March 05, 2026 09:38 AM UTC

A Reminder Why Democrats Love The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners

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• by: Colorado Pols

We have covered for many years in this space the machinations of a group that has, while pushing their single issue with single-minded ferocity, become both political legend and cautionary tale. The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, founded by “no compromise” Second Amendment purist Dudley Brown, have earned a reputation for strictly enforcing their blanket opposition to even the most rudimentary gun safety measures that have been on the books for decades like background checks on retail store gun purchases. The perennial battles at the Colorado Capitol over gun safety laws are an excellent example of what’s known as the “intensity gap,” where the minority side of an issue is disproportionately vocal due to their intensely passionate views. Despite this, polls show that the voting public broadly supports gun safety laws that Colorado has led on for over a decade.

Herein lies the essential contradiction that has made Rocky Mountain Gun Owners an unlikely but valuable asset to Colorado Democrats. RMGO wields much of their influence among activist conservative voters, which means they play an outsize role in Republican primary elections–usually in support of the rightmost candidate in the race, who is (key point here) often not the most electable choice in the general election. And when they do get elected, RMGO-backed candidates have a reputation for becoming ideological outliers who embarrass Republicans beyond the confines of their office. The hollowed-out GOP Colorado House minority caucus is what the Republican Party looks like after RMGO has purged their ranks of the impure.

This year, RMGO is going even further with a proposed “purge of anti-gun Republicans Resolution” that would formally strip any Colorado Republican who votes for any gun safety measure of their party affiliation:

Over the last few months as the Trump administration has ramped up the authoritarian posturing culminating in the killing of American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, RMGO found itself on the same side as anti-ICE protesters, denouncing in particular the killing of Alex Pretti who was legally carrying a firearm that was used as pretext by the Trump administration to falsely label Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” Statements from Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about Pretti’s death were interpreted as broadly anti-Second Amendment, and backlash from gun owners contributed to the collapse of public support for Trump’s mass deportation campaigns.

Whether meddling in primaries to elect embarrassing extremists or chipping away at Trump’s dwindling support from the right, RMGO’s single-issue focus to the exclusion of every other consideration–including electing a majority that could actually carry out their agenda–is as ideologically gratifying as it is politically self-defeating.

That is why, for over a decade now, the best choice for Colorado Democrats has been to let RMGO cook.