A pro-Second Amendment group scheduled to appear in Lewis-Arriola next week is set to carry on as planned, even after some Montezuma County residents said advertising for the gathering implied it encouraged violence against leftists. The head of the group said the message was misunderstood.
A few weeks ago, a flyer appeared around town advertising an event in which the Colorado-based group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners will appear Sept. 23 in Lewis-Arriola for its Four Corners Tour.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners advocates for the Second Amendment in Colorado and works to prevent anti-firearm policies, according to its website. Several new bills have been passed in the state legislature this year regulating firearms.
But it was the flyer’s wording that caught the attention of some residents, with a red banner that appeared at the top.
“Eliminate the radical left. Take back Colorado,” the flyer read.
Some in the community viewed the event as a call for violence, and expressed their concerns in a letter to the editor published in The Journal on Sept. 10, signed by about 100 people.
“We cannot stay silent as extremists in our community imply they will kill anyone who disagrees with them,” the letter read. “If we allow this line to be crossed, what’s next?”
The Journal reached out to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners for comment and to learn if the Sept. 23 event is still taking place as planned.
“The event is happening, and I don't want to hear anyone from that side of the aisle about inciting violence,” said Ian Escalante, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
Escalante said their letter misconstrued his group’s messaging. He called the claim that Rocky Mountain Gun Owners were inciting violence “slanderous.”
Escalante said he especially did not like hearing these claims from people on the liberal side of the political spectrum after the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a popular right-wing political activist known for his lively debates, was shot Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University.
The assassination has fueled polarization among those who honor Kirk’s legacy as an American conservative and others who say his message was hateful.
Tension has reached Cortez in other forms. This week, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District condemned a teacher’s comments regarding Kirk.
The polarization has influenced tension about the pro-Second Amendment event in Lewis-Arriola.
Escalante, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said his group had changed their wording from “eliminate” the radical left to “defeat,” instead. Updated flyers advertising the event online confirm this change.
According to Escalante, the choice to change the wording was “not because they intimated us or pushed us into changing that.”
“Sounds like to me that he reread the text and he realized how it sounded and took a step back,” said Karen Sheek, one of the letter to the editor’s cosigners. “I'm pleased that he chose to make some changes, but this ‘us against them’ business is not productive.”
Sheek, chair of the Montezuma County League of Women Voters, said she was speaking with The Journal as a private citizen. She also is a former Cortez mayor. Sheek said that she was not behind the letter’s distribution.
The Lewis-Arriola Community Center did not respond to a request for comment.
Those who wish to attend the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Group can RSVP online for the gathering. The event, as part of a larger Four Corners tour, will take place at the Lewis-Arriola Community Center on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.
