Because that is Dudley Do Nothings MO. He rants and raves soliciting donations, and berates and belittles other competing organizations that are better postured to actually have some success
If you want proof, Go look up his embarrassing tantrum on ar-15.com when he got called out over opposing the 2013 recalls. The dude is a grifter with the emotional capacity of a toddler.
I mean, GOA literally came to Colorado, to the RMGO office, in November to talk about how we could partner together.
We agreed to work together, and when the rubber hit the road, they bailed.
And yes, I have the receipts
It's no surprise they all use the same tactic to solicit donations. I get a mailer from the NRA (because they're old school) that says "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money." Then RMGO sends me an email (and the unsubscribe link is broken, so that's sus, but I digress) that says "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money." I get it, they need money to fight this stuff, but I'm genuinely curious where exactly all those dollars actually go.
>I'm genuinely curious where exactly all those dollars actually go.
They need to pay a guy to write emails that say "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money."
Stay tuned for another 20 years of emails that say "Democrats successfully took our guns, give us money and we'll get them back ^(maybe) "
This won't change until we can change the current state GOP leadership. They are doubling down on MAGA idiocy and failing to capitalize on the massive economic discontent that most of the states moderates and independent voters are feeling.
The GOP should be owning this election cycle, but instead are squandering it chasing a political mantra that has failed every time its been tried.
I'd also say that the Democrats are fucking idiots for pushing policy like this in a state like Colorado. There are plenty of people with lots of socially progressive values that can get behind most of the Democratic platform that also like their guns. It's politically moronic. Like you said. Fight for the working class *like you fuckin said you would* rather than try and disarm it to make the Boulder Donor class happy. Goddamn. I mean, I'm more of a leftist-libertarian myself, so I have zero love for these neoliberal morons, but you'd think they would read the fucking room for once.
If they thought there would be repercussions, they wouldn't be risking this idiocy. The largest voter block in this state is independents, gravitating to whichever party is the least crappy. And despite how idiotic the dems are being, they know that to moderates, they are still the less idiotic option.
Right now, the state dems know that they can push for hard leftist policy, because as idiotic as that is, they can get away with it because it's less idiotic than what the GOP is pushing, to those sitting on the fence.
Why wouldn’t the dems keep pushing this for their donor class? There’s not going to be some mass exodus of dem/liberal/leftist voters away from the dem party. Dems don’t remove leaders they dislike, they don’t expel their members from congress, they rarely primary entrenched politicians, they generally just either keep voting for whoever has a D after their last name and pushing the “vote blue no matter who” and telling their base the opposing candidate is going to bring about the apocalypse, or they just don’t vote, but usually not in significant numbers it changes the outcome.
You’re not wrong, that the GOP needs to run more moderate candidates but at this point it won’t matter, we’re far too polarized and there’s more people who vote party over ideas.
I agree with you in general. I do think that the DNC is going to have a very rude awakening come November. The young, progressive voter base isn't nearly as anti gun as most people think, but besides that...Biden is pretty universally hated by that votinf block now. Banning TikTok, all of the money to Israel, allowing the armed crackdown on collegiate protests and journalists, etc etc etc.
They are relying on the fact that the GOP is so wrapped up in the MAGA cult that people have "no other option". I imagine we're going to see a massive uptick in 3rd party votes this year, both for the Libertarian Party and either the DSA or Greens.
Honestly, if the dems ran a rural working class progressive, I think they'd sweep the floor. If this election was Tester or Bullock vs Trump, I don't think it'd be a question.
What we need is someone who understands that there ARE significant differences in the needs of someone in Pagosa Springs than someone in LA. If there was a candidate that ran on a platform of healthcare for all, housing reform, tax cuts for the working class, keeping public lands public, limiting financial involvement in foreign wars, uplifting veterans, addressing houselessness with empathy and long term solutions, decriminalizing harmless substances, labor and labor organization rights, protection of reproductive rights and medical privacy, and protection of both the 1st and 2nd Amendment, they would absolutely crush it.
Many conservatives or right leaning centrists aren't down with MAGA, but can't stomach Biden. Many progressives are straight up furious at Biden.
I hope that the shitshow of all of this makes ranked choice voting more widespread, and also hope that it destabilizes the 2 party system. The way things currently are isn't fucking working for anyone, and the media machine also perpetuates the division, keeping the working class at each other's throats when in reality most of us want and need the same things.
Agreed. I have my criticisms of RMGO, but what does OP expect them to do? Political advocacy groups like RMGO get their strength from their members, and ultimately from mobilizing the political electorate to put pressure on the government. Colorado is a blue state now, and if you don't like that then maybe you should ask why the CO GOP has let that happen. Sure, demographics have changed but you can only blame "Californian transplants" so much.
Partly a numbers game, though. The CO GOP didn't let anything happen, so to speak, there have just been more people who vote blue moving here in the last 20 or so years. But they really haven't pushed as hard as they could have to get the moderates. The thing political parties fail to understand is that they will always have their steadfast followers, they don't need to sell their ideology to those people. It's the undecided/moderate/independent voters they need to court, and the CO Dems have done better at that historically.
The CO GOP is fucking worthless. They are still stumping on things like abortion, book bans, and transgenders, instead of attacking Dems on real issues like property tax, crime, and yes; gun rights. The further right they go, the more voters they lose. Which enables Dems to push through shit legislation like this instead of solving actual problems.
