Is ‘NC Gun Rights’ a fraud?

Gun Rights Supporters:

    For North Carolina Second Amendment supporters, there is a new game in town. Unfortunately, it seems to be a carnival game and, like most carnival games, is probably an illusion designed to empty your pockets.

    In recent weeks, North Carolinians have been receiving email solicitations from the “North Carolina Gun Rights PAC,” which purports to be advocating for constitutional carry in our state.

    But here is where things start to get dodgy: The Treasurer for the PAC is one “Melodie Johnson” who, to the best of our knowledge, has never shown her face to advocate gun rights at the NC General Assembly, and who does not respond to inquiries about her “organization.”

    Indeed, although the PAC lists a Raleigh post office box, the email “Melodie” lists in PAC disclosure forms is at “rightsidecompliance.com”, an equally nebulous entity which does not list a phone number, but does claim addresses in McLean, VA and Austin, TX.

    And who is behind this supposed new gun rights advocacy group in North Carolina? Given the non-responsiveness of its representatives, we can only hypothesize, but given similarity of graphics and tactics, the likely culprits are some or all of same operators who created the “National Association for Gun Rights” – a group with a reputation for exaggerating threats to rake in money and, when it actually does do something, attacking pro-gun legislators.

    Ironically, the guy who created NAGR and continues to consult for the organization is the same guy who originally trained GRNC in grassroots mobilization back in the 1990s, namely Mike Rothfeld.

    Unfortunately, Mr. Rothfeld and his firm, Saber Communications, along with his hand-picked head of NAGR, Dudley Brown, appear to have gone awry, and are now using predatory fundraising tactics to line their pockets. For a sample of Saber/NAGR’s various scandals, check Slate.com

    Indeed, after NAGR sent a phony fundraiser about Senator R.C. Soles, “the most vociferous anti-gun zealot in North Carolina” (he wasn’t, and had already quit), GRNC warned NAGR that if they persisted in predatory fundraising in NC, we would “out” them.

     And so GRNC and NAGR remained in a standoff until December, when a new entity calling itself “NC Gun Rights” and using the address “gunrightsNC.com” (presumably designed to create confusion with GRNC.org) began screaming for money to pass constitutional carry in North Carolina.

    But there is a tiny, little problem: By all accounts – including the legislators who actually run GRNC’s pro-gun legislation – they haven’t done anything for constitutional carry or, for that matter, anything else.

    Based on the relatively sophisticated graphics, AR-15 monthly giveaways, petitions, hysterical rhetoric, use of cut-outs for PAC treasurers, and expensive swag, the likely puppet master is NAGR.

    GRNC recommends that you do not sign a NAGR petition or register for their “giveaways.” Their M.O. is to collect millions of gun-owner email addresses, which they aggressively dun for money. (By some accounts, NAGR might also sell your email address to other groups.)

    As we head into the legislative season, GRNC also strongly suggests you regard with extreme skepticism any legislative alert coming from this or similar groups which unfairly maligns pro-gun legislators who are fighting for your rights.

    In summary, please understand that Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC, not “NCGR”) is not behind this money-grubbing and that although this charade (and others) might claim to be “North Carolina’s only no-compromise gun rights organization,” in truth that name applies only to GRNC which, since 1994, has brought you:

• Concealed carry;
• Concealed handgun reciprocity;
• Purchase permit bypass;
• Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground;
• Expansion of concealed carry into restaurants, education properties and many other places;
• The death of countless gun control proposals and, coming soon …

Armatissimi e liberissimi,

 
F. Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International