I’ve been writing about the Dorr Brothers – the Iowa-based scammers behind “Minnesota Gun Rights”, among many other potemkin 2nd Amendment, pro-life and pro-Trump “groups” – for a long time.
No – a very, very long time.
And I’ve written a lot about them.
No – I mean a lot. Including just about as much actual reporting as just about anyone in the field ever has (here’s an excellent summary of alternative-media coverage of the Dorrs, going back more than seven years).
But MPR’s Catherine Richert is taking the story mainstream again
THREAD: Back in February, I started reporting on a trio of brothers who used social media to spread disinformation and sow discord within the GOP, including in MN. The story was shelved when COVID19 hit… until now. https://t.co/wQiQhJLcMQ
— Catharine Richert (@CatRichert) April 21, 2020
Discord like this:
Rep. Josh Heintzeman, who has what anti-abortion groups would call a "perfect" voting record on the issue, is among Dorr's targets. At the start of this year's #mnleg session, Dorr was filmed asking Heintzeman's son if he knew his dad "votes to kill babies." (That's false.)
— Catharine Richert (@CatRichert) April 21, 2020
I reported for the first time in 2013 the Dorr Brothers’ pattern:
- Move into a state.
- Establish a social media presence.
- Loudly and abrasively claim that Republican, pro-life and pro-gun legslators are “selling out” their supporters – apparently, by being in the same capitol building as their opponents?
- That if their followers keep the money coming, and coming, and coming, then they’ll be part of an “uncompromising” approach that won’t “sell out” – but won’t actually do anything but make more Facebook videos.
Richert’s thread is excellent. It touches on some of the same shady business practices Fox9 found a couple years ago.
The story is even better – although one hopes that the mainstream media closes the circle and reports on the depth and depravity of the Dorr Brothers’ scam nationwide.
Now – in a state with an Attorney Generals’ office that focuses on “consumer fraud” like a dog focuses on a squirrel, why hasn’t Keith Ellison gone after these frauds?
Every year Ahlman’s gun store in Morristown, near Faribault, has a huge, really cool event, the last week in August. If you haven’t brought your dad, or your kids, you are missing out.
What isn’t cool, is they let the Dorr brothers have a booth at the event. As you walk down the sporting clays course you see many different organizations from specialty equipment suppliers to various hunting groups like Ducks Unlimited. They give the Dorr brothers the best spot to trap every guest into signing up for their organization. If you don’t, you are belittled and your 2a creds are questioned. So many people signing up and it makes me sick.
Ahlman’s is a great store. I’ve bought various stuff from there and have attended their event regularly.
Someone needs to get into their head that the Dorr brothers aren’t in their best interest. Maybe they bully the owners of Ahlman’s too.
A grassroots campaign to get them out of the August shooter’s show might be the first step.
“Now – in a state with an Attorney Generals’ office that focuses on “consumer fraud” like a dog focuses on a squirrel, why hasn’t Keith Ellison gone after these frauds?”
Ha! Silly Mitch! You know that the only reason that Keith “Wife Beater” Ellison ran for AG was to spend the money of Minnesota taxpayers on frivolous law suits against Trump. And, even then, he’s no better than the last two low rent AGs that we’ve had in that office. They have hired their big donor law firms as their lap dogs and then, Lori Swanson like, bragged about how much money that she got from 3M, while failing to mention that the law firm got about $10 million more.
Interesting. The MNGOP exposed these scammers to their membership, and were widely and roundly criticized for doing so. Seems they were right all along.
Ellison knows the Dorr Bros hurt his opposition more than they hurt him or his cronies.
I joined their FB group before they appropriated David Strom’s “Reopen Minnesota” name. I don’t remember what it was called before that. I jumped in, and the first thing that hit my eye was “Administrator: Ben Dorr”. I immediately removed myself. Sadly, their group as of last night still had 5K more members than Strom’s group.