Beware of Brady's in camo...
... by which I mean anti-gun organizations pretending to be pro-gun
organizations. In this case I'm talking specifically about
www.huntersandshooters.com. They've got a nice website that quotes from the 2nd
Amendment and claims to favor "protecting our homes, preserving our
liberties, hunting, and sport shooting". But when you start to
dig a little deeper, it seems they are all about regulation:
Make no mistake, we have existing pro-gun organizations working very effectively on training, safety, hunting and range regulations, and so on. We don't need another organization doing this... especially if we can't trust it. And we can't trust these folks. How do I know? Their President is Ray Schoenke, who seems clean at first glance... but in 1996 his firm donated $1000 to the campaign of Torricelli (D-NJ). New Jersey is a gun control paradise and Torricelli has voted consistently in favor of gun control. Ray himself ran for the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland. Their executive director is Bob Ricker, infamous traitor to the gun industry. He used to lobby for us, before he decided that the role of Brutus was better suited to his temperment. He's provided testimony in prominent firearms-liability lawsuits -- testimony against the gun industry. Their president is John E Rosenthal, who has worked with the "gun violence prevention efforts" of Boston, Massachussetts. He co-founded the gun-control group "Stop Handgun Violence", and suggests that the gun laws of Massachusetts should be the model for the country. He's spent a great deal of money on anti-gun advertising, including a national billboard campaign in collaboration with Handgun Control president Michael Barnes. Their co-chairman is Jody Powell, Washington lawyer, whose experience includes service in the administration of Jimmy Carter, and whose tenure as White House press secretary immediately preceded that of James Brady. He lobbied against the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He doesn't seem attached to the truth; "now [the truth] almost doesn't seem to get attention paid to it anymore." Their board of directors includes Joseph J Vince, whose career in law enforcement includes time as an ATF "special agent" whose experience includes undercover work in the "intelligence division". That means infiltration, folks. And here he is heading up a supposedly pro-gun organization... well, never mind the tinfoil hat theories, here's some good juicy stuff. He's also the president of Crime Gun Solutions, a gun control consultency business that has done work for the infamous Violence Policy Center. He describes America as "absolutely the best place for a terrorist to equip himself with guns" and claims assault weapons are more powerful than rocket launchers in a 60-minutes hit piece. The credit for this story goes to reader Jay, who wrote in with a tip about them, saying he was suspicious of their real stance. He did some research, picked up on the Bob Ricker connection, and wrote them email asking which firearms regulation measures their group opposes, since they support the "assault weapons ban" and bans on "cop-killer bullets". No response to the email yet, but I'll pass one along if he gets one. Thanks, Jay. These folks are definitely not on our side. UPDATE: More details on DHS, a Democratic consultancy that owns the domain name, from Countertop Chronicles; and more on Crime Gun Solutions from The War On Guns. UPDATE: GunLawNews has more details on the organization, particularly the financial angle. UPDATE: John Lott has still more. UPDATE: The War on Guns was there first... but he used the Mainstream Media to get the message out, so his column will be several months in the pipeline. UPDATE: Welcome, Outdoors Unlimited visitors. That's an impressive amount of traffic for one tiny-print link in the middle of a very busy page. I hope you'll feel free to look around the blog, and bookmark it to come back later; I cover firearms and liberty issues regularly, with an emphasis on ways that individuals can make a difference in the political process. You may also be interested in my coverage of the Seegars and Parker cases, one or both of which may well put the 2nd Amendment before the Supreme Court in the near future. I've also asked for input on other cases that need that kind of coverage. Please feel free to leave a comment or two pointing out what you think I should be covering. UPDATE: The NRA's Digger's Corner had this story on July 28th. UPDATE: The group has changed their domain registration to conceal their connection to the Democratic consultant group. |
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