The Insidious New Attack on The Right to Keep and Bear Arms:

“You Can Keep Your Gun but If You Dare to Bear It in Defense of Self or Property

We Will Put You in Jail and Charge You With a Felony”

By Robin Heid, M.A.

~ Part Two ~

Introduction

The boundary between freedom and tyranny is the criminal justice system. – Larry Pozner, Esq.

Part One of The Insidious New Attack on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (4 AUG 26 issue covered how 7^th Judicial District DA Anna Cooling is ignoring our God-given, common law, constitutional, and statutory rights to armed defense of self and property from violent criminals and actively prosecuting anyone who dares to bear arms in said defense. It detailed her constitutional and statutory violations, and provided documentation thereof, to include the atrocious case of Lynn Duteil, who was forced to accept a draconian plea bargain because he was too ill to survive a trial.

Part Two of Insidious covers a second felony menacing case that DA Anna Cooling is pursuing in furtherance of her agenda to either:

a)      personally legislate from her prosecutor desk against the right of American and Colorado citizen rights to even display a firearm in defense of person and property; or

b)     Allow mentally ill, anti-gun, anti-self defense, anti-property rights, Soros-compliant Democrat subordinate Ian Fowler to do it in her name.

Part Two also delves deeper into the failures of the Montrose Police Department and its associated “drug task force” to competently police the Tortilla Flats neighborhood, failures which were the proximate cause of the second felony menacing case, and which have negatively impacted the peace, safety, and property values of citizens living there. It also examines: 

·       The use by DA Cooling’s anti-gun subordinate Fowler of a legal theory from Lewis Carroll’s children’s book Alice in Wonderland to justify his anti-gun, anti-constitutional misconduct; 

·       How the actions of DA Cooling’s anti-gun subordinate Fowler to “shadow ban” even the display of firearms in defense of self and property work in concert with the moves by Comintern legislatures in Colorado and other states to ban certain guns or magazines; and

·       Two other firearm-related self defense cases that underline how existential this concerted, multi-layer anti-gun, anti-self defense threat is to the foundations of our freedom.

It is important to note that the second felony menacing case detailed below is not a one-off prosecution: DA Cooling’s office is actively legislating from its prosecutor desks against the right of American and Colorado citizens to defense of person and property with lethal force. DA Cooling is allowing anti-gun prosecutors in her office to ignore the rights of We the People to defend ourselves with lethal force – even on our own property in an open-carry state.

Case #2: Robin Heid. I am a 72-year-old disabled veteran of the 82d Airborne Division and the 4^th Mechanized Infantry Division living on Social Security in Montrose. I have BA degrees in journalism and political science, and an MA in international relations and American government. I have worked in both fields for 50 years, and the first political campaign on which I worked was Reagan 1984. In 2024, I was a Republican candidate for the District 3 US Congress seat vacated by Lauren Boebert and now held by Jeff Hurd. 

I became an NRA-certified firearms and self defense instructor 40 years ago. I am licensed to fly airplanes, scuba dive, and teach skydiving. I practice kendo and hold a 1 Kyu rank, one level below black belt, and a yellow belt in Taekwondo. I have worked as a professional skydiver, private investigator, investigative journalist, political commentator, and technical writer-editor and documentation architect for several Fortune 100/500 and Global Fortune 500 companies.[i] (1) My family and/or I have lived in Crawford, Hotchkiss, and/or Montrose for decades. I am a 10-year Montrose property owner and 4-year full-time resident. I live in Montrose now to take care of my 94-year-old mother instead of living in with my wife and youngest daughter in a different state.

Case #2 Background

Note: What follows provides critical context, but if you want to cut to the chase and skip the detailed background until later, go to the heading: The Kerfuffle. – RH

I’ve handled guns since my dad bought me a BB gun when I was 3 years old. I learned then about basic firearms handling and ethics (all guns are always loaded, never point it at anything you don’t intend to kill, finger off the trigger until you intend to shoot, eat whatever you shoot).

I started shooting “real” guns when I was six and shortly thereafter began small-game hunting, both with my dad and alone. I joined the Army at 19 and, in addition to my duties as a paratrooper and mechanized infantryman, I was on the Fort Carson pistol team, won the 1977 Fort Carson Rapid-Fire Combat Pistol Championship, and represented my base in the 1977 U.S. Army national championships at Fort Ord, CA. 

