Marylanders For the Preservation of Firearms Attack Dwyer

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Harry Tuttle

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Dear Friend of the Gun Community,

It is unfortunate, but there are some in the gun community (Jim Purtilo of TripWire) who are working to bring me down. By that I mean that he and his organization are working hard to cause me to loose my seat in the House of Delegates.

For years he has fought with and attacked Del. Amedori, Del Smiegel and me over gun legislation. He has gone so far as to file a FOIA lawsuit against me and to have me served with a summons while I was standing in the rotunda of the State House and smiled at me while doing so. (In the end, the court ruled against Prutilo).

Now Mr. Purtilo and Marylanders For the Preservation of Firearms have launched an all out assault on me by mailing the two attached post cards in my legislative district. (AACO 31). In the last mailing, they indicate that there is more to come. So he won’t be letting up any time soon.

Likewise, I am on very shaky ground with the NRA. During the 2002 election cycle, I campaigned loudly on the Right to Carry and the Second Amendment in general. My signs and printed materials even spelled out my views, but in the end, the NRA could not find its way clear to endorse me. I won anyhow! Since being elected, I have championed the rights of gun owners and law-abiding citizens.

Over the past several years, I have sponsored Maryland’s Right to Carry legislation against the will of Mr. Purtilo and the NRA. That’s right. On multiple occasions, Mr. Purtilo and Jen Palmer of the NRA have come to me and requested that I withdraw my RTC legislation. Every time I refuse reminding them that I campaigned on gun issues.

After becoming very frustrated and confused about the position of the NRA, I contacted NRA headquarters in April by letter and requested that they give me their position on Maryland’s RTC legislation. They indicated in writing that because of the makeup of the current Maryland legislature, it could be detrimental to put the RTC bill on the floor and for that reason; they DO NOT Support the RTC in Maryland at this time. Is it any surprise that the NRA does not support my campaign financially?

DEL. DWYER NEEDS YOUR HELP

With all of this said, I need your help! I have a great reputation for the most part throughout my district. However, Mr. Purtilo’s last mailer caused some to question my commitment to public service. I need your help to offset their doubt.

Here is how you can help.

First of all, forward this e-mail to every gun supporter you know as well as every conservative who knows of my commitment to conservative values.
Join me and hopefully many supporters, as we blanket my district with hand delivered post cards and campaign brochures. We will do this on Saturday Sept. 9th beginning at 9am and running until 4pm. Then we will gather at a local park for a cookout and fellowship.
If you are available- join us on Tuesday Sept 12th to work the polls wearing my t-shirts and handing out my material.
If you live in AACO consider joining my sign waving efforts.

If you are able to help, I really need it. Please consider helping me. I have supported the gun communities agenda even against the desires of Mr. Purtilo and the NRA.

Constitutionally yours,
Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr.
410-419-3870

p.s. Please let me know ASAP if you will help us.
 
There is a link over at arfcom where I posted a reprint of Dr. Phil Lee's analysis of Purtilo's action. Phil knows his stuff and has been working the MD RKBA scene for a long time.

http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=29&t=239454

It has a lot of links that are integral to his document and it took a while to get them all formatted so I don't want to reproduce it here as well. If someone doesn't want to go to arfcom but wants the original document, please PM me and I will email it to you.
 
Well I don't want to call him king jim or say he's gone over the edge because I know it offends some THR members, but I guess I've gone and done it. More power to Don, Carmen and the other legislators in MD that have been trashed by purtillo. If only we had more like them. I would love to hear/read some rational explanation. I used to subscribe to Tripwire and never read anything there that made sense on his persecutions. (Many other articles were great.)

At times we are our own worst enemy. If we were fighting a losing battle kj is doing his best to see we are defeated.

I suppose the NRA must choose it's battles and I agree that CCW in MD is unfortunately probably a losing one, but a little support for Dwyer wouldn't hurt IMHO. Perhaps they're supporting purtillo for some unknown reason. Have the Brady's worked out that mind control thing?
 
The problem is, nobody holds Jim accountable for his actions OR what he spends gun owners' money on. He prints a lot of information in Tripwire, but I haven't seen any substantial action/results from him ever, regardless of his claims of secret deals, and things that us "political outsiders" could never know......

But hey....people sure do like the odds on winning that fancy AR in every raffle he holds......and they'll keep buying raffle tickets regardless of what the money gets used for.


It will ABSOLUTELY SUCK for us if somebody like say....Craig Reynolds wins the one of the House seats in D-31...Here's a quote from a recent email exchange I had with him:

"Mr. Dembowski:

As a child, I grew up on a farm in Princess Anne, Md. and was an avid hunter. However, I am not inclined to support an expansion of the current laws on concealed weapons permits. I need to educate myself concerning ballistic fingerprinting(I will do so). I have friends that use the semi-automatic AR-15 for hunting but I am opposed to any fully automatic "assault" weapons.
Thank you for your interest!
Craig Reynolds

<[email protected]> wrote:
HI there,

Your website is extremely vague under the Public Safety header regarding firearms. Please explain in detail your position on concealed weapons permits, ballistic fingerprinting and military style firearms or "assault weapons."

Thanks in advance for your reply

Spot77
Brooklyn Park"


You'll notice that my initial email to him was rather unclear as to which side of the debate I fall on, and he rather cleverly tried to play both sides of the fence. Which is obviously NOT somebody we want in office. He'll bow to the pressure of the Monkey County Leftists in a heartbeat.



Support Don Dwyer. It's the RIGHT THING TO DO. He's done right by us.
 
Over the past several years, I have sponsored Maryland’s Right to Carry legislation against the will of Mr. Purtilo and the NRA. That’s right. On multiple occasions, Mr. Purtilo and Jen Palmer of the NRA have come to me and requested that I withdraw my RTC legislation.


