Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Peter Boyles Show

Guests:    Brown, Dudley

Link:        https://peterboyles.podbean.com/e/where-will-they-stand-in-2020-aug-7-2019-hr-2/

Date:       August 7, 2019

Topics:     Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, RMGO,

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GUEST HOST, RANDY CORPORON [00:00:00] Even the country music stars — at least one of them yesterday, a woman, I didn’t catch the name, was talking about –.  Who was it, [show producer] Casey?

PRODUCER OF THE PETER BOYLES SHOW, CASEY BLOYER [00:00:04] Kacey Musgraves.

CORPORON [00:00:07] I don’t even know who that is, but –.  “I don’t know what we got to do, but we got to do something!”  That is so often the refrain. And you hear it from Republicans– NRA supported Republicans, Republicans who run on the Second Amendment. “We’ve got to do something!” The something matters, especially when you’re talking about your God-given, constitutionally protected rights, including and primarily the Second Amendment, without which the others become meaningless. Here’s what Senator Cory Gardner had to say. He was up in Aspen earlier in the week, and he was asked about what we [should] do — you know, what are the solutions to mass shootings?  And he said it’s absolutely devastating, what we continue to see.  How did we get into this? How do we end it, stop it, while protecting other people’s rights? “I don’t support gun control.” He said that unequivocally. “I don’t support gun control.” [He] says he’s worked on issues such as school violence, bullying, backing the proposed Eagles Act which would provide more resources to the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Centre. And let’s find out with our guest, Dudley Brown, is that good enough? Where does Cory Gardner stand on these issues?  Have you made an assessment of our senator from Colorado?

BROWN [00:01:25] Well, I have. And the funny part is, the 9news segment that Kyle Clark aired, of course, cherry picked and chopped off a sentence.  And he asked me the other day, what — on Monday — what — Should Cory Gardner get a primary if he supports gun control? I said, “Any politician ought to get a — [any] Republican politician ought to get a primary.”  And then of ourse, his headline was, “Cory Gardner needs a primary if he supports guns con — Red Flag laws.

CORPORON [00:01:58] Of course!

BROWN [00:01:58] I have no indication that Cory would support this.  In fact, when Sheriff Steve Reams — from Weld County — and I went to Washington DC several months ago, we met with Senator Gardner directly.  And both of us know him personally, as well as I know you do and many others. And we sat down with him and asked him where he was on the red flag bill in Congress, and he said, “:No, I oppose it.”  And he listed all the reasons that, frankly, you and I oppose it, Randy.

CORPORON [00:02:27] Excellent, excellent!

BROWN [00:02:32] And Cory is a pretty sharp attorney, there is no question [about it]. And when Cory was in the Colorado legislature, he was very, very strong on Second Amendment issues and voted straight line with RMGO, honestly. Now, do I wish Cory were more of a leader, willing to buck his party? Of course I do!  And that’s just not who Cory is, frankly. And he’s a very adept — and let’s say, graceful –politician. However — and the pressure is certainly on him to cave to what President Trump asked for on Monday. We’re doing our best to make it very difficult for him to do that. And there will be repercussions for those for those who actually do follow the president. And of course, those repercussions are especially [for] Republicans. Now, if we want to go in the — the question you asked, from the text, and I think that quest–. Do you want to reread it[the text message sent in by a listener to the radio show]? Or do you have the sound up?

CORPORON [00:03:43] Well, yeah, I’ll just paraphrase it [the listener text]. You know [paraphrasing from the text:]  “I agree with much of what Dudley says. But the ‘no compromise’ stance on this issue leads to Republican candidates who lose, or in some cases — you know, like Cole Wist — get taken out. And I’d rather have a Republican who wins even if he’s not a no compromiser, because Republican majorities matter.” Go ahead.

BROWN [00:04:07] Yeah. Well, that is a — there are some strategic decisions about majorities. If you look — and back up to the 2014 post-magazine ban, [post-]

universal background checks bills in Colorado, RMGO played the major role in returning Republicans to control of the state Senate — “THE major.”  There was no other state level PAC or super PAC involved in returning them to the majority.  And — however, we back candidates who back our rights.  And so what we do — rather than tell gun owners, “Oh! Hey! [You have] got to vote this way, because this person’s great.” We have to be honest with them, and let the chips fall where they may. Now, politicians know that. It’s why they answer our survey. And frankly, it’s why many weak-kneed Republicans voted against red flag in the state legislature. There are quite a few of them who wanted to vote for it in both the statehouse and state Senate in 2019. But the looming over them was our organization and our members.  And so, you know, to that person who texted that question, let me tell them this: It’s very difficult to go to your sheriff and say, “Hey! Those bandits stole my ranch,” if in fact you’re the one who signed the documents that said, “Yeah, here’s half my ranch.” In other words, you endorsed the people and you helped get into office the people who gave away your rights. It’s very difficult to tell your neighbor, “Hey, you’ve got to stand with Republicans,” when the fact is that Republicans have caved on you. I think there’s a higher burden for people who run for office and say they support the Second Amendment and mouth those words, and even some who who try to specifically — they’ll wriggle out of it when they can, but they begrudgingly say, “Oh, well, no, I don’t support red flag laws,” and then turn around and support red flag laws. Those are people who deserve special attention.

CORPORON [00:06:46] So, let –.

BROWN [00:06:47] You know, I don’t expect a Denver Democrat to go against gun control.