When I left the military, I remained active in the firearms community and, in 1986, became an NRA-certified firearms and self defense instructor, a role I have worked in both formally and informally ever since. I am also a 1994 graduate of the Jeff Cooper-founded Gunsite Academy Defensive Pistol course; out of a 20-person class composed of SWAT cops, DEA agents, and other federal law enforcement officers, I finished 3^rd in the “final exam” shooting competition. Finally, I was instrumental in the passage of 1986’s “Make My Day” self defense law, which created a presumption of deadly attempt, thereby simplifying the legal climate for citizens who defended themselves with deadly force.[ii] (2)

Which brings us to the present day. I have owned an investment property at 945 N. Selig for ten years. The first several years were trouble-free; the house was always rented and I had just two tenants, both of whom paid their rent, took care of the place, and otherwise behaved themselves.

Unknown to me until a year ago, however, was that a nest of criminals had been operating from 1010 N. Selig (aka “The Selig Avenue Cartel HQ”) for longer than I’d owned the property, openly selling drugs and sex under the watchful eye of the Montrose PD and an inter-agency group called “the drug task force” – both of which for some reason allowed this cartel and its criminal cadre to fester and threaten the neighborhood instead of shutting it down and cleaning it up.

I found out about this state of affairs the hard way. My long-term tenant had suffered injuries in an accident that eventually left him unable to work, at times unable to walk, and regularly depressed. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn until last summer that his condition caused him to start hanging out with the criminals at 1010 N. Selig. My tenant started using multiple drugs and his life went quickly downhill:

1)    He invited his new “friends” to use his shower, stove, and internet; they repaid his kindness by stealing $10,000 worth of tools and raiding his bank accounts;

2)    he allowed one cartel drug dealer-prostitute to stay in the house. She soon lied to the police and got him arrested for domestic violence so she could move her real boyfriend into the house.[iii] (3) She then tried unsuccessfully to get me arrested so she wouldn’t have to pay rent. At that point, I evicted her and, because I didn’t yet know the scope of the problem, agreed to an “at will tenancy” in exchange for work with a guy who turned out to be a worse criminal and more evil human being than that drug dealer-prostitute.

The situation continued to deteriorate: One drug abuser died of a fentanyl overdose in my driveway; another died of a fentanyl overdose 30 minutes after visiting the at-will tenant. MPD officers were showing up at my property almost daily – yet neither they nor “the drug task force” saw fit to tell me about any of this. I had to find out from my neighbors, who feared for their own safety because MPD and “the drug task force” refused to solve the problem. 

Those two criminals and their associated mayhem aside, the key criminal in all of this is a violent ex-convict named Roger Leroy Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert was among the criminals my tenant allowed onto my property, and who made liberal use of my water and electricity to shower, eat, and recharge his tablet. Somewhere along the line, Mr. Gilbert and my tenant had a falling out, at which point Mr. Gilbert hit my tenant in the face with a shovel, then used that shovel to smash in the windshield of my tenant’s SUV. In addition to the violence he committed against my tenant, Facebook law enforcement pages show that Mr. Gilbert has in the last few years been arrested for felony menacing, second-degree assault, and domestic violence – yet, for some reason, he’s still running around free, selling drugs, pimping prostitutes, assaulting people, and generally terrorizing the Selig Avenue neighborhood.[iv](4)

After evicting the drug dealer-prostitute, I began cleaning up the property, which my long-time tenant had allowed to become… cluttered. This required me to be there for hours at a time on multiple days. This also allowed me to see:

a)     a steady stream of non-resident vehicles going to 1010 N. Selig for 10-15 minutes, then leaving again;

b)    a steady stream of young women who walked from 1010 N. Selig to 9^th Street, where they were picked up by unknown drivers – who then returned them to the same spot ~30 minutes later, after which the women walked back to 1010 N. Selig; 

c)     daily traffic consisting of $80,000 pickups driven by people living in $500 trailers; and

d)    Mr. Gilbert’s constant presence in the middle of it all.

During this same time frame, the city, the MPD, and the “drug task force” for some reason finally took action against the Selig Avenue Cartel – after letting it fester and metastasize and damage the neighborhood for more than a decade. In mid-October 2025, they hauled off the dilapidated trailers and motor homes, filled several trucks with garbage and trash, then bulldozed the property clean. All fine and good – except for the fact that the action taken by the city, the MPD, and the “drug task force” rendered all the criminals homeless – but left them in place.

What could possibly go wrong?

Leadup to the Kerfuffle

As soon as the city, the MPD, and the “drug task force” made them homeless, the criminals of the Selig Avenue Cartel spread out like roaches scurrying from a demolished building. A number of them left the area. The worst of the worst stayed.

