MN Gun Owners Caucus

[JJ]

https://www.facebook.com/jared.j.hinton/posts/10207152679634662

Attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights seem to be never ending.

Out of state interests have chosen Minnesota as a battleground state, and mean to use us to advance their mission. National Second Amendment organizations are focused on DC leaving a vacuum in education, advocacy, and alliances of private citizens.

All politics are local, and we need to have a vigilant network of grassroots support.

That’s why I joined the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus in December – and it’s why I volunteer my time as well.

The Caucus has proven itself to be a well-run association of savvy and responsive activists, who are not afraid to tackle the tough battles, while taking the high road.

Building relationships and connecting well intentioned gun owners and their allies in business and politics is key to defense and restoration of our 2nd Amendment rights.

Defense of our freedoms requires someone standing watch; the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus stands ready.

I hope you’ll join us today at http://gunowners.mn/join.

See you on the range,
Jared J
Annual Member

JOIN: http://gunowners.mn/join
VOLUNTEER: http://gunowners.mn/volunteer

Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus

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[JJ]

I’ve received quite a few inquiries about the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus is, and how we differ from other pro-gun organizations here in MN. I would just like to highlight who we are, some of the items that we are working on, and how out three organizations are all intertwined. I am a member of the advisory team.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus is a Minnesota non-profit, recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) social advocacy organization, dedicated to the full restoration of our firearms freedoms in Minnesota. Here’s the Caucus’s mission statement from our website at http://gunowners.mn.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus is a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to the full restoration of our firearms freedoms in Minnesota.

ADVOCACY

We aggressively advance and defend our firearms freedoms in Minnesota through grassroots advocacy at all levels in Minnesota, from local government to Saint Paul.

EDUCATION

We work to improve gun safety across Minnesota through seminars, conferences, educational materials, and a statewide gun safety campaign.

ELECTIONS

Through our connected political fund, the Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee, we work to elect and support Pro-Second Amendment candidates across the state.

LEGISLATION

We work to restore our freedoms, step by step, through strong pro-gun legislation, while blocking anti-gun legislation that threatens our liberties.

LEGAL ACTION

We work to identify areas where government entities and agencies are violating the constitutional rights of Minnesota’s law-abiding gun owners and work to defend and expand those rights, including litigation if needed.

MEMBER ORIENTED

We are a member oriented organization. We exist to advance the interests of our members through advocacy, education, elections, legislation, and legal action. We regularly engage our members through frequent communication, events throughout the state, and an open door for feedback and diverse points of view.

The Caucus is a membership based organization with a membership program at multiple tiers.
*Learn more about the membership program here: http://gunowners.mn/join
*Learn more about discounts and other benefits available to members here: http://www.gunowners.mn/membership_benefits

Let me highlight a couple products and results to give you an idea of what the Caucus has done:
*We publish a weekly podcast called the Minnesota Gun Report — learn more here: http://www.gunowners.mn/podcast
*We’re engaged in the use of public records to expose gun controllers – this is a newer effort and we’ve much more to report in the near future, but learn more here: http://www.gunowners.mn/exposing_the_gun_controllers
*We take legal action against government entities that infringe on your 2nd Amendment Rights. Earlier this year, we took on Ramsey County over a ban on firearms at polling places (and won). We’ll be announcing new efforts shortly, learn more here: http://www.gunowners.mn/legal_action
*We grade candidates running for state and county office, learn more here: http://www.gunowners.mn/elections
*We publish an in-depth legislative scorecard with commentary on the last legislative session and complete voting records on 2A issues for all legislators (we use these details for grading). See the 2015 edition here (the 2016 edition will be out soon): http://www.gunowners.mn/legislative_scorecard
*We work on Pro-2A legislation and stopping anti-gun legislation in Saint Paul: http://www.gunowners.mn/legislation

Now that session is over, we’ll be focused on training activists for the November elections, launching a gun safety education program to counter the same from the anti-gun groups, holding candidate forums across the state, and getting out the vote for Pro-2A candidates… and we’ll have some fun news on the legal action front.

As a non-profit, the Caucus’s financials, tax filings, are completely public. No one at the Caucus draws any sort of salary or contractor payment.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee, or MNGOPAC, is a “connected political fund” under Minnesota law, i.e. a political action committee that is connected to a supporting organization. In this case, MNGOPAC is connected to the MN Gun Owners Caucus. The Caucus provides all administrative support to the PAC, including the same board of directors, etc.

The PAC does what the Caucus cannot under Minnesota Law. The PAC can endorse candidates, it can say “don’t vote for X”, it can give money to candidates as a PAC donation, more importantly it can spend money independently (similar to a SuperPAC) to influence a race.

The PAC issues endorsements of candidates and then spends money in targeted races. In 2014, we donated in about 12 races, but we spend heavily in four. Of course, we won 3 of the 4, which is a pretty good record.

When we’re involved in a race, we run radio, online, and print ads, purchase billboards (digital and print), send target direct mail, phone bank to get out the vote and conduct voter id, doorknock, and lit drop.

Here are some example ads:
*2015, tell Dayton to Sign the Bill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWi1NT1gegI
*2014: “Trust”, in support of Mary Franson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NghHLVmvCB0
*2014: “Minnesota Values”, against Shannon Savick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybWi3sbvaQo
*2014: “Gun Control”, against Shannon Savick, for Peggy Bennett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCjwQZsuc5w
*2014: “Enough is Enough” – basic endorsement ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uElXTVVT3tY

In 2016, we expect to be heavily involved in 8-12 races and will donate to even more.

Learn more about the PAC at http://mngopac.org.

There’s also the Minnesota Gun Owners Support Fund, which is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that we recently launched. The support fund is how we’ll fund our educational programs and a few other things that fall under public service/charity work. This fund has the same Board of Directors as the Caucus/PAC, but is a legally separate organization. You can make tax deductible donations at http://gunowners.mn/support_fund_donation

Hopefully this helps explain the Caucus & PAC — I wrote more than probably most folks expected, but I thought it was important to lay out some history.

We’ll be holding several events over the summer, come and chat with us and you can get an idea of who we are. We share events on our website at http://gunowners.mn/events or via our FB page at http://facebook.com/gunonwersmn — and you can join our mailing list at http://gunowners.mn

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know!

Thank you
Jared J

Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus

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