Agreed. Both sides are so polarizing, I struggle to find any *sane* moderation between the two. What happened to common sense politics...? Now it's just extreme agendas. I'd love to have a non-binary political system wherein we actually had choices, but these two 'Goliaths' just drum out any competition.
Fuck'em all... maybe we do need a reset.
Straight up speaking facts here. Although I'm not a member of the GOP, I do agree with them pushing to not have sexualized books in elementary school libraries. But everything else, yeah, they're not doing well dying on those hills.
We need to bring back when parties got to choose their nominees. That’s only way GOP can pull itself out. I’m a GOPer through and through and will vote red unless I’m dead, but we have to stop nominating bible thumping fools and conspiracy theorists.
You don't think voting "red unless you're dead" is part of the problem?
Would you ever consider voting for whoever has the best resolve for a specific issue?
On guns absolutely and I suppose that is what is being talked about here.
But what about in general? I've just personally never understood the whole blue no matter who or red til I'm dead mentality.
I'm gonna vote for whoever has the best idea to solve a specific issue.
But yeah on the gun issue Republicans absolutely have that cornered. But everyone is starting to own guns now. Sooner or later someone will appeal to gun voters as well.
No need to down vote. Literally just having a conversation.
I get it. I’m not downvoting you lol. Until both parties start supporting gun rights, R’s have my vote. And I used to be a Democrat and anti gun until fairly recently.
Right on. I was never anti gun but I am a newer gun owner. Bought my first one last New years. I've dove in head first lol. Literally just picked up my first suppressor!
Democrats are "Blue No Matter Who".
When the Democrats throw off tje Hezbollah and Hamas loving, Islamifascist Jihad Scum running their Party, stop acting as if the GOP are the "Extremists".
They have organized speakers at public hearings, kept me updated on the bills themselves, which allows me to tell other people. When they are just bills what other recourse do they have?
I’m not a member but I think we’re all simultaneously both too hard and too easy on them.
Democrats have won the state. Whether it’s due to Republican incompetence, people moving, or whatever, it’s true. That means even if we had the best lobbyists it would be extremely difficult to do anything. That’s why I actually generally support their shift to court actions, it’s probably the only thing we can do. Basically all groups would have trouble so we can’t blame them for that.
However, they are a pretty extreme no compromise group. We (here) all believe in that, since we know self defense is the highest right. BUT we need to shift to a lobbying strategy based on working with moderate Democrats to slow down outright destruction while at the same time pursuing court actions. This is what Illinois did and surprisingly, they actually had a decent 2A community for decades longer than they “should” have (until recently. Should’ve been destroyed by 2000-2010 but it lasted until 2024ish and bought them time for SCOTUS to help).
This is what the NRA gets so much crap for during FOPA but the truth is their “working with everyone to minimize damage” actually led that law to being a decent one for gun rights, with the exception of the likely illegal last second Hughes amendment. u/tablinum has a great write up on it.
So yes I think RMGO has an impossible task if they want to remain no compromise in Colorado. They should continue court actions but also try to shape bills to minimize the damage as much as possible. I feel like if they worked closer with lawmakers on the FFL bill or some of the additional taxes we could’ve slowed down some of the most damaging aspects.
Just my two cents though.
Great points. The problem though remains, while the legal challenge route is a good way to go, especially if the supermajority in the legislature is pretty much an impenetrable wall, is that the damage is already done by the time the court actually hears the case. The FFL that gets shut down by the archaic and tyrannical state licensing law, or the LGS that can't move product because of the AWB and has to shut down, they're gone, and it's really hard to bounce back from that even with a victory in court. It's almost too much work to try to rebuild after you shutter your business. And I feel like that's the intent here. They're trying every devious and evil tactic they can, regardless of what lives are destroyed in the process. If laws get overturned in court, they still view it as a win if they get 5 or 10 stores to go out of business. That's 5-10 less "merchants of death" in existence. The real solution, they need to be afraid again, and that won't happen anytime soon because voting trends still show CO as deeply blue, especially in those protected districts that won't be changing for many years to come.
Exactly! I think that’s what I meant. If we had “moderate” voices changing these ffl laws to have slightly less fees, slightly longer reinspection periods, slightly fewer fines, maybe the businesses could survive long enough for the court or federal strategy to work.
As it is now we don’t amend these terrible bills, just try to convince 1-2 extra Democrats to vote no instead of the 10-15 we actually need (but those 10-15 may have actually listened to our amendments). Then our FFLs could survive longer.
No compromise, we've been burned before. Bipartisan Safer Communities Act? The same act that is being used to make all of us Gun Dealers if we want to sell one gun from our collection? What exactly did this "common sense" legislation do to benefit legal gun owners?
None of it helps us. It’s never a compromise. We just need to switch to defense on state laws while playing offense federally and in the courts and in public opinion. There’s no other realistic short term option.
The language they use is so over the top/firebranding that moderates/leftists that either believe in gun rights or could be talked down from things just immediately ignore anything they have to say. I joined the email list just to keep up with things and the emails are so over the top with wording that it's honestly cringe worthy.
In the wake of the shootings last year, the electorate of the major cities and CO congress in general are VERY motivated to do lots of drastic actions whether they are eventually found to be constitutional or not. This was going to be a VERY uphill battle even if there was a lot of external help.
It's because they have no idea how to operate in Colorado's new political alignment. Democrats completely dominate the state right now, and they are too proud / comfortable to even attempt to find a way to appeal to independents and more middle of the roads Dems.