They continued to sell drugs from another property on the street, and the girls started meeting their clients at the cul-de-sac – where the street ends at the Justice Center fence. 

Worse, these now-homeless criminals started trespassing constantly on various properties – and for some reason acting as if the whole street belonged to them. They burglarized homes, broke into vehicles, stole water and electricity and anything that wasn’t nailed down. They made life miserable for the property owners who lived on the street. It has gotten so bad that two of my neighbors moved people into their homes so that their properties aren’t left unoccupied while they are at work or doing errands. One even had to build a fence around her property to keep the criminals out because they refused to stop hanging out on her property or using it for a toilet.

Mr. Gilbert? He moved onto my property. First, he filled one of my utility trailers with his stuff, then started camping overnight on my property as if he owned it. My at-will tenant, who knew Mr. Gilbert was specifically banned from my property, lied about whose stuff was in the trailer and concealed the fact that Mr. Gilbert was not only camping out on my property but also stealing water and utilities to shower and cook. I had not yet learned that my at-will tenant was evil as well as criminal, but I learned all of this and more on Thursday, 30 OCT 2025.

I came to my property at 1000 hours to pick up my at-will tenant so he could do some work for me in exchange for staying there. When I got there, he became insolent and refused to work, so I decided instead to do more cleanup on the property.

In this I was assisted by my two new tenants, with whom I signed a lease and whom I (again) discovered later were criminals, not the decent, down-on-their-luck people with jobs they told me they were (I know, I know: One of these days I’ll learn to tell the difference).

I started on the front porch, which my long-time tenant had enclosed with plywood so he could store more stuff, all of which he had to abandon when he was forced to leave the property after 7 years while the drug dealer-prostitute who lied about him to the cops got to stay.[v] (5)

The Kerfuffle

Sometime in the early afternoon, the sister of one neighbor stopped by to say hello. We had met some weeks before when I was asking my neighbors if anyone was interested in buying my property, either individually or as an investment group. During one of those discussions, she and I watched Mr. Gilbert ride his bike onto my property and stroll into the house as if he owned it. 

When Mr. Gilbert came outside a few minutes later, she heard me tell him in no uncertain terms that he was banned from my property and that I would have him arrested for trespassing if he persisted. She then heard Mr. Gilbert tell me to “f**k off” and then go his merry way.

Sister and I chatted for a moment, then she asked if I knew Mr. Gilbert had camped on my property each of the previous five nights. I did not. I was not surprised, given how the “solution” of the city, the MPD, and the “drug task force” had been to make all of the criminals homeless. I said something profane about her news, and continued porch cleanup until another street denizen I’d never seen before showed up and handed out sodas he’d gotten from the food bank.

We all talked for a couple of minutes, then I went back to cleaning up the porch. Shortly thereafter, my life changed. Sister said “speak of the devil, there he is” – and pointed to Mr. Gilbert walking with his bike past my property. I decided this was the time to confront him about his serial trespassing and let him know that it ended now. I hailed him and walked toward the street (~20 feet). He stopped and waited on the pavement.

“You sonab**ch,” I said. “I’ve told you before you are banned from this property. Keep trespassing and you might get shot.” I said this not as a threat but to warn him of the possible consequences because I knew Mr. Gilbert to be brutally violent (as is anyone who hits somebody in the face with a shovel). I also knew from others on the street that Mr. Gilbert always carried a knife – and had used it on others in previous disputes – so I knew if I ever visited my property and he was there, I might be forced to defend myself from him. Mr. Gilbert did not like my warning.

“Shoot me now, mother**cker!” he shouted. “Shoot me now!” Then he stepped onto my property, one foot away from me.

So I pushed him – or rather, I tried to push him. Mr. Gilbert is 6-foot-4, 180 pounds – and 13 years younger than 72-year-old, 5-foot-5, 135-pound disabled veteran me. It was like trying to push a telephone pole. He didn’t move an inch – but that didn’t matter. 

“Push me again, mother**ker,” he yelled – and then chest-bumped me repeatedly, daring me to push him again as he did, forcing me back 10-15 feet inside my own property.

I reached for my phone to record what was happening. Mr. Gilbert knocked the phone from my hand, then hit me upside the head and knocked me down (thereby committing Felony 6 Assault against a person over 70). I jumped right back up as he went back to the pavement. I followed, yelling that he had assaulted me, and demanded again that he stay the hell off my property.

