Attacks by Gun Rights Activists

I knew that it would be difficult when I took on the issue of gun reform. I accepted the fact that there would be those who strongly opposed my views. And I was willing to exchange views with them. But I never expected just how nasty the messages from some people would be: unwelcome mail and phone calls; insulting and even hateful mail; and even death threats. In 2000, as I was campaigning for Amendment 22, the Denver Post published a story about the offensive messages sent to me.  The Post writer tried to contact a few of the letter writers, but they either had unlisted numbers or denied writing to me. 

But there were some brazen writers who provided names and even defiantly responded when I wrote back to them. Some said they didn’t mind my publishing their names and words–they just see it as a ‘badge of honor’ in promoting their beliefs. Some of what they wrote is too profane or sick to include here, but here are some examples that can be printed:

· Terry Chelius of Chief’s Rest Ranch and Hunting Lodge in Whitewater, Colo., wrote “Get a life. This is a great vehicle to get your 15 minutes of fame, but try to get on with your life.  Get a job and buy a good gun…combine your obviously questionable IQ with your other vague attributes and make minimum wage somewhere sweeping out a gun store…Tommy boy, you and Linda have ridden the tragedy like a roller coaster, never missing an opportunity to get your face on TV or in the papers.”

· Richard W. Pope of Des Moines, Iowa, sent two postcards, calling me a “weak, pitiful man. who is trading on the dead body of your son to get your name in the paper.”

· Dr. Gary Huff of Montrose, Colo., said “you are using the death of your son to desecrate the constitution and for that you should be ashamed and your dead son pitied…Quit using your son as a political tool and everyone will leave you alone.”

· Ray Hickman, who identified himself as a local coordinator of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said I should “get a life and stop being the whore of SAFE Colorado.”

· Some comments are said to me directly. As reported in a Fort Collins newspaper, Tyranny Response Team member Stephan Ziegenhagen chided me at a meeting for earning money (at SAFE Colorado) “on the corpse of your son.” One of the leaders of the TRT, a gun shop owner named Bob Glass, told me he agreed with that characterization when I complained to him.

It’s especially disturbing that some unwelcome or nasty messages came via the guest book in this web site. My web site volunteers screened out many of these hateful messages, and kept dozens from reaching me. But some have slipped by, and it was especially bothersome that many of the nastiest were written around the time of the one- and two-year anniversaries of the Columbine tragedy.

Yes, these malicious messages were a bit bothersome to me. It’s just something I never really experienced in my lifetime.  But there are three things that help me overcome it all:

• First is the fact that I have already endured something more terrible than anything that these cowards have collectively thrown at me–the death of my son.
• Second is the recognition that in his 15 short years of life Daniel probably developed more knowledge of this world, more respect and compassion for others, and more common decency, than all these jerks and cowards have in however many years they’ve been on this earth. For that I have so much to be proud of, and it speaks much louder than hatred and cowardice.
• And third is the recognition that I have not been frightened into silence—on the contrary, this intimidation has just defiantly spurred me on to fight them harder!!!

There were also cases of intimidation, such as being harassed at a church meeting of the Million Mom March. One man threatened me at work and if I got on an airplane; those threats landed him in jail. These cases are more fully described in my book.