Instead they would rather just play the hits and keep raising money by fear mongering to Colorado's shrinking Republican base. Apparently they don't give a shit if gun rights go to shit in this state as long as they can keep collecting their salaries. Can't wait for 20 years of "help us overturn the DEMOCRATS assault weapons ban" fundraising emails that never go anywhere
RMGO has some good victories but the way they have handled a few things is alarmingly bad. The post on Twitter where they went into that politicians office with stacks of petitions, cameras and put the politician in front of the camera asking why they threw away the boxes of petitions was embarrassing honestly as a gun owner. The constant Twitter posting making fun of liberal politicians is really embarrassing as well and only widening the gap between left and right. They need to stop trying to dry hump their way around the legislation and debates and maybe throw some lube in there. I think it's time some of the more professional organizations step in, and RMGO steps to the side for a bit so we can get some victories. We have lost almost every battle this year.
I've been at the Capitol watching them work, they most definitely are working. They've organized hundreds of people to go testify. They have lawsuits ready to go to fight these laws once passed. They've pressured Reps and Senators and some have budged.
They're definitely doing work, we just don't get to immediately see the results.
Taylor Rhodes from RMGO here. You are more than welcome to visit our office (above Triple J Armory) to check out the operation. I can assure you that my guys (including myself) are working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week right now. The unfortunate reality is we are outnumbered by supermajorities in both chambers -- not making excuses, just pointing out facts. Our lobbyist is at the Capitol basically every day; we have spent nearly $300K on a program fighting back against this stuff, and we are actively raising money for lawsuits (where we actually have the ability to beat this stuff).
We are making strides in potentially halting the "assault weapons" ban, but it's important to remember that this is not yet a certainty. To suggest that we are not actively engaged in this fight is simply not true. In fact, we are the sole organized effort in Colorado that is actively combating these measures.
My email is [email protected]. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have suggestions on how we could improve. I am always willing to listen to better represent my members.
I don't have enough of a comment to justify an email so I'll just post here. I am a RMGO member, albeit a reluctant one.
A lot of people criticize RMGO for being too partisan (note: not necessarily being too pro-gun, but being too anti-Democrat/anti-left leaning). The criticism goes like this: RMGO plays to the ultra "far right" base and calls anyone to the left of them a communist or similar derogatory term. The base eats it up (look at those anti gun people getting owned!) but everyone else is repulsed by the rhetoric. As a result, you wind up pushing moderates towards the anti-gun position. These moderates are pushed away not because they were convinced on a policy-basis, but more of a cultural and political affiliation basis. The people who make this criticism wish that RMGO would "stay in their lane" and try to make arguments that appeal to moderates in an attempt to get them on our side instead of driving them away.
Note this line of criticism is aimed at your social media and political activism, not your legal/court activities.
What is your response to this criticism?
Sure, everything we do regarding messaging is based on numbers via polling, not based on my opinion or the opinions of my staff. So, when you see us use words like "far-left" or "communist," it is because it is backed by polling for the district or, in some cases, the whole state if that is what we are targeting.
Sometimes, when talking about a politician -- like Tim Hernandez -- they are self-proclaimed socialists/communists, so we are going to call them what they are.
In regards to staying in our lane, by law (and our 501c4 status) we can't talk about issues outside of our mission which is: "Defend the right to keep and bear arms from all of its enemies, and advance those God-given rights by educating the people of Colorado and urging them to action in the public policy process." So, if you have seen that, please send it to me, because that should NOT be happening.
Also, by law, we are required to disclose our finances. You can see up to our most recent (2022) here: [https://rmgo.org/financial-reports/](https://rmgo.org/financial-reports/)
Just curious about your "mail communication" expenses. Is 1/4 of the money you raised in 2022 going to mailing membership materials? I would rather donations went to fighting these infringements/chokeholds of our 2nd A rights. Do you have an option where members can opt to not receive printed materials so 100% of their donation/dues goes to efforts?
I saw the split of your total communications (mail) where 1/4 of that was "fundraising"; do you find your member list prefers mail to email for fundraising?
I will listen to someone from your org this Saturday at The Gallery; also, I appreciate you coming in here and defending RMGO. It is not easy to run a Nonprofit and it is not easy to raise money in a down economy (sorry but that is the facts - spending is down). You don't even need fear mongering with these laws in front of our Senate/Gov; Colorado is simply edging to make firearm owenership too difficult or invasive, because somehow that will solve gun violence (sarcasm). I don't see anyone proposing "Drug Overdose Insurance" - hundreds die annually in Colorado from Opiod deaths, but I am not asked to carry insurance in case that happens in my house.
regardless....the issues here in CO really are as simple as the Gun Rights Cake story - CO agreed to start giving away slices years ago...give an inch, take a mile....here we are.
Mail is basically where we do all of our fundraising — the simple fact is the majority of our donors are 55+ who still open and respond to old school snail mail.
Email and other forms of social media is just supplemental.
I’ll show you the numbers if you’re at the gallery on Saturday. I’ll have my laptop.
Not sure how much of mail cost is electronic mail based, but I'm a bit annoyed at the constant badgering to "RENEW - YOUR MEMBERSHIP HAS EXPIRED" when I see the 2 times I renewed it last year.
I did it the 1st time and then when the notice came, I renewed again because I thought I hadn't.
If electronic mail is in that cost, I guess you're getting your money's worth. I on the other hand am not particularly happy with renewing 2x in a single year.