Note: You may be wondering now why, after getting manhandled by a bigger, stronger attacker, that I persisted in confronting him. The answer: My property was at risk of seizure because the conduct of Mr. Gilbert and the other Selig Avenue cartel criminals on and around my property (and police refusal to do anything about it) had resulted in two deaths and more than a dozen police calls in just the previous month.[vi] (6)

Given the refusal and/or negligence of MPD and the “drug task force” to properly police the Selig Avenue neighborhood, I now faced an existential threat to my ownership of the property I am counting on to fund my retirement – so I persisted in confronting Mr. Gilbert and demanding that he stay off my property. 

That’s when Mr. Gilbert suddenly broke eye contact and stared off to his left.

Well, as every cop and martial artist knows, this move meant Mr. Gilbert was trying to distract me from seeing what he did with his hands – so I immediately looked down and saw him reach into his right hoodie pocket. His movement (and violent history) told me he was probably going for the knife he routinely carried. I looked down briefly at the small pocketknife clipped to my pants pocket and said to myself: Oh, hell no, I’m not bringing a knife to a knife fight with a guy who has tweaker speed.

Now in fear for my life, I turned and walked quickly back to my truck to arm myself with my holstered Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol.[vii] (7) Normally, I would slide the clamshell holster onto my belt and face Mr. Gilbert but, as I reached for it, I realized I had lost situational awareness by turning my back on him. Thus did I draw the pistol from the holster and hold it muzzle-down, safety on, finger in register, as I stepped out of the truck because I did not know if he was still on the street or if he had followed me (in which case I might need to immediately engage).

As I cleared my truck, I saw that Mr. Gilbert was still on the street, so I said nothing and did nothing; I stood there, arm at my side, pistol in hand, muzzle pointed down.[viii] (8) Mr. Gilbert nevertheless saw Mr. Browning immediately, said “I’m just passing through!” and quickly left the area. I then “holstered” Mr. Browning in my back pocket before Mr. Gilbert had even cleared my property line, then put it back in the holster a few seconds later and returned it to my truck.

The whole kerfuffle took less than one minute. No harm, no foul and hopefully Mr. Gilbert finally got the message that he needed to stop trespassing on my property, stealing my utilities, and putting my property at risk of seizure.

Unfortunately, Sister’s brother had called the cops, leading her to yell at him: “What are you calling the cops for? He’s the only one who’s ever stood up to that guy!” At this point, I told Brother to let the cops know I had an errand to run and would soon return to help the police process the trespassing and felony assault charges I was sure they would file against Gilbert.

Boy, was I mistaken. There were three cops on-scene when I returned. Two of them immediately laid hands on me, accused me of committing a felony, handcuffed me, and read me my rights. Then they both called me “Blake” and started quizzing me about the location of my firearm and why I “pulled a gun.”

By this point I was disoriented and in shock over what was happening and, despite knowing better, argued with them instead of remaining silent and letting events take their course. It was not my finest hour. It was pretty embarrassing, actually, but on the other hand, it’s tough to be the victim, then get treated like the perp – and it was all made worse by MPD’s ineptness and systemic disregard of our God-given, common law, constitutional, and statutory right to armed defense of self and property.

It was obvious from the start that the cop interrogating me barely qualified as a rookie (I learned later she’d joined the force just six weeks before). Despite this, her training officer paid no attention to what she was doing; he started off into space from some distance away.[ix] (9) The interrogator was uninterested in any of the facts leading up to the kerfuffle, dismissed my assault claims, and then arrested me for felony menacing despite my assertion that I acted in self defense. I was loaded into a police SUV and deposited at the Montrose County Jail, where I spent the next 24 hours. I was released on a PR bond after being forced to represent myself at the bond hearing because the public defender’s office had a “conflict of interest” that prevented them from representing me (I learned later that the PD represents… you guessed it, Mr. Gilbert).

The Aftermath

Since that day nine months ago when I lawfully displayed a firearm to defend myself and my property from a violent criminal who repeatedly trespassed on my property and assaulted me, I have tried multiple ways to get Anna Cooling to drop these ridiculous charges and rein in her anti-gun, anti-self defense, anti-property rights leftist deputy Ian Fowler.

Unfortunately, Anna Cooling clearly considers Fowler’s actions and her office to be above the Colorado Constitution and Colorado law, and accountable to no one. She wouldn’t listen to anything anybody said, to include senior members of the Montrose community who went to bat for me and tried to get her to act reasonably and do the right thing. Anna Cooling categorically refused to heed:

·      the most senior law enforcement officer in Montrose, a 40-year + veteran of both MPD and the sheriff’s department; 

·      the most experienced and long-serving member of the Montrose political community; and

·      me, a disabled military veteran and 40-year + firearms expert and self defense instructor who knows self defense law and how to act legally in a self defense situation. 

