Congress is back in session and the Wyoming State legislature will resume very shortly. That’s why our team has been working around the clock to finalize our battle plans for the upcoming year — and the budget we need to be effective.
I have to tell you, in all of my years fighting for the Second Amendment in Cheyenne and in Congress, I have never seen our gun rights in a more precarious situation.
The good news is that grassroots gun owners have stood tall and fought for freedom in 2021 in ways that we haven’t seen since the early days of the Obama Administration.
And so, while Nancy Pelosi has passed two gun control bills through the House, neither of them have advanced in the Senate as Schumer simply can’t get the 60 votes he needs to proceed.
The bad news is that after Democratic candidates were crushed in the recent Virginia and New Jersey elections, Biden’s handlers know there is a real chance they will lose control of Congress in November, so they are going ‘all in’ on gun control!
And while Senate Republicans in D.C. have blocked the gun control bills that Pelosi has sent over from the House so far, if we have a mass shooting any time in 2022, we will almost certainly see ten to twelve RINOs betray us immediately.
But we also have a major fight shaping up here in Cheyenne over the Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA), as two of Joe Biden’s Executive Orders attacking gun owners are set to take effect in just a few months!
And when you add in the critical midterm elections that are already shaping up in addition to our ongoing federal lawsuit against the State of Wyoming, it’s obvious that 2022 is going to be a BIG YEAR for Wyoming Gun Owners!
That’s why I am writing you today.
I have to make some difficult choices on where Wyoming Gun Owners will be focusing our time and money in 2022. And since this has always been a member-driven organization, I am asking for your advice on how you want us to proceed.
That’s why I have prepared your 2022 Wyoming Gun Owners Member Ballot, to hear from you, firsthand. Please complete your ballot right away!
The truth is that without a quick infusion of funds from WYGO members, we may have to sit out some of these fights.
Right now, we simply don’t have the budget to keep the heat on Liz Cheney and our Senators, fight for SAPA in Cheyenne, expose gun grabbers during the mid-terms and sustain the ongoing expenses of our federal lawsuit against the State of Wyoming.
At the same time, the thought of having to ignore ANY of these fights makes me sick, as they are all important.
One thing is clear, the first of Joe Biden’s Executive Orders attacking our gun rights is set to take effect very soon. In fact, they may be in place by February!
The first of these orders would make CRIMINALS out of Wyomingites who have a pistol brace, a very common accessory that makes it easier for gun owners to control their firearms.
Biden’s other Executive Order would make it a FELONY to possess an unregistered 80% lower-styled firearm. These homemade firearms are very popular and allow gun owners to build guns in their own homes without needing to get serial numbers for them.
The idea that Wyomingites should go to prison for owning either of these items is absurd. But the idea that Joe Biden is trying to make Wyoming cops enforce these orders is enraging.
That’s why Wyoming Gun Owners is leading the fight for the Second Amendment Preservation Act (aka SAPA) in Cheyenne.
SAPA law requires Wyoming cops to enforce Wyoming laws when it comes to firearms, ammunition, and accessories. In other words, our cops would be forbidden from enforcing federal laws, treaties, or Executive Orders that deal with our gun rights.
The reality that the federal government doesn’t want to acknowledge is that they depend — almost entirely — on state and local agencies to enforce federal laws and regulations.
So if the State of Wyoming asserts its sovereignty and tells Biden that we will not let our cops enforce his gun control agenda — whether it’s new laws or Executive Orders — they will go largely unenforced here in Wyoming!
And if a liberal mayor or police chief in Wyoming orders their police department to violate SAPA law and enforce federal gun control laws anyway, this legislation would allow guns owners to take that department into civil court on their own.
This isn’t just a theory. SAPA is already on the books and defending gun owners in Missouri after their legislature passed it last session. Sure, Biden’s Department of InJustice tried to overturn the law in court — but they were soundly rejected!
That’s because the Supreme Court has always upheld the states’ right to refuse to enforce federal laws they disagree with and do what’s in the best interest of their own citizens. The Missouri ruling was just the latest affirmation of this.
And while the Left foams at the mouth at the mere mention of SAPA, never forget that this is exactly what they did when President Trump tried to deport violent illegal aliens out of our country. They refused to comply. Now it’s our turn.
Passing SAPA is going to be a fight, of course. Moderates in the State Senate killed it last year. But this is an election year, so it’s time to crank up the heat and demand action.
sometime early in 2022, we expect that two of Joe Biden’s tyrannical Executive Orders attacking our gun rights will take effect.
But at the same time, Wyoming Gun Owners needs to finish the federal lawsuit that we have brought against Secretary of State Ed Buchanan and State Attorney General Bridget Hill.
As you may remember, WYGO members spoke loudly during the 2020 primary elections, throwing over half a dozen powerful incumbents out of office for pushing dangerous FIX-NICS mental health gun control.
And in an act of pure political vengeance, Buchanan and Hill demanded to know the names and addresses of WYGO members citing the state’s new campaign finance law.
Rather than surrender the identities of a single one of our members, the Board of Wyoming Gun Owners paid a ridiculous fine of $500 to make this ‘investigation’ go away.
But we had no intention of simply conceding this fight.
The fact of the matter is that until Wyoming’s overly broad Campaign Finance Law is struck down in court, Buchanan and Hill will just come back and attack WYGO again — preventing us from exposing anti-gun politicians in 2022.
That’s why WYGO and the Institute for Free Speech have sued Buchanan, Hill, and the State of Wyoming in federal court!
