If you have not yet renewed your membership for 2020, I hope you will allow me to explain what we are up against next session — and why your continued support is so necessary.
As the Policy Advisor for Wyoming Gun Owners, my job is to draft the legislation that WYGO will be working on in the upcoming session, and to handle the lobby work on behalf of our members from all over Wyoming.
And while it’s true that Wyoming enjoys a Republican majority in the House and Senate, the situation in Cheyenne is getting desperate, with anti-gun moderates assuming more control every year.
Just consider what happened earlier this year.
After lobbying in the Capitol on behalf of Senate File 75/House Bill 183 (legislation filed by Senator Bouchard and Representative Salazar that would end ‘Gun Free Zones) I was very pleased to see almost THREE DOZEN COSPONSORS on each bill.
Make no mistake, this didn’t happen because of my lobby work. Lawmakers jumped to cosponsor because they were being hammered by WYGO members by email and social media, insisting that they co-sponsor these bills!
After we drafted this wonderful legislation, and wracked up an impressive number of cosponsors, you would think that the legislature would fast track these bills for passage, right?
Wrong!
Instead, Senate President Perkins assigned the bill to the notoriously anti-gun Senate Judiciary Committee where Chairwoman Nethercott ensured that the bill died in a 3-2 committee action.
In the House, Speaker Harshman did the same thing, referring the bill to the Appropriations Committee where Chairman Nicholas (one of the most anti-gun lawmakers in Cheyenne) killed the bill.
Make no mistake, ‘The Swamp’ that President Trump refers to does not exist solely in Washington, D.C. — it is alive and well in Cheyenne, too.
And unless gun owners stand together and fight back in 2020, I believe that the moderate leadership team in Cheyenne will start to advance various gun control bills this session!
The main threat that we need to be ready for is ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ legislation, a bill that is sweeping the country right now, passing in 5 states in the past two years alone.
The details of ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ legislation varies state by state, but its core components are the same everywhere. They include:
>>> The use of ex-parte hearings; which means that when someone
makes a complaint against you, you wouldn’t even know about
it much less be allowed to attend the hearing with your
lawyer to defend yourself before the judge.
This clearly violates your 5th Amendment right of due process as
well as your 6th Amendment right to confront your accusers.
>>> Provisions that allow your firearms to be seized before you
are ever convicted of a crime; this would happen before you have
been arrested, indicted, charged or convicted of anything!
At a minimum, this violates your 2nd Amendment right to keep and
bear arms and your 5th Amendment right of due process.
>>> The use of absolutely bogus evidence against you at the
hearing you are not allowed to attend; almost every draft of
this legislation allows the court to consider the recent purchase
of firearms or ammunition as evidence against you!
This would establish a terrible court precedent, allowing liberal judges
to use your exercise of your 2nd Amendment rights as evidence against
you!
And as bad as this is, we haven’t even addressed the issue of the expansion of this legislation, which is the long-term goal of gun-grabbers across the country.
Once this legislation becomes law, lawmakers will immediately move to expand who can be targeted by a ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ order.
In Washington State, for example, you can now lose your firearms because your minor child got into a schoolyard fight.
That’s because Washington State expanded their ‘Red Flag’ laws to allow school resource officers to target your child with a ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ order — allowing the courts to seize any firearms in your home!
Please don’t tell yourself that ‘this can’t happen here’ because the GOP controls the agenda in Cheyenne, as you’ve already seen what they’ve done this year to pro-gun bills.
But more than that, it’s Republican lawmakers who are leading this charge in state legislatures around the country including states like Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Ohio, and many more!
This can happen here, and as the Policy Advisor for Wyoming Gun Owners, my number one priority for 2020 is to stop it.
To stand with us and help fight against gun control, renew your membership for 2020 today!
But that’s not all.
Our second priority is to make sure that gun owners receive a roll-call vote on our legislation to repeal deadly ‘Gun Free Zones’ next session.
This will allow WYGO to make sure that every gun owner in the state knows how their legislator voted where their gun rights are concerned, before the 2020 primary elections!
‘Gun Free Zones’ are deadly.
In fact, a recent report shows that over 1,000 people have been murdered or wounded in ‘Gun Free Zones’ in just the last ten years across the country.
That’s why we simply must remove them here in Wyoming, so that law abiding gun owners can legally carry in places that are currently off limits to us — but do nothing to stop violent criminals.
And that starts by making sure that we have every single lawmaker in Cheyenne on the record, for or against our gun rights.
Armed with this information, WYGO will be able to go into targeted districts and expose anti-gun lawmakers who are desperately trying to hide the facts from gun owners.
We do this through a combination of targeted social media, direct mail, radio ads, and door-to-door literature drops.
Combined, it’s a devastatingly effective program!
Don’t take my word for it.
Just ask FORMER Senator Fred Emerich who was booted out of office during the 2018 primaries after we exposed Emerich’s votes against Constitutional Carry, Gun Free Zone repeal, and his work behind the scenes against Stand-Your-Ground law!
But before we can expose a bad legislator, we need to make sure that we have him on the record, opposing your gun rights.
As you can see, Wyoming Gun Owners has A LOT on its plate for 2020, between our legislative and election season programs.
And that’s I hope that you will renew your membership today!
(Remember, all enhanced memberships come with a FREE WYGO T-Shirt and more! You can do that right here.)
You see, this fight is going to cost money.
Running a statewide email program, mobilizing gun owners via direct mail, and exposing lawmakers through Facebook ads and ‘lit drops’ ads up fast!
But this is how we fight!
This is how we passed Stand-Your-Ground law in 2018!
If that’s not possible at this time, I hope you’ll consider $50 or at least $35!
Whatever you can do, please act today, as our children and grandchildren are counting on us to defend their Second Amendment rights just like our forefathers did for us!
For Wyoming,
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Aaron Dorr
Policy Advisor
Wyoming Gun Owners
P.S. 2020 is going to be a big year in our fight for the Second Amendment here in Wyoming, with major legislative fights and critical primary and general elections on the horizon.
Please renew your membership in Wyoming Gun Owners immediately, as this fight is coming fast!
And remember, every contribution of $75 or more will earn you a FREE T-Shirt and decal from WYGO!
And thank you, in advance, for standing with us as we fight to defend the Second Amendment here in Wyoming for our children and grandchildren!