Instead of listening to more than 100 years of military, law enforcement, firearms training, and public governance experience, instead of obeying two constitutions and multiple statutes, instead of honoring her oath of office to uphold those constitutions and statutes, Anna Cooling disregards it all and instead relies on:

·      A “warrantless arrest affidavit” police report written by a cop who’d been on the force for six weeks that is so full of holes it makes Swiss cheese look like mozzarella;

·      The contradictory and physically impossible assertions made therein by a violent ex-convict and known drug dealer/pimp trying to dodge a felony assault charge; and 

·      The advice of anti-gun, anti-self defense Democrat deputy DA Ian Fowler, who hides behind a fake mask, wears black nail polish, and is despised by literally everyone I’ve met at the Justice Center.

Worse, Anna Cooling has either directed or allowed this anti-gun Democrat deputy free rein to:

a)     oppose and obstruct every effort I made in court to get the charges dismissed;

b)    impugn and flat-out lie about my character as part of that obstruction; and

c)     worst of all, use the Red Queen Legal Theory from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to strip me of my God-given right to keep and bear arms while this unholy case continues.

The Protection Order and the Red Queen Legal Theory

When someone is charged in Colorado with a felony, a mandatory “Protection Order” is issued that prohibits the charged person from contacting the alleged victim. There are also optional provisions having to deal with weapons, drug testing, and other things.

In my case, the optional weapons box was checked, which means I cannot own, buy, or possess firearms, ammunition, or other weapons until the case is resolved. In other words, I was stripped without due process of my constitutional and statutory rights to keep and bear arms, and I am now serving a so-far 9-month-long sentence that reduces me from a citizen to a slave.[x] (10)

Before one of my many court appearances for this case, I submitted a motion to amend the PO by removing the optional firearms element. When we discussed it in court, I challenged Judge Harvell to cite the applicable law that gave her authority to summarily strip me of my constitutional rights to keep and bear arms and to due process. She of course had no idea what it was, so she turned to the anti-gun Democrat Fowler for his input.

“I don’t know it off the top of my head,” he said. “It’s a practice.”

“A practice, Your Honor?” I said. “Summarily denying me my constitutional right to keep and bear arms is a practice? What actual law authorizes you to do that?”

She again looked anti-gun Democrat Mr. Fowler, who huffed: 

“Well, if he is convicted of felony menacing, he’ll lose his right to have firearms anyway.”

In so doing, Fowler invoked the Red Queen Legal Theory to justify this summary denial of my constitutional rights.

The Red Queen Legal Theory was first presented by Lewis Carroll in his 1865 children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, to wit:

“Let the jury consider the verdict,” the King said, for probably the twentieth time that day.

“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first, then the verdict.”

“Stuff and nonsense,” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”

“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.

“I won’t!” said Alice.

“Off with her head! The Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

This exchange is Exhibit A for the affirmative just how far left DA Cooling has gone off the liberty rails by allowing her anti-gun, anti-self defense, anti-property rights deputy Ian Fowler to prosecute citizens who display firearms in defense of self and property.

The Conundrum

As detailed above, District Attorney Anna Cooling is either:

a) personally defying and violating the US Constitution, the Colorado Constitution, Colorado law, and her oath of office to pursue felony prosecutions of individuals for lawful armed defense of themselves and their property; or

b) failing to properly supervise the anti-self defense, anti-property rights deputy DAs in her office. Whatever the case, the conduct of Cooling’s 7th Judicial District DA goes past mere RINO territory and now operates on radical-left, Soros-compliant ground when it comes to self defense and property rights.

The way forward is clear: Anna Cooling needs to cut it out or quit, because she cannot call herself a Republican and at the same time attack the right to armed defense of self and property, or worse, allow her minions to do it in her name.

There is a conundrum, however.

First off, if Anna Cooling resigns or is driven from office over her ridiculous anti-self defense, anti-property rights prosecutions, then the totalitarian governor of Colorado will appoint her successor – and his appointment of the constitutionally ignorant, anti-self defense, anti-property rights Laura Harvell as a district judge makes it obvious that he would replace Anna with a far worse enemy of the right to bear arms in defense of self and property than she is (by intent or supervisory failure).

