Where do you want us to focus this year?
With the 2023 legislative session underway here in Boise — and an awful lot at stake this year — that is the question that the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance has for you!
On the one hand, we need to win our battle in the State Supreme Court to fix our pre-emption problems. But with the DOJ trying to bribe Idaho into passing ‘Red Flags,’ we need to address that, too.
But our Stand-Your-Ground laws are weak, too. And with Soros-backed prosecutors taking control of more counties all the time, we need to enhance these self-defense laws immediately!
But the hard truth is that there is a limit to how many fights we can address at any one time.
That’s why I need to hear from you, to know where YOU think we should focus our efforts. So please read the full email below, and then cast your official ISAA membership ballot!
Once you’ve cast your ballot, please make a generous donation so that we can fight for you in Boise!
YOUR OFFICIAL ISAA Membership Ballot is Here!
With Biden losing control of the House, the fight for gun rights is headed back where I love fighting for it the most: at the state level, right here in Boise!
The 2023 legislative session is going to start in just a few days, and the ISAA’s team has spent weeks finalizing our legislative agenda for the year, along with the budget we’ll need to flood the Capitol with grassroots pressure.
To be clear, we’ll need to keep a wary eye on Congress this year, as there are more than enough RINOs to pass a gun control bill through the GOP-controlled House.
But with such massive majorities in the House and Senate here in Boise, 2023 will be a rare opportunity to advance critical gun rights legislation!
From fighting in the Supreme Court, to banning the use of federal dollars to enforce ‘Red Flag’ laws, to expanding the protections provided to gun owners through our Stand-Your-Ground law — there’s a lot on the line this year!
The truth is, Idahoans need all of these bills to pass.
But the hard reality is that there’s a limit to how much we can spend on any one particular political fight. So, while I’d love nothing more than to go ‘all in’ on each of the bills I mentioned above, we simply don’t have the resources for that.
That’s why I am writing you today.
We need to decide where to focus the financial resources that you’ve given to us — along with our time — during this upcoming legislative session, and we need to decide quickly.
That’s why I have prepared your 2023 Idaho Second Amendment Alliance Membership Ballot. I hope that you’ll read this update and fill out your ballot IMMEDIATELY!
The 2022 election program that gun owners ran here in Idaho was a massive success! Gun grabbers were destroyed across the state. Raul Labrador won his AG race. Russ Fulcher was sent back to Congress. And we added solidly pro-gun members to the Senate!
But that success came at a cost.
All said and done, the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance spent a small fortune educating gun owners on where the candidates stood on gun rights using digital ads and our huge email and direct mail programs.
To be clear, I wouldn’t change a thing.
But as things stand today, the ISAA has the cash on hand for one major political battle next session. We simply can’t handle three fights in Boise simultaneously.
So I am counting on you to tell us where to focus this session. But before you do, let me explain what these bills do and why we need them so badly, so you have all the facts.
Thanks to gun owners, Joe Biden has lost control of the House, which means the days of him ramming his gun control bills through that chamber at warp speed are officially over.
That’s why Biden is turning to the oldest trick in the book for tyrants in the federal government: bribing the states to get what he wants, using taxpayer money.
Specifically, Biden is offering states like Idaho tens of millions of dollars if they agree to pass a ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ law at the state level!
And this isn’t a vain threat.
Last summer Biden passed a massive gun control bill in Congress that gave him $750 million to use for exactly this reason. And with state legislatures going into session all over America right now, the DOJ is actively offering these bribes!
The damage that a ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ law would inflict on gun owners here in Idaho is almost impossible to quantify.
You see, under ‘Red Flag’ laws, almost anyone can file a complaint with the police alleging that you’re ‘dangerous.’ The ‘evidence’ could be practically anything, and totally bogus.
And when (not if, when) the judge agrees with this complaint, they will immediately order the confiscation of every firearm and every round of ammo that you own. And they’ll send a SWAT TEAM to your door to conduct the seizure!
But notice that nowhere in this process are you required to be charged — let alone convicted — of a crime.
This is what the Radical Left has wanted for a long time: the power to seize firearms from anyone they want through a bureaucratic process, with no need to convict us of a crime or follow the ‘due process’ rights that a court would ensure.
I would like to think that ‘Red Flag’ legislation would be dead on arrival here in Boise. Because of the pressure of ISAA members, we’ve successfully crushed this bill for years.
But you and I both know that our legislative majorities in Boise have more than a few RINOs in them.
And if we have a mass shooting during this legislative session, these RINOs WILL be pushing their caucus to pass ‘Red Flag Gun Seizures’ — especially with Joe Biden flashing tens of millions of dollars in their face!
That’s why we’re having legislation filed that would ban ‘Red Flag’ laws here in Idaho. More than that, our legislation would ban the use of any federal money for the purpose of enforcing gun seizures here in Idaho.
But if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that liberal prosecuting attorneys love going after innocent gun owners who are forced to defend themselves.