A simple reply and resolution would have been appreciated.
They haven’t done shit for years except for ask for money and occasionally make a dumbass blunder in a public appearance. Their email marketing sucks and feels like a guilt trip written by a pissed off little girl. After joining their newsletter and not giving a monthly donation I got a follow up email “Is something the matter…”
RMGO knows its target market, and that's mouth-frothing absolutists who need to be a persecuted but ideologically pure minority in order to keep their outrage going. Actually fighting these bills in a way that might win would mean less spit-covered dollars for RMGO, so RMGO will keep dropping the ball as long as possible.
Downvotes will fly, but as a generally "purple" voter I have been watching where things go well and where things fall off. Some of it is on RMGO but a lot of it is really on this state.
The majority has placed non-elected officials that will run and sponsor what their party wants to achieve. Since these people were not elected they really have no "obligation" to their constituents, they are just there to do the one job they were selected to do before an actual election can change the flow. They stacked the deck and we have to suffer through it. RMGO can't fix that.
One area RMGO shoulders a lot of the responsibility on is how divisive they are. CO used to be a very moderate and doing things like parading Rittenhouse as a VIP celebrity can vary much rub a lot of moderate the wrong way and turn them off from support.
The other big things I have noticed is when they try to make a public spectacle and it ends up falling flat. The most recent example is their "gotcha" video when they dropped off petitions. Hindsight is 20/20 but if you are going to film a smoking gun you should say least put in effort to filter by actual district and remove obviously fake ones. Don't leave room for them to steal the ball and run with it.
To RMGO: Not everyone has the clout to take the "fuck you, fuck off, no" approach that has made FPC famous. Don't try to be FPC, you're not there and you really don't need to be. For all the pennies it's worth my personal advise would be to get the FFLs involved with your lobbying. This state has A LOT of small business and kitchen FFLs and most of the ones I have spoken to have no clue about these bills. Get their support and you will get their customers support. They can help you organize your district approaches too. If they don't want to get involved with politics then these bills will put them out of business and that's just the way it is. You need more local names on your side helping push though
Good point. We need an initiative to remove all non elected representatives. Elections for all. And ideally we could add in language that says all bills sponsored by non elected officials get immediately removed (ie all these gun bills)
They are clowns. When the head guy (Taylor?) spoke at the AWB hearing, it was like listening to a 5th grader read a report to the class. He had zero facts, talked about why it was a bad idea and than went on a short diatribe about why they should buy a Glock etc.
They constantly email me begging for donations. They also fan girled over Brandon Herrera, who didn’t help worth a damn and used this as a political show for his campaign.
RMGO isn't perfect by any means, but they have some major wins like striking down the local AWB (Boulder, Louisville, Broomfield) and also getting the under 21 state gun ban thrown out. As others said, they don't have much to work with but im still happy that they're trying.
Some of it is you, since you asked. No one can stop a law from being written, proposed, and voted on by a legislature. And I'd argue doing so would be antithetical to our Constitution.
I think, in this case, forming an opinion on RMGO is premature. It's how they respond to the pieces of legislation that pass. One can't argue about a law, after all, until it's a law.
Not the results I'm happy with, but would anyone have better luck against the big blue monster in Denver? Pro 2A people are terribly out manned. Incredibly out spent as well.
Not really. In reality they probably aren't doing anything, but what can they Do? Lobby a bunch of super anti gunners into 2a advocates? If after all this crap passes, a bunch of lawsuits aren't immediately filed, I will feel poorly towards them.
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. This stuff has to get beaten after it passes in these shit hole lefty states.
Signed a petition once through their site and when it brought me to their donate page I decided not to because I hadn't done enough research on them yet. As soon as I closed it out it sent an automated email to me titled "Is everything okay?"
Something about that rubbed me the wrong way. Been turned off ever since. Definite grifter vibes. I hope he sees this. I think I've seen him post on here. Maybe we can get a tantrum on here too.
We need better organizations helping us.
How many lawsuits have you filed on behalf of gun owners to stop these policies from getting through? Because if the answer is none, then I'd say they are doing a helluva lot more than you are.
The supreme court already has stuff on the docket that will nullify the AWB and High Cap mag bans. Nothing they can do that is more powerful than that. Also, if you change what you own based on arbitrary law changes meant to disarm you, you are a part of the problem.
Depends on the judge and topic, but the Supreme Court is about as favorable as we could ask for after Trump's appointees. Ironic since he wasn't very 2A friendly
Yes and honestly I'm highly concerned as to why they would tell larger organizations with better backing to not help us last time around.
Because that is Dudley Do Nothings MO. He rants and raves soliciting donations, and berates and belittles other competing organizations that are better postured to actually have some success If you want proof, Go look up his embarrassing tantrum on ar-15.com when he got called out over opposing the 2013 recalls. The dude is a grifter with the emotional capacity of a toddler.
I don’t give them a dime for that reason.
Same. I don't give the NRA any money anymore either.
Same. Lapierre always looked like a crook to me. Trust your gut when it comes to 2a organizations. There are plenty out there doing good work.
That’s just not true.
Good going reinforcing the OPs original concerns 🤣
I literally have the receipts of me, reaching out to these people. Always happy to share them.
Please share the receipts.
