Complaint Review: Iowa Gun Owners - West Des Moines Iowa

Aaron Dorr, the Executive Director of Iowa Gun Owners Association

Aaron Dorr has made a career out of exploiting innocent Iowans for financial gain. He is a smooth talking, political master, that will do anything to con people into giving up their hard earned money. As the ring leader of IGO, Aaron's main goal is to ensure no gun legislation passes in the Iowa house. This is an important strategy for him, because the more fear and lack of progress he can conjure up, the more money he can request and extract.

Under Dorr's leadership the Iowa Gun Owners has opposed and help block numerous NRA sponsored gun bills that were aimed to reclaim some of our second amendment rights. In fact, since Bloomberg and MDA are relatively new, Aaron Dorr and his organization currently hold the top spot in anti-gun movement department. The only difference is, he guises his efforts under a flag of a "NO COMPROMISE" gun fight with the Iowa Legislature. What does this mean?

In 2010 Aaron Dorr and the IGO actively blocked and attempted to kill the IFC and NRA efforts to pass Shall Issue:

In 2010 the anti-gun crowd in Des Moines knew that there was a grassroots gun rights lobby in Iowa. That would hold them accountable for their actions for the first time in years. So once they voted to kill Constitutional Carry they voted to approve Iowa’s current “Shall Issue” bill that was brought forth by less principled organizations. Of course, since that bill was passed by anti-gun legislators it was full of anti-gun provisions.--IGO

How many of you were here back when Iowa was may issue? How many of you had to carry $500 cash in your wallet just so you could carry? How many of you just plain couldn't get a permit? How many of you had a permit for a specific location or route or gun? Dorr just called the glorious shall issue bill "anti-gun"

Three days later Aaron Dorr and IGO attempted to take credit for the bill. These days they take credit for it in their emails begging for donations:

"I’m sure you’ll agree, directly or indirectly, IGO members are clearly driving the pro-gun agenda here in Iowa – as you have been going back to the passage of ‘Shall Issue’ legislation in 2010." "Not only that, but after our last all-out push for Constitutional Carry, our state government passed one of the best shall-issue laws in the country — even though Democrats controlled BOTH houses of the General Assembly!" "We’ve also brought concealed carry reform to the forefront of Iowa politics, leading to the passage of “shall issue” in 2009." "Paving the way for passage of “Shall Issue” in 2010 after launching a statewide mobilization campaign to reform Concealed Carry laws;" --IGO

This is the typical IGO playbook. They will NEVER get a gun bill passed in Iowa legislature. It's unclear if it's because they are striving for perfection or if they want to maintain the status quo so Aaron can continue to draw a paycheck off the backs of hard working Iowans.

Fast forward 5 years (2015) and we see the same thing happening with the NRA Omnibus bill, SF427. Aaron Dorr, is actively opposing a pro-gun bill that will make sweeping advancements to Iowan's 2A rights. Using half truths and outright lies (saying SF425 establishes a gun registry), Aaron Door is attempting to block the good legislation. Why? Because if it passes, his member base will see that the IGO is ineffective. As long as he and IGO can spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt, Aaron will continue to make a very healthy paycheck; a very healthy paycheck off the backs of his member base that he is hurting.

When we were trying to understand why the Dorr would be opposed to SF427, it suddenly occurred to us that Aaron and Chris have to survive off accurate member and new member contact information. They collect it at the gun shows in exchange for shirts and bumper stickers, and get it from you online when you sign petitions and gun giveaways. This information is vital to their financial survival, that's how they contact you to ask for more money. Think about it, what is another valid source of gun owner contact information -- county databases. The county databases that is free to query RIGHT NOW. Could it be possible that this is a source of gun owner contact information for the Dorrs and IGO? SF427 would virtually eliminate this source of funding for them if it is. While we can't prove it, its the only thing that remotely make sense as to why the Dorrs would oppose SF427.

In addition, Chris Dorr, Aaron Dorr's brother is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Gun Rights

Chris Dorr is second in command of the IGO outfit. The Dorrs also happened to see an opportunity to expand their enterprise into Minnesota, so they formed the MGO. Chris heads up that program err Iowa branch office.

Chris has an interesting past. Back in 2013 (2 years ago) Chris was caught red handed stealing an email database and had to sign an affidavit attesting to such to the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. You can read more about the affidavit here:

documentcloud.org/documents/695384-affidavit-2-sen-kent-soren...

When we were trying to understand why the Dorr's would be opposed to SF427, it suddenly occurred to us that Aaron and Chris have to survive off accurate member and new member contact information. They collect it at the gun shows in exchange for shirts and bumper stickers, they get it from you online when you sign petitions and gun giveaways. This information is vital to their financial survival, that's how they contact you to ask for more money.

Chris, like his brother was also heavily involved at the ground level on the Sorensan, Buachman, Paul payoff scandal. Chris was the Bachmann for President Field Staff, and legislative clerk for State Senator Kent Sorenson. As you can tell, the scandals are a family affair with the Dorrs and now they are back working together at IGO. The other interesting item to note is we see this quote alot in IGO e-mails from Aaron Dorr which seem to be a stab at IFC/NRA for trying to get *something* accomplished:

"We’re the only gun rights organization that plays for keeps and isn't willing to be party to the backroom deals cut in the legislature."

-- Aaron Dorr

Given the documented backroom deals and cover ups detailed in the Sorenson scandal, it's a wonder how Dorr can stake that claim. This quoie was taken off IGO's own website which you can find here.

"That’s what No Compromise means. We exist to fight for gun rights. We do not patronize a political party. We do not cut backroom deals. We don’t take the bribes so often offered to grassroots organizations. We do not assume to have the authority to bargain away some of your rights in exchange for securing others. We will never back down."--IGO

Here were the final "payoff details" and what Chris was to get for his "services" in the payoff:

Sorenson’s Asking Price – Financial Requirements:

• Sorenson wanted $8,000 a month through the fall of 2012.

• Chris Dorr, Sorenson’s clerk and right-hand man, wanted $5,000 a month through April of 2012.

• Sorenson demanded that $100,000 be placed in an Iowa PAC that would be controlled by Sorenson and staffed by the Dorrs. Kevin Wolfswinkel, a Paul supporter, was the PAC’s chairman, and Wes Enos was the PAC’s treasurer.

You can find all the details on the payoff scheme here: theiowarepublican.com/2013/the-payoff-details-revealed-on-sorenso...

As of late, Chris seems to be following in his brothers footsteps up in Minnesota. Many of the legislators up there are tired of dealing with his antics and lies, much like most of the Iowa Gun community and our legislators. The following link contains a document that several Minnesota legislators sent out to their constituents.