waiting periods and
mandatory background checks. But far worse, as Governor of
Massachusetts, Romney signed into law a PERMAMENT ban on so-called
assault weapons.
Romney’s State Chairwoman is Assistant Majority Leader Renee Schulte.
Schulte also lied to gun owners in Iowa by voting to kill
Constitutional Carry last year in the House after taking gun owners'
votes, time and campaign contributions.
Governor Perry and Former Governor Jon Huntsman have also refused our
survey.
This has been an exciting process for us at Iowa Gun Owners. One
campaign, that has since imploded, threatened IGO with a libel lawsuit
for exposing the position of their candidate during the Iowa Straw
Poll.
Another campaign’s staff almost attacked IGO staff and volunteers
at a Fox News debate back in August because we were informing so many
Iowans about the refusal of their candidate to put his views on the 2nd
Amendment on paper.
Multiple campaigns have sought out our endorsement, although we can not
and do not endorse candidates.
Our ONLY goal at Iowa Gun Owners is to doggedly find out which
candidates really support your gun rights. Don’t forget, “everyone” is
pro-gun at election time, or so they say.
We’ve learned that during last year’s mid-term elections. Even the
worst candidate on the 2nd Amendment claims to support your rights.
That’s why we issue surveys. A survey doesn’t ensure that a politician
will stay faithful to his pledge. But a candidate who refuses to go on
the record on gun rights is certainly not a candidate who will support
your right to keep and bear arms.
Please
consider a small contribution to Iowa Gun Owners to help us cover the
costs of our survey program. Our mail, email and robocall program
was effective at exposing a slew of anti-gun candidates.
But as we approach the 2012 legislative session we need to replenish
our coffers to be able to alert gun owners to the threats that will no
doubt come out of the General Assembly this session.
Any amount is helpful. If you can donate $50 to help us pay for this
program we would be very grateful. If that is too much,
consider
chipping in just $5 or $10 instead.
We will put it to immediate use.
Also, you should know that Capitol insiders are reporting that
some in the GOP establishment are working hard to remove the
Constitutional Carry provision to the Iowa GOP Platform.
They are doing this because they know that their party looks bad when
their platform professes support for Constitutional Carry - and then
their party promptly caves into the anti-gun lobby in Des Moines and
votes to KILL Constitutional Carry.
So they want to remove that portion from the platform.
Iowa gun owners who attend the GOP caucus should resist this and
instead, offer this plank to strengthen the platform:
"We demand full restoration of 2nd Amendment rights and call for a
state law authorizing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms, open or
concealed, without a permit, an idea known as Constitutional Carry.
"We call upon the General Assembly to take immediate action on
Constitutional Carry so that law abiding gun owners
will no longer have to pay outrageous fees for permitting, submit to
government mandated training, and have their fingerprints taken in the
same manner that a criminal does."
For Freedom,
Aaron Dorr
Exectutive Director