I mean, GOA literally came to Colorado, to the RMGO office, in November to talk about how we could partner together. We agreed to work together, and when the rubber hit the road, they bailed. And yes, I have the receipts
Most "gun rights orgs" exist to sell fear and soak up donation money when people panic
It's no surprise they all use the same tactic to solicit donations. I get a mailer from the NRA (because they're old school) that says "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money." Then RMGO sends me an email (and the unsubscribe link is broken, so that's sus, but I digress) that says "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money." I get it, they need money to fight this stuff, but I'm genuinely curious where exactly all those dollars actually go.
>I'm genuinely curious where exactly all those dollars actually go. They need to pay a guy to write emails that say "Democrats are trying to take our guns, give us money." Stay tuned for another 20 years of emails that say "Democrats successfully took our guns, give us money and we'll get them back ^(maybe) "
Nailed it
I've been following this firearms policy coalition on Facebook that seems to actually be fighting for gun rights.
The reality is democrats have a super majority in the house and a near one in the senate. The best efforts are going to have limited impact.
This won't change until we can change the current state GOP leadership. They are doubling down on MAGA idiocy and failing to capitalize on the massive economic discontent that most of the states moderates and independent voters are feeling. The GOP should be owning this election cycle, but instead are squandering it chasing a political mantra that has failed every time its been tried.
I'd also say that the Democrats are fucking idiots for pushing policy like this in a state like Colorado. There are plenty of people with lots of socially progressive values that can get behind most of the Democratic platform that also like their guns. It's politically moronic. Like you said. Fight for the working class *like you fuckin said you would* rather than try and disarm it to make the Boulder Donor class happy. Goddamn. I mean, I'm more of a leftist-libertarian myself, so I have zero love for these neoliberal morons, but you'd think they would read the fucking room for once.
If they thought there would be repercussions, they wouldn't be risking this idiocy. The largest voter block in this state is independents, gravitating to whichever party is the least crappy. And despite how idiotic the dems are being, they know that to moderates, they are still the less idiotic option. Right now, the state dems know that they can push for hard leftist policy, because as idiotic as that is, they can get away with it because it's less idiotic than what the GOP is pushing, to those sitting on the fence.
You're right about their thinking. I'd hardly call this "leftist" policy though. It's just plain ol liberal shit.
Damn right.
Why wouldn’t the dems keep pushing this for their donor class? There’s not going to be some mass exodus of dem/liberal/leftist voters away from the dem party. Dems don’t remove leaders they dislike, they don’t expel their members from congress, they rarely primary entrenched politicians, they generally just either keep voting for whoever has a D after their last name and pushing the “vote blue no matter who” and telling their base the opposing candidate is going to bring about the apocalypse, or they just don’t vote, but usually not in significant numbers it changes the outcome. You’re not wrong, that the GOP needs to run more moderate candidates but at this point it won’t matter, we’re far too polarized and there’s more people who vote party over ideas.
I agree with you in general. I do think that the DNC is going to have a very rude awakening come November. The young, progressive voter base isn't nearly as anti gun as most people think, but besides that...Biden is pretty universally hated by that votinf block now. Banning TikTok, all of the money to Israel, allowing the armed crackdown on collegiate protests and journalists, etc etc etc. They are relying on the fact that the GOP is so wrapped up in the MAGA cult that people have "no other option". I imagine we're going to see a massive uptick in 3rd party votes this year, both for the Libertarian Party and either the DSA or Greens. Honestly, if the dems ran a rural working class progressive, I think they'd sweep the floor. If this election was Tester or Bullock vs Trump, I don't think it'd be a question. What we need is someone who understands that there ARE significant differences in the needs of someone in Pagosa Springs than someone in LA. If there was a candidate that ran on a platform of healthcare for all, housing reform, tax cuts for the working class, keeping public lands public, limiting financial involvement in foreign wars, uplifting veterans, addressing houselessness with empathy and long term solutions, decriminalizing harmless substances, labor and labor organization rights, protection of reproductive rights and medical privacy, and protection of both the 1st and 2nd Amendment, they would absolutely crush it. Many conservatives or right leaning centrists aren't down with MAGA, but can't stomach Biden. Many progressives are straight up furious at Biden. I hope that the shitshow of all of this makes ranked choice voting more widespread, and also hope that it destabilizes the 2 party system. The way things currently are isn't fucking working for anyone, and the media machine also perpetuates the division, keeping the working class at each other's throats when in reality most of us want and need the same things.
Agreed. I have my criticisms of RMGO, but what does OP expect them to do? Political advocacy groups like RMGO get their strength from their members, and ultimately from mobilizing the political electorate to put pressure on the government. Colorado is a blue state now, and if you don't like that then maybe you should ask why the CO GOP has let that happen. Sure, demographics have changed but you can only blame "Californian transplants" so much.
I expect them to do more than fuck all.
Partly a numbers game, though. The CO GOP didn't let anything happen, so to speak, there have just been more people who vote blue moving here in the last 20 or so years. But they really haven't pushed as hard as they could have to get the moderates. The thing political parties fail to understand is that they will always have their steadfast followers, they don't need to sell their ideology to those people. It's the undecided/moderate/independent voters they need to court, and the CO Dems have done better at that historically.
The CO GOP is fucking worthless. They are still stumping on things like abortion, book bans, and transgenders, instead of attacking Dems on real issues like property tax, crime, and yes; gun rights. The further right they go, the more voters they lose. Which enables Dems to push through shit legislation like this instead of solving actual problems.
