Opinion by Paul Valone
North Carolina – -(Ammoland.com)- Sadly, in American gun rights politics, phony gun groups and lying politicians have become the norm, and North Carolina is no exception. Please allow me to tell two cautionary tales that North Carolina gun rights supporters need to hear.
Phony Gun Groups…
You may have gotten fundraising mail or email from an entity calling itself the “North Carolina Firearms Coalition” (NCFC) which purports to be headquartered in Raleigh. In truth, the UPS Store in the photograph you see is their “office.”
In July, NCFC did predatory fundraising by claiming credit for GRNC’s legislative accomplishments. Now they are reportedly sending surveys to North Carolina candidates – who should be aware that beyond claiming credit for the work of others, this type of charlatan often rakes in money by beating on pro-gun legislators for supposedly not being pro-gun enough.
NCFC was created by Patrick Parsons of Georgia (not North Carolina), where his “Georgia Gun Owners” also reportedly developed a somewhat unsavory reputation, including having as its place of business a UPS Store. (Are you seeing a pattern yet?)
Parsons originally hailed from the “National Association for Gun Rights” (NAGR), which itself developed a reputation for being far more interested in money than gun rights. In fact, NAGR became so notorious that there is even a Facebook page entitled, “The Truth About the National Association for Gun Rights.”
As gun rights supporters gradually discovered the truth about NAGR, the resulting flight of donors reportedly caused it to downsize, with laid-off employees trained in NAGR’s predatory fundraising returning to their states to bilk gun owners in an exercise reminiscent of when Jimmy Carter decimated the CIA, forcing spooks to earn a living by fomenting revolution in South America.
Today I called the phone number for NCFC, and guess who I got: Chris Dorr of the infamous Dorr brothers. So notorious are the Dorr brothers, in fact, that they even warrant a website entitled www.dorrbrotherscams.com, featuring links to quite a list of their exploits. (And we won’t even talk about leftist articles “outing” the Dorrs in The Daily Beast and The Trace.)
It seems that Parsons is now working for another one of the Dorr brothers’ schemes, this one calling itself the “American Firearms Association” and that, in turn, the Dorrs are apparently running NCFC.
Oh, and I should mention that Chris Dorr, who answered a Raleigh phone number, reportedly lives in Pennsylvania. His brother Aaron reportedly lives in New York. Given that Parsons hails from Georgia, I have yet to speak to anyone at the “North Carolina” Firearms Coalition who actually lives in North Carolina.
…and Lying Politicians
Speaking of charlatans, it seems that Pat McCrory is sending fundraising mail claiming that Congressman Ted Budd is a “business partner” of none other than the evil George Soros, which McCrory knows full well is a lie.
Carolina Journal debunked this claim back in October. In truth, Soros invested in a company that itself invested in a company owned by Ted Budd’s father – a company in which Budd was not even an officer, but only a shareholder.
Even more, interestingly, the claim was originally made by a shadowy super PAC calling itself the “Carolina Senate Fund” (which actually hails from Virginia), actually two rich power brokers: James “Art” Pope of Variety Wholesalers and Doug Lebda, CEO of Lending Tree, who have so far jointly contributed $350,000 to the effort. Its thirteen (yes, thirteen) donors read like a “Who’s Who” list of R.I.N.O.s.
The plot thickens when you learn that Art Pope has ties to Pat McCrory, specifically that Pope was a co-chair on North Carolina Governor-Elect Pat McCrory’s transition team and served as the state budget director in the McCrory administration.
Super PACs are prohibited by law from coordinating with the candidate who benefits from their expenditures. So does the fact that McCrory is now making the same fallacious claim as Pope suggest that they might be illegally coordinating their hit pieces against Budd? It certainly warrants investigation.
And since McCrory seems to think being a shareholder in a corporation makes you the “business partner” of every investor in the corporation, GRNC calls upon McCrory to release a list of corporations in which he owns stock in order that we may examine who his “business partners” maybe.
And since we are talking about Pat McCrory, gun rights supporters should understand that we are still saddled with our Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit system because of McCrory.
You see, when McCrory was governor, Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC) managed to get an omnibus gun bill through the General Assembly, HB 937, which contained a purchase permit repeal … at least until McCrory threatened to veto the bill if it contained the repeal. After that, then-Speaker Thom Tillis had the purchase permit repeal stripped out in committee and the remainder passed only under considerable pressure from GRNC.
