by Mark Bunch
Gun owners, hunters and pro 2nd Amendment members of our citizenry have largely been ignored over the past few years by both sides of the aisle, and have been hungry for their own voices to be heard in our political arena, especially locally.

With the elections of our Pro-2nd Amendment Sheriff Allen Cooper and our Pro-2nd Amendment Mayor Ashley Smith, our local citizenry in Fremont County finally have like minded elected officials on the job who respect what they believe in. Crusader publisher, John Emmerling, is a tireless defender of our Conservative values and our 2nd Amendment rights locally and no matter where I go or what event I sponsor or attend, John Emmerling is always present.
Custer County can also boast the same for their citizenry with their Pro-2nd Amendment Sheriff Shannon Byerly protecting 2nd Amendment rights in the county. The Sentinel publisher, George Gramlich, has been instrumental in keeping our Conservative
Values relevant and well defended and both John and George were in attendance at my 1776 Candidate Forum the last day of February.
Fremont, Custer and Pueblo County residents in attendance were fortunate to get to see three of our Republican candidates running for state and local office come out to the brand-new Royal Gorge Gun Club Armory to meet with and speak to the voters of their respective districts. It was a very pleasant day with mild temperatures in the low 60s to welcome guests and candidates alike.
My lovely management Nikki Bunch made an awesome home-made spaghetti lunch with salad, garlic bread and Timmie Pearson, the President of the local Royal Gorge Republican Women’s group, brought wonderful home-made chocolate chip cookies for everyone. Myra and Sam Smallwood provided some absolutely sinful patriotic cupcakes from their new bakery venture here in Cañon City.
Maripat Sparks, Vice President of the local Royal Gorge Republican Women’s group, answered questions and pre-registered those in attendance to be delegates at the local and state levels to help ensure that our three Conservative Republican candidates are able to prevail in these turbulent times.

Ron Hanks who is running for House District 60 Representative met with his voters and spoke to the group about his vision for helping to defend our conservative values and our 2nd Amendment Rights here locally and once elected to office, at the state level as well. Ron is a 32-year Combat Veteran of the Air Force and he served honorably in many parts of the world that most of us have only read about. Ron is outspoken about what he believes in and what he is going to do for the citizenry while in office. “ I have gotten to know Ron pretty well over the past few months and if you have conservative values and feel like our 2nd Amendment is worth fighting for and being defended, Ron is the ONLY choice you should even consider for House District 60,” said Mark Bunch/President of the Royal Gorge Gun Club and Chairman of the Fremont County NRA. Ron is working Hard to Hold the Line against gun control measures such as the unconstitutional Red Flag Laws and to protect the Citizenry of Fremont, Custer, Park and Chaffee Counties and he deserves your vote. Ron is a proud member of the NRA and the Royal Gorge Gun Club and we ask you to join us in supporting Ron Hanks for House District 60.
Jim Moore and his lovely wife, Cheryl, were also in attendance to meet and greet Conservative Republican voters as Jim is running for Fremont County Commissioner District 1. . Jim has spent most of his life working in Law Enforcement at the Department of Corrections as a Security Major and SORT Team Commander.
Jim Moore is well versed to serve the citizenry of Fremont County and previous to his career in Law Enforcement Jim made his living as a rancher and he knows first hand how hard it is for ranchers and farmers to make a living these days. Jim has some great ideas on how to make things better locally and I liked his ideas on how we work on the homeless problem that is pervading our community.
“If elected as our next Fremont County Commissioner from District 1, Jim will be a tireless protector of our 2nd Amendment rights and a fearless defender of our Conservative values and I recommend him Highly.” Stated Mark Bunch/President Royal Gorge Gun Club and Chairman Fremont County NRA. Jim is a proud member of the NRA and the Royal Gorge Gun Club and we ask you to join us in supporting Jim Moore for Fremont County Commissioner
District 1.
Stephanie Luck, Conservative candidate for House District 47 and her mother Sue were also in attendance at our 1776 Candidate Forum. Stephanie has a wealth of experience in both local micro and worldly macro
views of problems that affect all of us. Stephanie has a very vast background which includes teaching middle school 6th grade students and she knows first-hand how consistent instruction along with relevant curriculum can boost the test scores and outcomes of our children and grand-children. “I personally admire Stephanie’s work in Education, as being from Cañon City, it is a crying shame to see what our children’s and grandchildren’s test scores have sunken to over the past 10 to 20 years locally”, stated Mark Bunch/ President Royal Gorge Gun Club/Chairman Fremont County NRA. Stephanie articulated an excellent description of the homeless problem and has excellent ideas on how to work on solving it for residents of Fremont, Pueblo and Otero counties. I routinely speak with Stephanie’s father, Larry Luck, of Penrose and he is very proud of his daughter Stephanie and justifiably so. Stephanie is also a proud member of the NRA and the Royal Gorge Gun Club and we ask you to join us in supporting Stephanie Luck for House District 47.
If you are tired of what you hear and see on TV and radio about what the overwhelming majority of our elected officials are doing with your tax dollars in the way of illegal alien appreciation and completely ignoring our concerns and interests, then you need to get off your you-know-whats and help us make a stand locally.
All three of our Conservative and A+ NRA candidates need help at the local and state caucus PLEASE come out and support our three candidates, Ron Hanks for House District 60, Jim Moore Fremont County Commissioner District 1, and Stephanie Luck for House District 47.
Being a delegate is easy, anyone interested in contributing and helping us out in our fight to protect our rights and freedoms at the local level can get ahold of MariPat Sparks to get registered, her email address is: maripat@gmail.com
We had two winners of our NRA Yeti Coolers at our 1776 Candidate Forum, Justin and Patricia Scott, and Jock and Pat Harmon. You can come by and pick up your awesome new Yeti Coolers anytime at our RGGC Armory Training Center.
Our next 1776 Candidate Forum will be held on March 21st from 1 to 4 p.m. and more door prizes will be available for those 1776 Patriots in attendance who come to listen to our Conservative candidates for public office.
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
—Thomas Jefferson 1776