Second, other than egregiously flunking Constitution and Self Defense Law 101, Anna Cooling is apparently passing all of her other DA courses with good grades and even flying colors. That’s right: Despite the well-deserved criticism I have aimed her way for flunking a critical part of her course load, Anna Cooling is by all accounts well on her way to being a far better DA than her predecessor, from whom she inherited a formidable mess.

Anna took over a 7th Judicial District DA’s office that was understaffed, overworked, insufficiently funded, buried in backlogged cases – and at the same time in need of some personnel housecleaning. Since assuming office, she has worked hard to make it run better in all areas: She successfully lobbied for a significant budget increase, which in turn allowed her to fully staff the office. She also removed some bad apples, and has met and coordinated with her police and sheriff counterparts more in a year-and-a-half than her predecessor did during his entire term.

In so doing, Anna Cooling has earned the right to keep doing what she’s doing well, but she also has to immediately stop allowing her subordinates to waste still-scarce resources by wreaking havoc on citizens exercising their God-given, common law, constitutional, and statutory right to bear arms in defense of self and property.

The best move Anna could make in the latter regard is to cut loose that anti-gun, anti-self defense, constitutionally dismissive, Red Queen Legal Theory proponent Ian Fowler and replace him with a deputy DA who respects the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions and the right of armed self defense, does not suffer from a mental health issue, and does not make legal arguments based on the dialogue of a lunatic character in a 150-year-old fantasy children’s book.

It doesn’t matter that Anna calls Fowler one of her better deputies: His lack of respect for two constitutions and the right of self defense, coupled with his well-known mental health issue, poisons the DA’s office and will ultimately sabotage Anna’s efforts to make the 7th Judicial District DA’s office one of the best in the state.  (11)

However, as badly as Anna Cooling is failing Constitution and Self Defense Law 101, the two cases detailed above are just the tip of the anti-self defense, anti-property rights iceberg that goes far beyond the 7th Judicial District because leftist prosecutors throughout Colorado and the US always share the same strategies and tactics:

Don’t directly challenge the right to keep and bear arms – just jail and file felony charges against anyone who dares to bear arms in defense of self and property.

This is neither hyperbole nor conjecture.

Just last week, Aurora police officer Matthew Neely was indicted for second-degree murder and reckless manslaughter by a grand jury who (per SOP) only heard from the anti-police, anti-gun, anti-self defense District Attorney Amy Padden. Neely’s “crime”? Shooting an aggressive, drunk (0.274 BAC), violent man who attacked him after:

• felony eluding a traffic stop

• crashing into multiple other cars during that felony eluding

• disobeying an order to stay in his car

• getting out of the car with a gun in his hand

• throwing the gun aside and knocking Neely down

• advancing toward Neely with fists raised while making repeated verbal threats

Neely ordered him over and over to get down, then shot him when the man lunged toward him. Neely’s bodycam (and other videos) show clearly that this was a no-brainer justifiable shoot, yet we now have another anti-self defense DA legislating from her prosecutor desk that even police officers cannot use lethal force to defend themselves from violent criminals.

Another case in point happened in Wyoming last year to Ríhanna Kelver, a Laramie man living as a woman who was charged with two felonies for defending himself from a bigger, stronger, aggressive assailant. Kelver was outside a bar smoking a cigarette before his work shift there began when one man in a group of three hurled sexuality-based insults at Kelver. Kelver approached the men to discuss the insults, at which point one of them violently shoved Kelver the ground. He was flat on his back with two of the men standing over him, so he drew a pistol from a hip bag, racked the slide, and pointed it up. The men walked away casually, showing no fear or distress. Kelver then immediately returned the gun to the pouch as he regained his feet. Ten seconds total elapsed time, no harm, no foul – except to Kelver, who suffered a back injurt form the fall. Building security cam video showed the whole thing.

All three of us used a firearm in cases of unarguably justified self defense.

All three of us could have done better than we did:

• I should have retained situational awareness by not turning my back on my attacker

• Neely should have stayed farther away from his attacker

• Kelver should not have approached his attacker so closely

The fact that none of us graded out at 100 percent, however, is no justification for charging any of us with any crime, much less a felony. That is precisely why Colorado’s self defense statutes defer to the judgment of the person defending himself to “use the degree of force which he reasonably deems necessary” – not the judgment of some Monday Morning Quarterback prosecutor sitting fat and happy and safe in his guarded, secured office.