Rather than donating to phony gun groups and lying politicians, may I suggest you donate to the GRNC Political Victory Fund? GRNC is our federally registered political action committee and is the instrument by which we “throw the bums out” and elect pro-Second Amendment candidates.
And unlike the charlatans of phony gun groups, I don’t earn a dime for my work on behalf of gun rights. Grass Roots North Carolina is an all-volunteer organization. We might not put out slick, high-dollar websites, but I guarantee we will put your money to more efficient, effective use in defending your rights than any other group.
Armatissimi e liberissimi,
Opinion by Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North CarolinaExecutive Director, Rights Watch International
Radio host, Guns, Politics and Freedom
Paid for by Grass Roots North Carolina Political Victory Fund. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Vist: GRNC Political Victory Fund.
lies, deception and obfuscation is how the left operates. they are incapable of telling the truth, if they did tell the truth no one, well, very few would vote for them. they cannot operate in the arena of ideas, facts or logic.
Reminds me of someone else who operates that way. Oh, what’s his name? The deviI.
Excellent investigation.
100%, great reporting!
The Dorrs also run American Firearms Coalition/Association.
Edit: Woops, reread & see you covered that too. Awesome wall-to-wall!
Sounds a lot like the NRA.
Indeed.
NRA has long since fallen victim to the ubiquitous rot of the Potomac belt. Anything within 100 miles of the Washington Monument is rotted with corruption. NRA has long since fallen victim to that as has our entire federal government.
It is most likely the fact that Whiny LaTrine was a Demorat staffer. NRA didn’t just go to hell in a handbasket alone. Yeah, NRA was NEVER about protecting gun rights, but WLP was the one who turned it into his own personal grift at every gunowner’s expense!
In the world of the Progressive New Left there ain’t no flag like a false flag. Whether is be literally a false flag like the current Rainbow Jihad flag or a false flag like a supportive, touchy-feely name for an evil post office drop the Progressive New Left and its many greasy fingers of subversion will fly under any colors other than their true colors. And why is this, you may ask? Simple answer. The premises of the Progressive New Left, neo-Marxist, racist and eugenicist are so offensive to the Judeo-Christian heritage of our people that they cannot possibly speak… Read more »
What’s even worse is real gun groups like OK2A that work with politicians to restrict gun rights
Up or down? House committee approves bill on safe gun carrying (koco.com)
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I’ve often thought that maybe some pro gun folks should set up an anti gun group and funnel the money to the pro gun side of the aisle.
Well you could honestly say you were working for “common sense gun reform”. What the anti-civil rights crowd is pushing is anything but common sense. “Shall not be infringed” certainly sounds sensible to me.
Shall not be infringed sounds sensible to anyone with a bit of reason, logic and common sense. THEY don’t have any of those at their disposal.
My only gripe about this article is I wish it had come out about six months ago, before I made a couple of donations to Georgia Gun Owners. These could have gone to more deserving organizations. Even NRA-PVF or NRA-ILA would have been better. I’m not a nonprofit attorney, but I understand the PVF and ILA have to disclose their contributions and expenditures, and they are auditable, thus donations to them aren’t likely to buy LaPierre yet another pair of Italian shoes. The NPR podcasts were quite interesting and informative. They also seemed fair and balanced. As far as “No… Read more »
Got another bumming missive from Georgia Gun Owners today. Sure enough, the return address is a UPS Store in Kennesaw. In to the bin it went. No more for these grifters!
PVF & ILA have salaries, benefits and “expense” accounts, just like NRA.
“Rather than phony gun groups & lying politicians, may I suggest you donate to GRNC Political Victory Fund?”
Done
Shame Ammoland for republishing this crap. These groups and people listed ALL have done more for the second amendment and for freedom in 15 years the the rolls who posted this. If it weren’t for these groups taking hides in election season and holding squish republicans accountable in the legislative season Constitutional Carry would not be a thing in 25 states… Noticably absent from that list: North Carolina. GRNC should welcome the help because clearly they haven’t gotten the job done yet.
#Morons
I’ll thank Ammoland for alerting us to the well-documented shenanigans of these groups that raise money and do little else. All-volunteer groups are the way to go… Thank you GRNC, the true citizen statesmen!
You’re holding up Pat McCrory as a champion of liberty?
Since you have the unfortunate tendency to spew invective instead of advancing a cogent argument, that means that if you are incorrect in one aspect of your asseveration you are wrong in the rest.
How about you prove the dreck you post with links.