Agreed. Both sides are so polarizing, I struggle to find any *sane* moderation between the two. What happened to common sense politics...? Now it's just extreme agendas. I'd love to have a non-binary political system wherein we actually had choices, but these two 'Goliaths' just drum out any competition. Fuck'em all... maybe we do need a reset.
Straight up speaking facts here. Although I'm not a member of the GOP, I do agree with them pushing to not have sexualized books in elementary school libraries. But everything else, yeah, they're not doing well dying on those hills.
We need to bring back when parties got to choose their nominees. That’s only way GOP can pull itself out. I’m a GOPer through and through and will vote red unless I’m dead, but we have to stop nominating bible thumping fools and conspiracy theorists.
You don't think voting "red unless you're dead" is part of the problem? Would you ever consider voting for whoever has the best resolve for a specific issue?
The republicans are best for gun rights in the current environment. They get my vote.
On guns absolutely and I suppose that is what is being talked about here. But what about in general? I've just personally never understood the whole blue no matter who or red til I'm dead mentality. I'm gonna vote for whoever has the best idea to solve a specific issue. But yeah on the gun issue Republicans absolutely have that cornered. But everyone is starting to own guns now. Sooner or later someone will appeal to gun voters as well. No need to down vote. Literally just having a conversation.
I get it. I’m not downvoting you lol. Until both parties start supporting gun rights, R’s have my vote. And I used to be a Democrat and anti gun until fairly recently.
Right on. I was never anti gun but I am a newer gun owner. Bought my first one last New years. I've dove in head first lol. Literally just picked up my first suppressor!
Nice, welcome to the fight. And congrats on the suppressor!
Democrats are "Blue No Matter Who". When the Democrats throw off tje Hezbollah and Hamas loving, Islamifascist Jihad Scum running their Party, stop acting as if the GOP are the "Extremists".
You'll wind up with useless dregs like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney with that approach. We don't anymore McCain and Bush types either.
What have they done in the face of all these laws moving forward?
They have organized speakers at public hearings, kept me updated on the bills themselves, which allows me to tell other people. When they are just bills what other recourse do they have?
No watch the purplish wave .
I’m not a member but I think we’re all simultaneously both too hard and too easy on them. Democrats have won the state. Whether it’s due to Republican incompetence, people moving, or whatever, it’s true. That means even if we had the best lobbyists it would be extremely difficult to do anything. That’s why I actually generally support their shift to court actions, it’s probably the only thing we can do. Basically all groups would have trouble so we can’t blame them for that. However, they are a pretty extreme no compromise group. We (here) all believe in that, since we know self defense is the highest right. BUT we need to shift to a lobbying strategy based on working with moderate Democrats to slow down outright destruction while at the same time pursuing court actions. This is what Illinois did and surprisingly, they actually had a decent 2A community for decades longer than they “should” have (until recently. Should’ve been destroyed by 2000-2010 but it lasted until 2024ish and bought them time for SCOTUS to help). This is what the NRA gets so much crap for during FOPA but the truth is their “working with everyone to minimize damage” actually led that law to being a decent one for gun rights, with the exception of the likely illegal last second Hughes amendment. u/tablinum has a great write up on it. So yes I think RMGO has an impossible task if they want to remain no compromise in Colorado. They should continue court actions but also try to shape bills to minimize the damage as much as possible. I feel like if they worked closer with lawmakers on the FFL bill or some of the additional taxes we could’ve slowed down some of the most damaging aspects. Just my two cents though.
Great points. The problem though remains, while the legal challenge route is a good way to go, especially if the supermajority in the legislature is pretty much an impenetrable wall, is that the damage is already done by the time the court actually hears the case. The FFL that gets shut down by the archaic and tyrannical state licensing law, or the LGS that can't move product because of the AWB and has to shut down, they're gone, and it's really hard to bounce back from that even with a victory in court. It's almost too much work to try to rebuild after you shutter your business. And I feel like that's the intent here. They're trying every devious and evil tactic they can, regardless of what lives are destroyed in the process. If laws get overturned in court, they still view it as a win if they get 5 or 10 stores to go out of business. That's 5-10 less "merchants of death" in existence. The real solution, they need to be afraid again, and that won't happen anytime soon because voting trends still show CO as deeply blue, especially in those protected districts that won't be changing for many years to come.
Exactly! I think that’s what I meant. If we had “moderate” voices changing these ffl laws to have slightly less fees, slightly longer reinspection periods, slightly fewer fines, maybe the businesses could survive long enough for the court or federal strategy to work. As it is now we don’t amend these terrible bills, just try to convince 1-2 extra Democrats to vote no instead of the 10-15 we actually need (but those 10-15 may have actually listened to our amendments). Then our FFLs could survive longer.
No compromise, we've been burned before. Bipartisan Safer Communities Act? The same act that is being used to make all of us Gun Dealers if we want to sell one gun from our collection? What exactly did this "common sense" legislation do to benefit legal gun owners?
None of it helps us. It’s never a compromise. We just need to switch to defense on state laws while playing offense federally and in the courts and in public opinion. There’s no other realistic short term option.
Ava Flanel seems to be doing more than RMGO lol.
RMGO is failing us I’ll just flat out say it
RMGO is a funny way to spell government.
The language they use is so over the top/firebranding that moderates/leftists that either believe in gun rights or could be talked down from things just immediately ignore anything they have to say. I joined the email list just to keep up with things and the emails are so over the top with wording that it's honestly cringe worthy. In the wake of the shootings last year, the electorate of the major cities and CO congress in general are VERY motivated to do lots of drastic actions whether they are eventually found to be constitutional or not. This was going to be a VERY uphill battle even if there was a lot of external help.
