NC: Constitutional Carry & Phony ‘Gun Groups’ ~ Opinion

Opinion

After Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, GRNC Rated****) once again introduced a permitless concealed carry bill,House Bill 5 (“NC Constitutional Carry Act”), legislators started receiving emails from gun rights supporters claiming the bill wasn’t good enough.

Unfortunately, the emails are being generated through a slick-looking website for a phony gun group calling itself the “NC Firearms Coalition” (NCFC) – one of roughly two dozen such shell organizations run by the infamous Dorr brothers, whose specialty is raking in money by attacking pro-gun legislators and legislation with claims that they aren’t pro-gun enough.

This phony gun group has, to the best of our knowledge, never shepherded the introduction of any legislation in the NC legislature. In fact, the last time we ever encountered one of them at the legislature was in 2017. When we checked with legislators the Dorr brothers claimed to be working with, the legislators had never heard from them.

The Dorr scam purports to be headquartered in Raleigh. In truth, the UPS Store in the photograph you see is their “office.”

In the past, NCFC did predatory fundraising by claiming credit for GRNC’s legislative accomplishments. Now they are telling people to fill out an email form to send a message against HB 5 with vague calls for “disjunction of gun control” (whatever that means).

What people don’t know is that the message form they are filling out is actually one of at least two dozen used by the Dorr brothers to gather millions of emails, which they hustle for money.

Background of the Dorr scam

NCFC was created by Patrick Parsons of Georgia (not North Carolina), where his “Georgia Gun Owners” also reportedly developed an unsavory reputation, including having as its place of business a UPS Store. (Do you see a pattern yet?)

Parsons originally hailed from the “National Association for Gun Rights” (NAGR), which itself developed a reputation for being far more interested in money than gun rights. In fact, NAGR became so notorious that there is even a Facebook page entitled, “The Truth About the National Association for Gun Rights.”

As gun rights supporters gradually discovered the truth about NAGR, the resulting flight of donors reportedly caused it to downsize, with laid off employees trained in NAGR’s predatory fundraising tactics returning to their states to bilk gun owners in an exercise reminiscent of when Jimmy Carter decimated the CIA, leading former spooks to earn a living by fomenting revolution in South America.

I once called the phone number for NCFC, and guess who I got: Chris Dorr. So notorious are the Dorr brothers, in fact, that at one time they even warranted a (now defunct) website entitled dorrbrotherscams.com, featuring links to quite a list of their exploits. (And we won’t even talk about leftist articles “outing” the Dorrs in The Daily Beast and The Trace.)

At last report, Parsons was working for another one of the Dorr brothers’ schemes, this one calling itself the “American Firearms Association” and that, in turn, the Dorrs are apparently running NCFC.

Oh, and I should mention that Chris Dorr, despite answering a Raleigh phone number, reportedly lives in Pennsylvania. His brother Aaron reportedly lives in New York. Given that Parsons hails from Georgia, I have yet to speak to anyone at the “North Carolina” Firearms Coalition who actually lives in North Carolina.

Rather than donating to phony gun groups, I suggest you do two things:

• Sign the HB 5 petition; and
• Donate to Grass Roots North Carolina.

Unlike the Dorr brothers’, GRNC is an all-volunteer organization featuring people who take time off from work, families, and lives to defend your rights.

That’s right: Unlike the charlatans of phony gun groups, I don’t earn a dime for my work on behalf of gun rights. We might not put out slick, high-dollar websites, but I guarantee we will put your money to more efficient, effective use in defending your rights than any other group.

Armatissimi e liberissimi,

F. Paul Valone

President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International
Host, Guns, Politics and Freedom

About Paul Valone

Author F. Paul Valone has been kicking leftist tail for twenty-eight years. Alarmed by the U.S. House passage of the “assault weapon” ban in 1994, he decided to take action. Finding no suitable organization, he organized a rally leading to the creation of a 501(c)(4) organization, Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC), which remains North Carolina’s primary and most successful gun rights group to this day.