The war of words over gun control escalated on Friday between two conservative titans who are staking out starkly opposed stances.

Dudley Brown, founder and executive of the ultra-hardline Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (the group says the NRA is too soft when it comes to defending 2nd Amendment rights), sparred with the Independence Institute’s Dave Kopel over legislative proposals surrounding a 2013 law limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines to 15 rounds. Brown is holding firm that only a full repeal of the measure will do, while Kopel has argued that raising the limit to 30 rounds counts as a win.

Brown complained last Thursday during an appearance on KHOW 760-AM that Kopel is just a Democrat in gun-rights clothing and has been willing to settle for compromise “at every turn.” A day later, Kopel fired back on the Colorado Public Television “Colorado Inside Out” show, calling Brown “a liar, a huckster and a hoax.” Brown holds an unwavering — and unrealistic — line, Kopel maintained, because actually finding solutions would put a crimp on RMGO’s fundraising machine.

The two factions have been at increasingly vitriolic odds in recent weeks as Democrats have floated the possibility of raising the magazine limit, one of the most contentious elements of a gun-control package the Legislature passed two years ago when the party held wide majorities in both chambers. Two state senators were recalled by voters and a third stepped down in the face of a recall threat.

Brown also claimed credit on the radio last week for flipping control of the state Senate into Republican hands in the last election. “It’s our organization and our PAC that spent the money to elect the legislature and take the Senate from the Democrats,” Brown said, He encouraged Coloradans to go out and buy 30-round magazines from retailers who disagree with the ban. “They ignore the law, and God bless them for doing so,” Brown said.

Earlier in the week, Brown had called Kopel and the Institute a “sleeper cell” for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a well known gun control advocate who spent heavily to defend Democratic senators in the recall elections.