That is the only part of the first post I needed to read.
 
I don't live in Maryland.

I reside in Georgia. The NRA is almost invisible here so far as making things better with respect to the bearing of arms.

My comment was more directed at the NRA than Mr. Dwyer.
 
How's the LOCAL Georgia organization? How are Georgia's gun laws? Horrible? Okay/could be better? No waiting period and shall issue?

NRA is a national organization that has to pick its battles to maintain its overall clout and resources and will go to the worst spots that have a strong local organization and are moving forward on their own but need assistance to get over the final hurdle.

It's nanny statism in reverse, this wishing the nat'l NRA would swoop in and solve all our local gun problems for us.

They are more properly focused on National level fights. It's us down in the trenches who need to be fighting our city, county and state battles, with occasional air drops of resources, support and press by Uncle Sugar NRA. If you can't sway enough of your legislators to come close to a win, don't expect a full-court press from on high. Get it down to one or two to shift the balance and that's when the NRA's dollars and such are worth expending.
 
It's us down in the trenches who need to be fighting our city, county and state battles, with occasional air drops of resources, support and press by Uncle Sugar NRA
Click to expand...

Which is exactly what we've been trying to do here in MD. The folks going to Annapolis and testifying before committees, knocking on legislators doors and helping craft legislation are for the most part going as individuals.

The issue for many of us is that, after we've done all of this the NRA and their mouthpipes swoop in and actively work AGAINST us. They say that the grassroots activists are upsetting the apple cart and ruining their plans for MD. We ask, "What's the plan?" and the silence is deafening.

In the case of Purtilo, it is all about control. He wants to be in charge and will use the resources available to him to defame any individuals, organizations, or legislators who dare to not follow in lockstep with him.

Don Dwyer made the mistake of listening to the citizens of his district and the, on a larger scale, the state of MD by introducing pro-RKBA legislation against Purtilo's wishes.
 
Oh, I wasn't talking about Maryland. You appear from reports (got family there) to have an uphill fight and an active local group fighting it. I have no patience for spoilers like this Purtilo seems to be, especially when they get the local NRA to influence national their way.

I was (too aggressively) trying to point out that the NRA can't be everywhere and a state that already has decent gun laws and shall issue isn't high on the list.

It's like AZ or AK calling for more NRA efforts. We're on the beach or at least in knee-deep water already, they need to be out in the breakers with the struggling swimmers.
 
carebear,

I had the gist of what you were saying and took no offense.

I agree that the NRA needs to be working strategically, if you will, while the grassroots efforts are more narrowly focused on issues within state borders.

The frustration for us here is that we are cultivating grassroots activists and proactively working with legislators but the NRA and folks like Purtilo are attacking those that are helping us. :confused:
 
That's just strange. What in the bill did they not like?

Was there something that might be tough to get rid of later or was it just "I didn't write it"?
 
To be fair, from what I've seen, Purtillo's stated reasons for not supporting CCW have been that (1) the Antis in the legislature would attach an AWB to a CCW bill and (2) MSI would go along with it in order to get CCW.

That being said, I agree with Norton's sentiment. I haven't seen Purtillo offer any evidence to support #1 above, and #2 is just plain slanderous. I'm on the MSI email list and have never seen anything that would make me think that the leaders or members of the group would go along with an AWB if it meant CCW would also pass.
 
(1) the Antis in the legislature would attach an AWB to a CCW bill
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It's a nice balancing act we have going on right now.

The awb can't get enough steam because a CCW bill will get attatched to THAT.:neener:
 
That being said, I agree with Norton's sentiment. I haven't seen Purtillo offer any evidence to support #1 above, and #2 is just plain slanderous. I'm on the MSI email list and have never seen anything that would make me think that the leaders or members of the group would go along with an AWB if it meant CCW would also pass.
Click to expand...

It's nice to see that you came to that conclusion as well :D

The truth is that Spot77 has it sort of right.....we've reached this point of mutually assured destruction where the introduction of an AWB will have CCW attached to it and vice-versa. It's obvious that we don't want an AWB, but the real question is whether the antis can swallow the bitter pill of CCW in order to get their pet legislation pushed through.

Don Dwyer is not a politician.....he doesn't make his decisions based on whether it will necessarily get him re-elected. He makes them on the decision of what he thinks is right. Unusual in an elected official, but a welcome change.
 
The NRA and the "bad" states

You folks in Maryland have my complete understanding and sympathy.

I was a volunteer for a ballot initiative to reform California's gun laws. We got ZERO support from the NRA. Not a dime. You can get anything on the ballot here for 2 million dollars. The companies that contract to canvass for signatures will guarantee that your initiative will get on the ballot. If it doesn't, they'll refund your fee. Not quite what Hiram Johnson had in mind, but that's another topic. They wouldn't pony up.

It's my cynical belief that the NRA would be much happier keeping states like CA and MD as "fear sticks" to beat contributions out of folks in other states (with much better gun laws) that they would fighting and winning for our rights in those states. They know where their bread is buttered, and we do them a lot of good as "bad examples."

Sorry, but that's how I see it.

--Shannon
 
It's my cynical belief that the NRA would be much happier keeping states like CA and MD as "fear sticks" to beat contributions out of folks in other states (with much better gun laws) that they would fighting and winning for our rights in those states.
Click to expand...

I can see your point, but I think that example would be better applied to places like MA or NJ. MD is a winnable state. With the exception of 3 or 4 jurisdictions that control the majority of the voting power, MD is actually a pretty normal place. Without consistent and focused effort, however, I don't think a lot will change.

To keep this thread focused on Harry's intent in posting it, I would like to re-state that I think Dwyer's continuing in office would be a step in the right direction for the RKBA movement in this state.
 
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