We watched this play out in 2020 and 2021 as Mark McCloskey and Kyle Rittenhouse had to defend themselves twice, once from violent thugs and then again from thuggish prosecutors.
This can’t continue.
That’s why the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance is filing legislation to immediately beef up our Stand-Your-Ground law!
While our current laws have removed the need to retreat before taking defensive action, they presume that any time a gun owner defends themselves, they are guilty of a crime — forcing us to prove that our actions were lawful.
That’s backwards.
This is America, where we are supposed to be ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ And in almost two dozen states, that’s exactly what happens to gun owners following a shooting.
States like Florida, Pennsylvania, and even California have upgraded their self-defense laws, granting the presumption of innocence to anyone involved in a shooting until the government proves their guilt in a court of law.
Idaho law needs to do the same thing.
That way a gun owner who clearly used justifiable force can’t have his life upended for 12-24 months just because a liberal prosecutor wants to imprison you for political reasons!
The legislation we’ll be filing will also establish a pre-trial immunity hearing process, allowing gun owners to assert the protections of Stand-Your-Ground law BEFORE trial.
You see, our current Stand-Your-Ground protections don’t take effect until you invoke them on appeal — AFTER your life has been ruined!
This isn’t a hypothetical situation. As I said above, we all watched this play out in real time as Mark McCloskey and Kyle Rittenhouse fought for their freedom, after first defending their lives. We must make sure it doesn’t happen here.
So if you think our top priority in 2023 needs to be enhancing our Stand-Your-Ground law to prevent Soros prosecutors from attacking gun owners out of spite, please mark OPTION #2 “Enhance Stand-Your-Ground” on your ballot!
But I hope you haven’t forgotten about the legal fight that the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance is engaged in, or the legal implications for gun owners if we win or lose.
Idaho has a solid pre-emption law, that forces our cities and counties to not restrict gun rights in ways that go beyond state law, specifically in the area of ‘Gun Free Zones!’
Of course, our more liberal cities have repeatedly ‘tested the wire’ on this, forcing us to get our lawyers involved and defeating illegal ‘Gun Free Zones’ in over 80 jurisdictions.
Eventually, the word got out…so the City of Sandpoint changed their approach.
When the town held their annual ‘Festival at Sandpoint’ in 2019 (on city property) they allowed the festival to ban guns at the event, hoping to bypass Idaho law. Multiple ISAA members were escorted out of the event due to their firearms policy.
The arrogant Mayor of Sandpoint is claiming that because city staff didn’t enforce this policy, they aren’t liable.
The ramifications here are obvious.
If Sandpoint can allow a third-party entity to ban guns on taxpayer owned property — and get away with it — hundreds of cities and counties will immediately follow suit.
So while this occurred way up in Northern Idaho, it impacts every gun owner in the state! That’s why the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance immediately filed a lawsuit in First District Court. We had no choice.
We went into the First District Court fully expecting to lose, given what we knew about the judge. And lose we did, but that defeat set us up for an appeal before the Idaho State Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court forced the ISAA to pay a $20,000 fee before they would consider hearing our case. Sandpoint assumed we’d never be able to do that, but they were wrong.
After recovering from that defeat, Sandpoint’s worst nightmare came true as the court just announced they will be taking up our case early next year!
If we win this case, this patchwork quilt of town gun bans will be over for good. But if we lose, as I said above, it will open the floodgates. We must fight hard before the court!
I’m sure you can see why I’m so torn.
This isn’t an either/or situation. We need ALL THREE of these laws on the books, and we need them right away!
But I have to be realistic.
Right now, after the expensive election program that we just ran, I just don’t have the funds to run a full-scale program on all three of these bills at the same time!
That’s why I’m counting on you to please fill out your Idaho Second Amendment Alliances’ Member Ballot and tell me where to focus the resources that we have.
Of course, when you do so, you’ll notice that I have included another option on your membership ballot — an option that we haven’t talked about yet because it’s just not possible without a major influx of funds.
But I’m not going to lie, this is the option I hope you will choose. That’s OPTION #4: “BAN RED-FLAG GUN SEIZURES, ENHANCE THE PROTECTIONS OFFERED TO GUN OWNERS THROUGH STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAW, FIGHT IN COURT. JUST FIGHT EVERYWHERE!
I know that’s a lot. But 2023 is a great opportunity to secure freedoms that are badly needed, while blocking Joe Biden from using our cops to enforce his tyranny.
So if $100 is just too much, won’t you please agree to $50, $25, $17.76, or at least $10.
The legislature is convening in just days, I need to hear from you as soon as possible.
Please fill out your Membership Ballot right away and consider your most generous donation today! With the 2023 legislative session starting in just days, I need to make some very difficult decisions about where to focus our resources and our time this session.
There are multiple issues facing gun owners this year. But after the expensive 2022 elections, the ISAA doesn’t have the cash we need to fight for them all at once.
I need to hear from you, right away. Please fill out your Membership Ballot TODAY!
After you cast your vote, please consider a generous donation to help us fight for you this year!