Former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson isn’t one to shy away from controversial topics — and gun advocacy groups are about as controversial as they come these days.
On Cody’s local radio talk show “Speak Your Peace,” Simpson offered disparaging comments for the brothers who run the Second Amendment advocacy group Wyoming Gun Owners and similar groups in other states.
The groups have stirred up controversy by championing controversial legislation touted to protect the Second Amendment.
“They’ve been exposed as as absolute nut cases,” Simpson said of Aaron, Chris and Ben Dorr.
“They flood the airwaves … and there are people who’ve been knocked off who were Second Amendment people,” Simpson said, adding “They ought to be in prison.”
While on the radio show Tuesday, a Cody resident called in to ask Simpson about his stance on WyGO’s recent attack on Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police. In an April 1 post on the group’s Facebook page, Dorr called Oedekoven “a cancer on the Second Amendment here in Wyoming.”
Simpson defended Oedekoven, whom Dorr had accused of being anti-Second Amendment because he opposed a bill in the Wyoming Legislature called the “Second Amendment Preservation Act.”
Oedekoven was speaking on behalf of sheriffs in all 23 Wyoming counties in denouncing the bill, which WASCOP said would have tied the hands of law enforcement officers when investigating crimes by banning the seizure of weapons from anyone not convicted of a crime. The bill was defeated.
“He speaks for the peace officers,” Simpson pointed out. “Somebody has to speak for peace officers.”
While Wyoming Gun Owners began as a Wyoming group, founded by now-state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, its management now seems to be handled outside of Wyoming. The company’s listed address for an office is a Cheyenne post box in the office of a shipping company. Its mailing address is in California.
The group has become well known for targeting solid Republican lawmakers at the state and national level.
Simpson said any organizations associated with the Dorr brothers must be carefully examined.
“Wherever the Dorr brothers are, you’ll want to stay away from them,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 16, to correct the erroneous information that the Dorr brothers are involved in the group Gun Owners of America (GOA). While the brothers run several state Second Amendment advocacy groups, such as Wyoming Gun Owners, they are not connected with Gun Owners of America.