CORPORON [00:06:52] No, of course not!

BROWN [00:06:52] And, — because — Rhonda Fields could never vote against gun control. She would lose within her own party! But you know what? There are an awful lot of Republicans who can.

CORPORON [00:07:00] We’re talking with Dudley Brown from Rocky Mountain Gun Con– Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. And, um, you know, even the New York Times, in their story this morning about how Republicans are getting on board with red flag, admit that the studies don’t really show — [it is] inconclusive [as to] whether red flags laws would impact mass shootings. They do appear to have an impact on reducing suicides. But the idea that this is a fix for what we’re seeing in mass shootings, or [that red flag laws] would stop someone who’s committed to raising mayhem, the jury is way out and just common sense tells you that there’s no way it’s going to have that kind of impact. Let me tell you what’s going on.  Peter is going to join us, here, for a couple of minutes — [he will] check in from Sturgis. So we’re going to go to our break pretty quickly. I would love to keep you on the other side for a few more minutes, because I did find George Brauchler’s list of gun control items. I want to talk about those with you.  And [give me] a real short answer if you can: If Donald Trump signs off, gets presented –. I mean, my goal is to stop the Senate from putting Donald Trump into the position of having to make this choice.  If he signs red flag, would RMGO oppose him in 2020?

BROWN [00:08:22] [pauses] Well, — well, — um, you know, RMGO doesn’t have a federal PAC.

CORPORON [00:08:27] I understand. But, you know what, think about that during the break. Let’s take it now. We’ll pick up with that, and look at George Brauchler’s list of — the response to these mass shootings, after we spend a few minutes with Peter Boyles on the other side. So Dudley Brown stays with us! I hope you will too!

[00:08:44] [commercial break].

CORPORON [00:08:44] […] When we left, I asked you kind of the penultimate question. When we’re talking about no compromise, or Republicans are at risk if they vacillate on this issue, you said before we went to break, you know, you’re not a national PAC, so don’t really have — necessarily — influence on the national elections, I guess.

BROWN [00:09:02] Well, we have a federal PAC. Yeah, we do have a federal PAC with the National Association for Gun Rights.  And we get involved in a lot of fights. You know, I’ll make the the caveat here, just so —  a disclaimer is that I supported Rand Paul when he ran for president. He’s an ally of our organization — a member — and a close personal friend.  And I did some stump speaking for his campaign and  fundraising. And when when his campaign closed down for president, I supported Ted Cruz as the next best. And you [unintelligible].

CORPORON [00:09:43] And we were — we were all delegates in Cleveland — as Cruz delegates, which is what we were elected to be by our constituents in Colorado. But setting all that aside, knowing we’ve only got a couple of minutes –.

BROWN [00:09:59] And I did not support –. Yeah!  I did not support Donald Trump because I predicted — as it pained me — that he was not going to be a conservative on the gun issue.

CORPORON [00:10:10] Yeah.

BROWN [00:10:10] And while some people can say, “Okay, well, I care about this issue, and you–.”  Of course, I have other issues. But you know, obviously, [the] firearms issue is a part of my being, and it is  core, not just in my job, but to who I am. And I did this job before I got paid!

CORPORON [00:10:22] Yeah! No, I get it!  I get it! So this is –.But this is the bottom line, here, Dudley, is, there are more issues than the gun issue, of course. And I know this is the one that you are having the most influence on and are standing on. But in the entire scheme of things, with the country on the verge of socialism with any of these Democrat candidates, push comes to shove, Trump signs off on the red flag bill, is that a death knell for him, as far as support from folks like you and members of RMGO?

BROWN [00:10:53] Well, I will only speak for myself and give you my political prediction.

CORPORON [00:11:02] Okay.

BROWN [00:11:03] My political prediction is that this is a base level issue, a core issue, of people who supported Donald Trump.  And it — if he, if he —  I don’t even know that he needs to sign it. If he keeps banging the gong  for Red Flag laws, I think he has lost the 2020 election.

CORPORON [00:11:21] I do, too!

BROWN [00:11:21] I think it hurts his base, and you can’t win big, tough races with your base staying home. Now, they might not vote against you. I’m not suggesting that. They might not go cast a vote for the Democrat. They might get petered off onto some third party moron. Um, they might –.

CORPORON [00:11:42] But they’re not going to work their asses off to bring voters to the polls, to get people inspired, and to make sure that the Democrat doesn’t stand a chance.   It’s my biggest concern right now. And I’m encouraging everybody — and we’ve got to wrap it [up] — but I’m encouraging everybody to put pressure on the U.S. senators, especially those who are up for re-election in 2020, to never put Trump into the position to have to deal with it.  Because I can see the political strategery of talking about it to get people who, you know, aren’t the hard-wing base liners, to be considering voting for Donald Trump. He’s got to win a national election. But, uh, so I, uh — my pref–.

BROWN [00:12:24] I think it is very bad politics,  and I think it’s a major mistake. And one of the things we’re encouraging people to do is call the White House, and  tell them how upset you are with his  decision. Donald Trump is a populist.

CORPORON [00:12:35] Yeah.

BROWN [00:12:37] If he finds vast majorities of his base are against him —  he’s getting very, very bad advice on that — he might just turn around and do the opposite. He has done that before!

CORPORON [00:12:47]  You bet.

BROWN [00:12:49] And that’s what our hope is!