Gun Owners of America E-Mail/FAX Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408

http://www.gunowners.org

Colorado — January 4, 2000

Dear friends,

Thank you for your work. Many of you have contacted Doug Dean
regarding the GUN CONTROL 2000 proposals (that’s our name for their
gun control proposals) being pushed in Colorado.

Unfortunately, after being rebuked by gun owners for his anti-gun
actions, Doug Dean now denies he has done anything wrong and he even
attacks gun owners for questioning him.

Doug Dean should have come clean.

Instead, Doug Dean is acting like a typical politician by making
excuses, hiding his record, and attacking gun owners.

My original e-mail is accurate.

To help you understand more, please find attached a letter from our
ally, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, to Rep. Dean. I think you will
find it useful.

Please keep letting me know what Dean is saying.

Also, please send the attached e-mail to Doug Dean and ask him to
stop making excuses and attacking the pro-gun messengers and to
stand up to Governor “Gun Control” Owens both in public and in the
back-rooms of the Capital.

Thanks again. I’ll keep you posted.

Yours in the Second Amendment,
LARRY PRATT

***************************************************

Rep. Doug Dean
State Capitol
200 East Colfax
Denver, Colorado 80203

January 4, 2000

Rep. Dean,

We hear from people that you continue to cover up the things you
have said and done to harm our Second Amendment rights.

As you know, actions speak louder than words.

Let me briefly review just a few of the facts that you are hiding
from your constituents and the citizens of Colorado.

As you know, Mr. Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America recently sent
a letter to gun rights supporters in Colorado to let them know their
rights are in jeopardy.

First, know that Mr. Pratt is our country’s strongest supporter of
the Second Amendment. Rather than fattening their bank account
(like many bureaucrats in the institutional gun lobbies) Mr. Pratt
has been a tireless advocate for our rights, and, more importantly,
against any compromise of those rights.

In your response to Mr. Pratt you state that you oppose background
checks at gun shows, but just this summer you sent a letter to the
Colorado State Shooting Association already conceding that they
would pass and that you wanted “it done our [Republicans] way.”
Much like the disaster in 1994 that gave us the Brady Instant
Registration check (which is now registering gun owners by the
thousands), you suggest that we fashion the chains that will bind
us.

Rather than fight the registration of private sales at gun shows,
you are presenting a false dilemma. To borrow a friend’s analogy
“At what speed would you rather drive off the cliff, 60 mph or 90
mph?” Gun Owners do not want any of it to pass, and don’t want
their elected officials to support any of it. Anyone with
fingerprints on a bill like this is responsible for it passing, and
gun owners deserve to know who is behind this appeasement tactic.

You state that you oppose safe storage laws (what we think are more
accurately called Lock-Up-Your-Safety laws), yet at a news
conference in November you asked Rep. Rob Fairbank to carry this
very bill. It started out being a bill addressing firearms, it has
evolved into storage of “weapons,” and now, per our phone
conversation, storage of anything. Regardless of semantics, this
bill would greatly affect how firearms owners protect themselves.
For fear of being strung up before a kangaroo court populated by
anti-gun jurists, gun owners would need to lock up their safety by
storing the firearms they depend on for the protection of themselves
and their families.

Though you do not use the name “safe storage” in the title of this
bill, Gov. Owens referred to the bill as “safe storage” on KOA radio
on January 3rd. This bill exists only because you asked a lawmaker
to carry it, and it is a huge step backwards for Colorado gun
owners.

Concealed carry is another issue that has concerned Colorado gun
owners, but when Gov. Bill “Gun Control” Owens told lawmakers that
he didn’t want to see a CCW bill after the Columbine incident, you
killed your own bill.

You even admit in your response to Mr. Pratt that “The only reason
[No Safety Zones] was added to my concealed carry bill was because
the Governor said he would veto it if I didn’t.”

Apparently, when it is all said and done, Gov. Owens has the final
say when it comes to your principles.

In 1994, 1996 and 1998, you signed a pledge with Gun Owners of
America to support a Vermont law (copy enclosed, in case you
forgot), yet in 1998 you voted against it. Last year, you opposed
SB156 (the best concealed carry bill ever offered in Colorado) and
made sure it did not make it through the House, stating that you
knew the Governor wouldn’t sign it. It has become clear, in light
of Gov. Owens’ harsh left-hand turn, that you were protecting the
wrong interests. Rather than play political games, it would have
made more sense to get behind the concealed carry bill in front of
you and stand on principle.

In summary, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners’ message (and I’m sure Gun
Owners of America’s) is very simple: NO GUN CONTROL. Anything even
remotely resembling anti-gun legislation will be viewed in the worst
possible light, and those responsible held accountable.

We are not interested in cutting any backroom deals to make gun
control more palatable, nor to find ways to appease the liberal
press with gun control dressed up in another costume.

You may be able to redeem yourself in gun owners’ eyes by
apologizing for failing to support a more lenient concealed carry
bill and for cutting backroom deals on our gun rights, and publicly
oppose every Governor Owens gun control proposal.

When you wish to discuss ways to kill all of the gun control bills
being proposed by both Democrats and Republicans, feel free to
contact us.

For Freedom,
DUDLEY BROWN
Executive Director

*** CLIP-N-SEND *** CLIP-N-SEND *** CLIP-N-SEND ***

The Honorable Doug Dean
E-MAIL: [email protected] and [email protected]
PHONE: 303-866-2648
State Capitol
200 East Colfax Avenue
Denver, CO 80203

Dear Representative Dean:

STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND ATTACKING THE MESSENGER.

First, you attack my 2nd Amendment rights.

Now, you attack pro-gun leaders when they call you on the carpet.

Your first duty is to uphold your oath to protect the Constitution–
so please, NO GUN CONTROL IN 2000.

To get to the point, I respectfully ask you to stop cutting
back-room gun control “deals,” keep your pledge to push pro-gun
bills and renounce your GUN CONTROL 2000 measures such as:

* Any LOCK UP YOUR SAFETY bill that would make my gun virtually
useless.
* Expanding BRADY REGISTRATION TO PRIVATE SALES at “gun shows.”
* Letting local Bureaucrats commit gun control.
* Taking away 2nd Amendment Rights from 18-21 year olds– who are
old enough to vote, serve in the military and die for our country.

Please write me and tell me what you will do.

SIGNED: _____________________________________________

NAME: _____________________________________________

ADDRESS: _____________________________________________

CITY/ST/ZIP: _____________________________________________

A GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA SUPPORTER