A few months ago, when a reporter from New Jersey called our office and spoke with me about Chris Christie’s Presidential ambitions, he asked us how we’d deal with Christie’s aggressive attitude and demeanor when we called him out for his anti-gun record.
I laughed on the phone and told him, “If Chris Christie wants to roll into Iowa and get in the gutter and play rough trying to hide from his record, Iowa Gun Owners members will jump right in there with him and go toe-to-toe for as long as it takes.”
I had no idea how true that statement would turn out to be.
A few months ago, we alerted you to the plight on Brian Fletcher, the gun owner from North Carolina who was facing 5-10 years in prison and a massive fine for carrying a gun in New Jersey while aiding in disaster relief.
We urged you to contact Gov. Christie’s campaign via email and Facebook and make it clear to Christie that his treatment of this gun owner would speak legions about his stance on the 2nd Amendment.
Thousands of you posted comments on Christie’s Facebook page and thousands more called his office pouring grassroots gasoline on the ember Christie was trying to stamp out.
Meanwhile, we alerted our allies in sister organizations like Minnesota Gun Rights and Georgia Gun Owners who also got their members in on the fight.
To cap it off, an Iowa Gun Owners’ lifetime member confronted Gov. Christie when he was in Ankeny soon after our emails landed in a scene that made national news.
Christie spent the next day on Fox News trying to extinguish what had now become a raging grassroots fire but it was simply too late, and he announced a week later that he’d be issuing pardons to Fletcher and two others caught in a similar plight.
But we waited to announce this to you until he actually followed through, lest Christie backtrack on his word and hang Fletcher and the others out to dry.
Late last week, the pardons came through as you can read about right here. Note the article specifically mentions pressure Christie received from Iowa gun activists!
I spoke with Brian Fletcher Saturday afternoon.
Let me tell you, he sounds a whole lot more relaxed now than the last time we talked. He had a message that he wanted to convey to the members of Iowa Gun Owners, which we’re including here:
My family and I can’t thank the members of Iowa Gun Owners enough. What those folks did, the firestorm they ignited, made all the difference between me getting pardoned and going to prison for 10 years. I watched the YouTube videos of Christie being confronted, I saw the comments on his (Christie’s) Facebook page – and I couldn’t believe it. Thank you so much!
I don’t know what more to say than what Brian said.
Without your calls, emails, and personal interactions with Christie – Brian would have rotted in prison for 10 years leaving his wife to raise their two girls alone.
You did this. You helped saved this gun owner from the clutches of Chris Christie’s radical war on the 2nd Amendment!
Thank you so much.
We’d also like to thank Minnesota Gun Rights and Georgia Gun Owners, allies of ours in the fight to defend the 2nd Amendment, as their members poured on pressure too.
Politicians like to think that what they say and do can be contained in the state house.
They like to think that what happens in Des Moines, or St. Paul, or Trenton stays there. But those days are long over here in Iowa – as Chris Christie found out when he walked into this pro-gun buzz-saw.
Make no mistake about what’s going on here.
Chris Christie did NOT do this because he wanted to.
He was muscled into doing this by you and thousands of others like you. But he’s only doing this for one reason: he’s desperately hoping that this will prove to you that he’s pro-gun.
Don’t be fooled.
As Governor, Chris Christie has refused to lift a finger to overturn the ban on gun shows, the ban on modern firearms, the law that precludes gun owners from buying more than one gun per month, and a host of other 2nd Amendment issues.
More recently, Chris Christie has been on a relentless campaign to pass even more anti-gun laws in New Jersey including:
>>> Requiring a government ID for every firearm purchase, setting up a state-wide registry of guns and gun owners;
>>> Proposing a ban on .50 rifles, used by hunters nation-wide;
>>> Requiring gun dealers to make their records “open to inspection” for any reason to the state police – already notorious for their harassment of gun owners.
Just last week, a gun owner in New Jersey had his M1 Carbine seized by the authorities in New Jersey, a gun this gun owner’s grandfather carried in WWII, because in New Jersey, it’s considered an assault weapon.
It’s insane. We’ll never know how many victims have fallen prey to Christie’s war on the 2nd Amendment in New Jersey.
And now he wants to be your President.
Keep all this in mind when you see him on the campaign trail in Iowa, folks.
In the meantime, enjoy this victory in helping set Brian Fletcher free!
For Freedom,
Aaron Dorr
Executive Director
P.S. Chris Christie is known for his loud-mouthed style, attacking those who would question him, and running rough shod over all dissent. That, and a decades- long career spent attacking the 2nd Amendment.
But he walked into a pro-gun buzz-saw in Iowa when we alerted you recently about the plight of Brian Fletcher and urged you to call, email and Facebook Christie about his administration’s outrageous treatment of Fletcher who was facing 5-10 years in prison for having a gun in his truck while in New Jersey on disaster relief.
Christie was hammered with thousands of Facebook messages, calls, and emails from gun owners in Iowa. A week later he announced he would be pardoning Fletcher.
Last week, he made good on that promise, and Brian Fletcher is now a free man thanks to you!
Thank you!