There is a bill that’s been introduced in Pennsylvania to implement Ammunition Accountability that we talked about last night. It’s HB 2228. I haven’t talked about this yet, because it’s still in committee, and not much of a threat at this moment, but that could change any minute.
The lobbying firm that runs the Ammunition Accountability web site is Gordon Thomas Honeywell, presumably their Governmental Affairs Group. You will notice that they list ACS as a client. Important to note that until recently Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs was known as Smith Alling Lane Government Affairs.
Tim Shellberg, who is President of GTH Government Affairs has several times donated to the campaign of Washington State Representative Allister O’Brien, who is the lead sponsor of the Washington Ammunition encoding bill. I also notice that Gun Owners Action League of Washington has donated quite a bit to his campaign as well. Not enough it would seem. O’Brien failed to win an endorsement from NRA last election.
And to think, Russell Ford said on Cam’s show he wants this whole thing to be as transparent as possible. Transparent as in we hire a lobbying firm to anonymously set up a web site to push for model legislation, and to lobby key legislators that have been quietly bought off, in order to be able to skim off the top of every one of the eight billion rounds of ammunition produced each year. You have to admit, that’s quite an ingenious scam, that would make even the most talented con artist jealous. And it’s all legal.
Be sure to tune into Cam’s show at NRANews.com or on Sirius Patriot 144, Thursday at 10PM to hear the re-broadcast of the interview with this worm.
What’s the source on that “8 billion per year”? I’m just interested for citing purposes…
McZombie, The actual numbers are difficult to come by. Here is a source http://www.nssf.org/share/PDF/SAAMI_Ltr_CA.pdf but there is no basis given for that number so I’m not entirely comfortable with it.
Other people, at different points in time, have come up with different numbers: http://blog.joehuffman.org/2005/08/26/QuoteOfTheDayCoalitionToStopGunViolence.aspx
http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/11/21/UpdateOnAmmoMarking.aspx
Somewhere in the 5 to 10 billion seems to be a something everyone is comfortable with but that might be because everyone is looking over everyone else’s shoulder.
It’s looking like the ammo encoding bills (all 4 of them) in IL are getting hammered by phone calls from opponents.
http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8438
So, that billion number only includes U.S. production?
(It would be interesting to know how much ammo Russia and China produce, though.)
A lot, but they won’t be able to sell it here unless it’s encoded if these laws pass.
A little basic detective work is required. their website lists a business address in Seattle, in a strip mall, among a few small stores, a Starbucks seeming to be the most significant.
Where does a tiny company like this get the resources to lobby and contribute enough dollars to the campaigns of senior legislators to get this claptrap introduced in 9 legislatures?
I could afford their office. They list no company officers on their website. Their patent has been applied for quite a while and not awarded, but States are introducing legislation based on this company’s ownership of laser engraving technology, WHICH THEY DO NOT OWN!
Is this some little guy’s pipe dream as an inventor to change things in a big way? I think not, because no “little guy” would have the resources to make this fly in all those States.
We have to find out who runs Ammunition Coding Systems, and who gives them money to hire expensive lobbyists, and who pays the expense accounts for those lobbyists to do their work.
My guess is than when you get to bottom of this pile of questions, you will find George Soros’ dollars involved, maybe through the VPS or the Joyce Foundation.
We have to find out who runs Ammunition Coding Systems, and who gives them money to hire expensive lobbyists, and who pays the expense accounts for those lobbyists to do their work.
That’s the six million dollar question. Though it seems to me that the firm that was hired is pretty Washington State centric. I can’t speak for other states, but in Pennsylvania, if I asked the sponsors of the bill here to introduce a bill that would require gun owners to get the serial number of every gun they own tattooed on their asses, they’d probably help me out. There are probably legislators in a lot of states who will be happy to stick it to gun owners without needing a campaign contribution, just because they don’t like us.
That’s not to say there isn’t a gun control force behind this, but I’d also consider the possibility that it’s folks who don’t care too much about guns one way or another, and are just to use government to force gun owners to pay a tax to them.
If I Googled his name correctly, Steve Mace and Russ Ford also have a company called “Ravensforge” which creates “SkateBlocks” to stop skateboards and rollerblades. They apparently made several million dollars doing this. They are also involved in real estate.
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2002/11/18/smallb1.html
Wow… these guys must wake up in a cold sweat at night worried that people might be out there having fun, and spend their days thinking up ways to cash in on preventing them from having any.
Well, the skateboarders in particular seem to cause damage to railings and low walls when they “grind”. I can see that as a problem.
There appears to be a second company that sells the same things; they may even be more successful than these two. In fact, they apparently both invented them in 1998 at the same time…
How often do you yourself Rollerblade or do you just write about it?
Can I ask though – how did you get this picked up and into google news?
Very impressive that this blog is syndicated through Google and is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?
Obviously this is a popular blog with great data so well done on your seo success..
Rollerblading greats you should write about next.