If the judge in this case agrees with us, then this law will be struck down and the legislature will have to draft a campaign finance law that aligns with the Supreme Court case law on this topic –- while leaving WYGO free to expose anti-gun legislators at election time!
But if the judge rules against us, then WYGO will either have to surrender our donor names or suspend our programs that hold politicians accountable every two years at election time.
Thankfully, in his preliminary rulings, the judge has agreed with WYGO’s position that the law is not valid. And WYGO anticipates having this case argued in federal court in Casper sometime in February.
But even with help from the Institute for Free Speech, this entire situation has been expensive. And we’ll certainly be incurring more expenses before this case is done.
But we’re also going to be facing one hell of a fight in Washington, D.C. this year, too.
As I said earlier, the leftist machine that is running Joe Biden in D.C. knows that they are likely going to lose control of the House, Senate or both when ‘We the People’ head to the polls next year. So they are going ‘all in’ on gun control.
And while there are plenty of bills that Biden and Pelosi would like to pass, there are two bills at the absolute top of their list because of the devastating harm they would do.
First is H.R. 8, the ‘Universal Background Check’ legislation that has already passed the House and that would require gun owners to obtain government permission each time they try to buy a firearm.
The real reason why Biden and Pelosi want to pass H.R. 8 is to give the federal government a list of every gun owner in America, while making felons out of Americans who don’t comply.
Second is H.R. 2377, the massive ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ bill that would enact New York-style gun confiscation laws across the country, empowering liberal judges to disarm Americans who have never set foot in court, let alone been convicted of a crime.
What makes both of these bills so dangerous (besides the harm they would do to our gun rights) is the fact that a growing number of Republicans are already supporting BOTH OF THEM!
When Nancy Pelosi passed H.R. 8 out of the House, a dozen Republicans joined her in voting for this garbage. And over the last two years, Republican Senators like Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Lindsay Graham, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and others have come out in support of a national registry of gun owners!
And while Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge for ‘Red Flag’ laws in the House, in the Senate, Republican Marco Rubio is the LEAD SPONSOR on ‘Red Flag’ legislation and over a half-dozen other Republicans have already come out in support of the idea.
So while we have held the line against these bills in the Senate so far, you can bet that these RINO traitors will be lining up to betray us if we have a mass shooting incident anywhere in America this year.
But it’s also crucial that Wyoming Gun Owners is in a position to hammer on the records of gun-grabbers during the 2022 primary and general elections, assuming that Wyoming’s current campaign finance laws are struck down.
Wyoming Gun Owners’ efforts to expose the records of the politicians who want to disarm us have become the stuff of legend over the years. Dozens of powerful incumbents have been thrown out of office over the years, by gun owners who learned the truth about how these politicians had voted in Cheyenne.
Just last election cycle, our educational efforts led to gun owners rejecting Senator Mike Von Flatern (a sixteen-year incumbent) who had been the lead sponsor of FIX-NICS in 2020.
Gun owners also booted out Representatives Bill Pownall, Dan Kirkbride, David Northrup and many others for supporting FIX-NICS and deadly mandatory waiting periods for gun owners!
But this year, in addition to our work in state-level legislative races, Wyoming Gun Owners needs to be able to expose Liz Cheney’s record on guns, so that gun owners have the facts regarding our Congressional primary, too!
Our election-timed programs involve a combination of radio and TV ads, digital and social media advertising, uncensorable direct mail, and a massive email program. It’s brutally effective, but it is not cheap.
The alternative is to do what most other gun groups do: sit on the sidelines and whine while anti-gun Republicans hide the truth about their records from gun owners in their districts.
I’m sure you can see why I’m so torn. Each of these fights deserves our full attention. But I have to be realistic. And right now, I just can’t engage in all four of these fights.
That’s why I’m counting on you to please fill out your Wyoming 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 #5: “FIGHT EVERYWHERE! PUSH FOR SAPA, WIN THE FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST THE STATE, DEFEAT BIDEN’S GUN CONTROL AND EXPOSE GUN-GRABBERS IN THE FALL! DO IT ALL!
To be clear, if you select Option 5, I need you to dig deep and include the most generous donation that you possibly can to help WYGO put this plan into action.
We simply can’t afford to run these programs simultaneously without it. In fact, without considerable help from gun owners like you, running even TWO of these programs at the scale they would need to be run will be very tough.
But everything is on the line in 2022.
And if we just sit back and hope for the best, we are very likely going to see sweeping gun control pass into law in D.C. and have nothing standing in between gun owners and the Executive Orders that Biden’s handlers are implementing.
But if we stand together, we can secure our freedoms here in Wyoming, shut down the biggest attack that gun owners have ever seen coming out of D.C. and then SEND A MESSAGE during the primary and general elections!
I know that’s a lot. But you’ve seen the incredible impact your donations have had in the past. And with everything we’re facing this year, we are counting on you more than ever!
Whatever you do, please act fast as the legislature (and Congress) is reconvening in just days! I need to hear from you RIGHT AWAY!
For Wyoming,
Aaron Dorr
Policy Advisor
Wyoming Gun Owners
P.S. The 2022 legislative session begins very soon here in Cheyenne and has already reconvened in Washington D.C., which means I have to make some very difficult decisions about where to focus our resources this year.
We need to fight for SAPA to defang Biden’s Executive Orders. But we also need to pay for the federal lawsuit that we’ve filed against the State of Wyoming. At the same time, the threat of federal gun control is heating up, and the critical 2022 elections are right around the corner!
I need to know what YOU want Wyoming Gun Owners to focus on in 2022. So please complete your Member Ballot right away.