These prosecutors who pass illegitimate, nit-picky judgment on citizens and police officers who defend themselves from mortal threats are precisely the kind of “cold and timid” souls Theodore Roosevelt talked about in his famous 1910 speech at the Sorbonne titled Citizenship in a Republic but better known as “The Man in the Arena” speech:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, the prosecutor-critics do count because they have the power to financially ruin, jail, and enslave anyone who dares to bear arms in defense of self or property.

I did not search for these other cases. Mr. Duteil’s case happened right in front of me in a courtroom; Neely and Kelver I learned about from recent news stories. All of them confirm that this insidious assault on liberty is happening not just on Anna Cooling’s watch in Montrose County but all over this once-free country.

These cases, however, are just the current incarnation of an old idea: Ayn Rand detailed the concept of gradual, disguised encroachments on freedom over direct opposition through a scene in her 1957 book, Atlas Shrugged:

“If you breathe the word “censorship” now, they'll all scream bloody murder,” said Dr. Floyd Ferris, director of the State Science Institute, “but if you leave the spirit alone and make it a simple material issue – not a matter of ideas, but just a matter of paper, ink, and printing presses – you accomplish your purpose much more smoothly. You'll make sure nothing dangerous gets printed or heard – and nobody is going to fight over a material issue.”

Tweak it a bit and it’s spookily applicable to the agenda Anna Cooling is allowing her anti-self defense deputy DAs to pursue:

“If you breathe the word “gun control” now, they'll all scream bloody murder. But if you leave the spirit alone and make it a simple criminal justice issue – not a matter of ideas, but just a matter of prosecuting criminals – you accomplish your purpose much more smoothly. You'll destroy the right of self defense – banking on the fact that nobody is going to fight over a prosecutor doing her job.”

This is what Anna Cooling and her DA accomplices here and elsewhere are doing in concert with the moves by Comintern legislatures in Colorado and other states to ban certain guns or magazines: “Shadow banning” the use of any gun for defense of self and property.

A Call to Action

The stakes are existential. In the cases of Mr. Duteil and myself, for example, Anna Cooling’s anti-self defense minions seek to literally destroy our lives; to financially ruin us, steal our birthright as American citizens to keep and bear arms, and turn us into slaves who can neither defend ourselves nor resist tyranny. We are the canaries in the coal mine: Today’s Anna Cooling-enabled attack on Mr. Duteil and me, as well as the DA-fueled attacks on Matthew Neely and Ríhanna Kelver, will become tomorrow’s attacks on you, your loved ones, and your neighbors – all for the “crime” of bearing arms in self defense against a potentially deadly attack.

IF we are who we say we are – lovers of freedom who believe in constitutionally-limited government and the rule of law, and who understand the existential importance to freedom of an armed citizenry that can defend itself from criminals and criminal government

THEN this attack on freedom and liberty cannot stand.

I make the following call to action:

1. Go to this Give-Send-Go campaign account and contribute what you can to what will start as a defense fund for living-on-Social Security me but, more importantly, become the Defense of Self and Property Foundation, dedicated to finding, exposing, defending from, and ultimately eradicating from American law the coordinated attack on the right to keep and bear arms in defense of self and property. Anti-self defense DAs nationwide need to understand that We the Armed Citizens of the United States are fed up with this insidious encroachment on the right to keep and actually bear arms in defense of self and property and we’re going to stop it.

2. Write, email, or call the 7th Judicial District DA’s Office  (12) and respectfully ask DA Cooling to immediately:

• Drop felony menacing and related charges against all 7th Judicial District citizens facing such charges for lawfully defending themselves and/or their property with a firearm;

• Terminate the deferred judgments and associated probation of all 7th Judicial District citizens facing such penalties for bearing arms to defend themselves and/or their property;

• Direct the relevant police agencies to return all case-related firearms, holsters, magazines, and ammunition seized from citizens by those agencies within two business days; and

• Vacate all related Protection Orders against all the above-listed citizens.