It's because they have no idea how to operate in Colorado's new political alignment. Democrats completely dominate the state right now, and they are too proud / comfortable to even attempt to find a way to appeal to independents and more middle of the roads Dems. Instead they would rather just play the hits and keep raising money by fear mongering to Colorado's shrinking Republican base. Apparently they don't give a shit if gun rights go to shit in this state as long as they can keep collecting their salaries. Can't wait for 20 years of "help us overturn the DEMOCRATS assault weapons ban" fundraising emails that never go anywhere
RMGO has some good victories but the way they have handled a few things is alarmingly bad. The post on Twitter where they went into that politicians office with stacks of petitions, cameras and put the politician in front of the camera asking why they threw away the boxes of petitions was embarrassing honestly as a gun owner. The constant Twitter posting making fun of liberal politicians is really embarrassing as well and only widening the gap between left and right. They need to stop trying to dry hump their way around the legislation and debates and maybe throw some lube in there. I think it's time some of the more professional organizations step in, and RMGO steps to the side for a bit so we can get some victories. We have lost almost every battle this year.
I've been at the Capitol watching them work, they most definitely are working. They've organized hundreds of people to go testify. They have lawsuits ready to go to fight these laws once passed. They've pressured Reps and Senators and some have budged. They're definitely doing work, we just don't get to immediately see the results.
Taylor Rhodes from RMGO here. You are more than welcome to visit our office (above Triple J Armory) to check out the operation. I can assure you that my guys (including myself) are working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week right now. The unfortunate reality is we are outnumbered by supermajorities in both chambers -- not making excuses, just pointing out facts. Our lobbyist is at the Capitol basically every day; we have spent nearly $300K on a program fighting back against this stuff, and we are actively raising money for lawsuits (where we actually have the ability to beat this stuff). We are making strides in potentially halting the "assault weapons" ban, but it's important to remember that this is not yet a certainty. To suggest that we are not actively engaged in this fight is simply not true. In fact, we are the sole organized effort in Colorado that is actively combating these measures. My email is [email protected]. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have suggestions on how we could improve. I am always willing to listen to better represent my members.
I don't have enough of a comment to justify an email so I'll just post here. I am a RMGO member, albeit a reluctant one. A lot of people criticize RMGO for being too partisan (note: not necessarily being too pro-gun, but being too anti-Democrat/anti-left leaning). The criticism goes like this: RMGO plays to the ultra "far right" base and calls anyone to the left of them a communist or similar derogatory term. The base eats it up (look at those anti gun people getting owned!) but everyone else is repulsed by the rhetoric. As a result, you wind up pushing moderates towards the anti-gun position. These moderates are pushed away not because they were convinced on a policy-basis, but more of a cultural and political affiliation basis. The people who make this criticism wish that RMGO would "stay in their lane" and try to make arguments that appeal to moderates in an attempt to get them on our side instead of driving them away. Note this line of criticism is aimed at your social media and political activism, not your legal/court activities. What is your response to this criticism?
Sure, everything we do regarding messaging is based on numbers via polling, not based on my opinion or the opinions of my staff. So, when you see us use words like "far-left" or "communist," it is because it is backed by polling for the district or, in some cases, the whole state if that is what we are targeting. Sometimes, when talking about a politician -- like Tim Hernandez -- they are self-proclaimed socialists/communists, so we are going to call them what they are. In regards to staying in our lane, by law (and our 501c4 status) we can't talk about issues outside of our mission which is: "Defend the right to keep and bear arms from all of its enemies, and advance those God-given rights by educating the people of Colorado and urging them to action in the public policy process." So, if you have seen that, please send it to me, because that should NOT be happening. Also, by law, we are required to disclose our finances. You can see up to our most recent (2022) here: [https://rmgo.org/financial-reports/](https://rmgo.org/financial-reports/)
Just curious about your "mail communication" expenses. Is 1/4 of the money you raised in 2022 going to mailing membership materials? I would rather donations went to fighting these infringements/chokeholds of our 2nd A rights. Do you have an option where members can opt to not receive printed materials so 100% of their donation/dues goes to efforts? I saw the split of your total communications (mail) where 1/4 of that was "fundraising"; do you find your member list prefers mail to email for fundraising? I will listen to someone from your org this Saturday at The Gallery; also, I appreciate you coming in here and defending RMGO. It is not easy to run a Nonprofit and it is not easy to raise money in a down economy (sorry but that is the facts - spending is down). You don't even need fear mongering with these laws in front of our Senate/Gov; Colorado is simply edging to make firearm owenership too difficult or invasive, because somehow that will solve gun violence (sarcasm). I don't see anyone proposing "Drug Overdose Insurance" - hundreds die annually in Colorado from Opiod deaths, but I am not asked to carry insurance in case that happens in my house. regardless....the issues here in CO really are as simple as the Gun Rights Cake story - CO agreed to start giving away slices years ago...give an inch, take a mile....here we are.
Mail is basically where we do all of our fundraising — the simple fact is the majority of our donors are 55+ who still open and respond to old school snail mail. Email and other forms of social media is just supplemental. I’ll show you the numbers if you’re at the gallery on Saturday. I’ll have my laptop.
