Kim Norvell

knorvell@dmreg.com

JOHNSTON, Ia. — Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul announced Sunday that volunteers have made more than a half million phone calls to likely caucusgoers in Iowa on his behalf.

The phone calls are part of a larger effort by the campaign to speak with one million voters before Feb. 1. Paul met with more than 50 volunteers on Sunday who were making calls at the campaign’s Iowa headquarters in Des Moines after he visited a shooting range in Johnston.

The Kentucky senator said the volunteers’ efforts, plus a recent announcement that he has 1,007 precinct captains, shows how organized his Iowa campaign is.

“To make a half a million phone calls is no small feat,” he said as volunteers rang a cowbell in the background — a signal that they’ve just solidified as another caucus commitment. “I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”

An hour earlier, Paul visited CrossRoads Shooting Sports where he shot at a picture of the IRS Tax Code with an AR-15.

“We should be allowed to defend ourselves,” he said. “It shouldn’t be less self-defense, it should be more self-defense.”During a brief speech, Paul said “guns are not a bad thing” and he wants to expand the Second Amendment. He hopes to make it easier for commercial pilots to have guns in the cockpit, to allow members of the military to carry guns on bases and to reduce the number of gun-free zones in the country.

Paul’s visit to Iowa comes after he made headlines for skipping the Fox Business Network’s undercard debate on Thursday. The senator’s standing in the polls did not qualify him for the network’s prime time debate. Paul sits at 5 percent in Iowa, according to the latest The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll.

He said their boycott was actually more successful for their efforts. Paul said he conducted at least 25 national interviews, including an appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and held a Twitter town hall meeting that got his name trending.

“We think it was a dirty rotten thing that the (Republican) Party did to us and we don’t like it,” Paul said. “So we took our message directly to the people.”

AT THE EVENTS

SETTING: Paul shot an AR-15 at the indoor range in Johnston before heading to his Iowa campaign headquarters to meet with volunteers.

CROWD: About 50 people were at each event.

REACTION: Volunteers for Paul's presidential campaign chanted and cheered multiple times for the senator. Several people crowded around windows in the shooting range to watch Paul fire his weapon.

WHAT’S NEXT: Paul will be in the Des Moines metro Monday for several events, including a rally for fiscal sanity and a meeting with The Des Moines Register editorial board.