IF through these actions we successfully: a) persuade DA Cooling to stop pursuing anti-gun, anti-self defense, anti-property rights, anti-freedom prosecutions; and b) establish the Defense of Self and Property Foundation

THEN we will put on notice all the anti-gun, anti-self defense, anti-property, anti-freedom district attorneys throughout the USA that we are:

a) onto their scheme;

b) we aren’t going to take it any more; and

c) we now have the financial means to help victims of these police-state prosecutions to vigorously defend themselves.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

FOOTNOTES

i  I also organized several BASE jumping events, including Bridge Day 2002, the 2003 Royal Gorge Go Fast Games, and the 2000-2001 Transmillenniun Xtreme Skydive from the then-tallest building on the planet, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The BBC called it “the world’s most spectacular celebration of the real new Millennium.”

ii The bill, which became CRS 18-1-704.5, passed committee by one vote on the strength of my testimony. I was the only one who showed up in favor; fortunately, I dismantled the anti-bill executive director of the DA council who, wide awake, guarded by cops, in a lighted room, took ten minutes to figure out where in the CRS there was maybe a presumption of deadly intent. All I did was point out that waking up in the middle of the night, in the dark, to an unknown-scope threat breaking into your house was not a good time to be thumbing through the CRS to see if you could legally use deadly force against that unknown-scope threat.

iii The so-called “Protection Order” placed on my tenant meant he had to vacate the house where he’d lived for seven years but the drug dealer-prostitute who’d been there less than two months could stay. Nice, huh?

iv Mr. Gilbert has also for some reason been allowed without legal consequence to live illegally for months in a travel trailer (illegal within the city limits), surrounded by garbage, and to trespass at will on multiple nearby properties, including mine.

v Despite the fact I evicted the subject of the P.O. and banned her from stepping foot on my property, DA Cooling and the Court refused to amend it so that my long-term tenant can return to the property – or even work there for me as a handyman.

vi CRS Title 16, Article 13, Part 3 (Criminal Proceedings / Special Proceedings / Abatement of Public Nuisance)

  CRS 16-13-303. Class 1 public nuisance

  (1) Every building or part of a building, including the ground upon which it is situate…shall be deemed a class 1 public nuisance when:

• Used for prostitution, pandering, keeping a place of prostitution, etc.

• Used for illegal gambling.

• Used for controlled substances violations.

• Used for human trafficking, certain thefts, assaults, or other specified felonies.

• Used to facilitate or as proceeds traceable to the above.

vii  Which I always had with me and sometimes wore openly at my Selig property because it was an unpredictable, dangerous environment and who knew what might happen.

viii In addition to keeping the muzzle down because Mr. Gilbert was on the street and thus neither a legitimate target nor an immediate threat, there were by then 5-6 other people at various depths and distance all around both of us, which created a complex “background” that I accounted for as I considered my self defense plan now that I was armed: If Mr. Gilbert came after me, I would retreat around the back of the house to: a) clear the background of non-combatants; b) give Mr. Gilbert a chance to realize it wasn’t a good idea to bring a knife to a gunfight; and c) give the non-combatants a chance to similarly persuade Mr. Gilbert that bringing a knife to a gunfight was a bad idea. Fortunately, Mr. Gilbert had the good sense to stay on the street.

ix  In 50 years of interacting with the police, this was the worst training officer I ever saw. Every single training officer I ever saw, in multiple states from multiple city, county, and state agencies, always stood within 10 feet of their trainees in a “ready” position, watching their every move like a hawk. Not this one; he was 20 feet away, daydreaming and completely uninterested in doing his job, which led in part to my arrest, and to a badly flawed, error-filled police report on the incident.

x "Hence in a constitutional government the fighting-men have the supreme power, and those who possess arms are the citizens." – Aristotle, The Politics, Book II, circa 330 BC.

“The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave." – James Burgh, Political Disquisitions, 1775

xi  For the past several years, Ian Fowler has worn a mask at all times. He claims it is necessary because his wife is immune-compromised, but his conduct makes clear that it is kabuki theater, not medically necessary. First, if Fowler’s claim was legitimate, he would at minimum wear an N95 mask instead of the 15-cent disposable made in a Bangladeshi sweat shop. Second, Fowler would know and strictly observe basic mask protocols, which he doesn’t. Recall that when Covid first hit, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other medical professionals initially advised people to not wear masks and gloves because they wouldn’t observe mask protocols and would therefore put themselves at even greater risk because improperly used masks increase the chances of contamination and thus infection. Fowler ignores all such protocols: As I have seen him do through multiple court appearances, Fowler touches his mask constantly, pulls the mask down constantly to talk 2 inches from the court microphone (the absolute dirtiest, most germ-infested thing in the courtroom), and regularly pulls it down to drink from a non-sterile water bottle, which then contaminates the inside of the mask. He is clearly suffering from a significant mental health issue and thus should not be wielding prosecutorial power.

xii DA Anna Cooling, 7th Judicial District, 1200 N. Grand Ave, Montrose CO 81401, anna.cooling@co7da.org, mail@co7da.org, 970-252-4300.