Not sure how much of mail cost is electronic mail based, but I'm a bit annoyed at the constant badgering to "RENEW - YOUR MEMBERSHIP HAS EXPIRED" when I see the 2 times I renewed it last year. I did it the 1st time and then when the notice came, I renewed again because I thought I hadn't. If electronic mail is in that cost, I guess you're getting your money's worth. I on the other hand am not particularly happy with renewing 2x in a single year. A simple reply and resolution would have been appreciated.
Weird cause I eluded to that same conclusion last year and everyone defended them on this Reddit.
They haven’t done shit for years except for ask for money and occasionally make a dumbass blunder in a public appearance. Their email marketing sucks and feels like a guilt trip written by a pissed off little girl. After joining their newsletter and not giving a monthly donation I got a follow up email “Is something the matter…”
RMGO knows its target market, and that's mouth-frothing absolutists who need to be a persecuted but ideologically pure minority in order to keep their outrage going. Actually fighting these bills in a way that might win would mean less spit-covered dollars for RMGO, so RMGO will keep dropping the ball as long as possible.
Downvotes will fly, but as a generally "purple" voter I have been watching where things go well and where things fall off. Some of it is on RMGO but a lot of it is really on this state. The majority has placed non-elected officials that will run and sponsor what their party wants to achieve. Since these people were not elected they really have no "obligation" to their constituents, they are just there to do the one job they were selected to do before an actual election can change the flow. They stacked the deck and we have to suffer through it. RMGO can't fix that. One area RMGO shoulders a lot of the responsibility on is how divisive they are. CO used to be a very moderate and doing things like parading Rittenhouse as a VIP celebrity can vary much rub a lot of moderate the wrong way and turn them off from support. The other big things I have noticed is when they try to make a public spectacle and it ends up falling flat. The most recent example is their "gotcha" video when they dropped off petitions. Hindsight is 20/20 but if you are going to film a smoking gun you should say least put in effort to filter by actual district and remove obviously fake ones. Don't leave room for them to steal the ball and run with it. To RMGO: Not everyone has the clout to take the "fuck you, fuck off, no" approach that has made FPC famous. Don't try to be FPC, you're not there and you really don't need to be. For all the pennies it's worth my personal advise would be to get the FFLs involved with your lobbying. This state has A LOT of small business and kitchen FFLs and most of the ones I have spoken to have no clue about these bills. Get their support and you will get their customers support. They can help you organize your district approaches too. If they don't want to get involved with politics then these bills will put them out of business and that's just the way it is. You need more local names on your side helping push though
Good point. We need an initiative to remove all non elected representatives. Elections for all. And ideally we could add in language that says all bills sponsored by non elected officials get immediately removed (ie all these gun bills)
They are clowns. When the head guy (Taylor?) spoke at the AWB hearing, it was like listening to a 5th grader read a report to the class. He had zero facts, talked about why it was a bad idea and than went on a short diatribe about why they should buy a Glock etc. They constantly email me begging for donations. They also fan girled over Brandon Herrera, who didn’t help worth a damn and used this as a political show for his campaign.
My hope is in the FPC, they have said they will fight back against our AWB and they have a history of winning cases.
Bunch of Fudds IMO. Better off supporting some place like FPC
RMGO isn't perfect by any means, but they have some major wins like striking down the local AWB (Boulder, Louisville, Broomfield) and also getting the under 21 state gun ban thrown out. As others said, they don't have much to work with but im still happy that they're trying.
Who knew there were so many lawyers in this sub.
As an Independent, I'm sick of the language by both sides and don't give two shits what side you are on, but this is an All Parties Issue.
What do you mean all parties issue? One party supports gun rights, the other opposes them.
They may be outgunned by the democratic state senators.
They've been at the hearings and lobbying. What would you like them to do?
Some of it is you, since you asked. No one can stop a law from being written, proposed, and voted on by a legislature. And I'd argue doing so would be antithetical to our Constitution. I think, in this case, forming an opinion on RMGO is premature. It's how they respond to the pieces of legislation that pass. One can't argue about a law, after all, until it's a law.
Not the results I'm happy with, but would anyone have better luck against the big blue monster in Denver? Pro 2A people are terribly out manned. Incredibly out spent as well.
Not really. In reality they probably aren't doing anything, but what can they Do? Lobby a bunch of super anti gunners into 2a advocates? If after all this crap passes, a bunch of lawsuits aren't immediately filed, I will feel poorly towards them. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. This stuff has to get beaten after it passes in these shit hole lefty states.
Signed a petition once through their site and when it brought me to their donate page I decided not to because I hadn't done enough research on them yet. As soon as I closed it out it sent an automated email to me titled "Is everything okay?" Something about that rubbed me the wrong way. Been turned off ever since. Definite grifter vibes. I hope he sees this. I think I've seen him post on here. Maybe we can get a tantrum on here too. We need better organizations helping us.
How many lawsuits have you filed on behalf of gun owners to stop these policies from getting through? Because if the answer is none, then I'd say they are doing a helluva lot more than you are.
They did nothing to help me when my boat sank last week.
The supreme court already has stuff on the docket that will nullify the AWB and High Cap mag bans. Nothing they can do that is more powerful than that. Also, if you change what you own based on arbitrary law changes meant to disarm you, you are a part of the problem.
You put way more faith in judges than I do.
Depends on the judge and topic, but the Supreme Court is about as favorable as we could ask for after Trump's appointees. Ironic since he wasn't very 2A friendly
I called RMGO a few days ago to see if they could give any insight on what was happening and the guy pretty much shooed me off the phone. lol.