Category: Anti-Gun Folks

Apparently we’re pushing a bill in Congress to exempt guns from claims of creditors. Some people say it’s a bad idea for reasons other than hating guns. Josh Sugarmann thinks it’s a bad idea because people in bankruptcy are probably going to go nuts and kill people. Clearly inside every bankruptcy filer is a murderer just waiting to get out? What faith Josh has in his fellow citizens!

UPDATE: Looks like the Brady Campaign are joining in the “People in Bankruptcy are potential murderers” bandwagon. How long before they demand Congress close the dreaded “Bankruptcy Loophole?” It’s really hard for me to understand how you can think so low of your fellow citizens.

Citizens for Safety is pushing a video, purportedly featuring gun owners, to push Deval Patrick’s gun control agenda:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb0Tk-xEQ_Q[/youtube]

You can read more about these individuals here. We’re made to think they are just ordinary gun owning folk. Except the Chelan Brown was a Democratic candidate for state-rep at one point, one who was apparently known for plagiarizing portions of her web site from other candidates. She was also President of AWAKE, Inc, and has testified in favor of gun control. Jim Mathes is also a democratic activist who considered running for Mayor of New Bedford at one point.

In short, these aren’t ordinary gun owners. They are part of the Democratic political establishment in Massachusetts. They can’t win without deception.

UPDATE: Also notice the lack of eye and ear protection when she’s shooting. Did they have anyone involved in this venture who was actually a real shooter?

The City of Columbus, Ohio seems to think the solution is to try harder, with vigor this time:

“Young people have access to weapons and they’re using those weapons and unfortunately we’ve tried a lot through the city. The mayor in the past, we’ve brought weapons in, we’ve had strike patrols, we’ve done many many things to try to remove them. But, as we’re constantly trying to do our work, there’s another element out there that is also doing their work and putting those guns on the street,” Tyson said.

They might want to think about trying to get the gang members who are carrying the guns off the street rather than take the guns off the street. Maybe if you actually locked these delinquents up you’d see crime drop. In what messed up world does it make sense to take away the tools and leave them on the street? If you catch a burglar trying to pry open a window with a crowbar, do you take his crowbar, shake your finger at him, and send him on his way? No, that would be insane. But such is the logic of gun prohibitionists.

According to No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money, the Bradys now have their own travel site. They are advertising it over on their own site too. As I am wont to do when it comes to our opponents, I did some digging. If you go to the BradyWorldTravel.com web site, you will notice that it redirects you to what is essentially a YTB Travel Affiliate. The site is run by an organization known as YTB International, which is a multi-level marketing firm, located out of Wood River, Illinois. Sounds like a swell bunch of guys to me:

California Attorney General Jerry Brown and former employees sued the company in early August, 2008, alleging it to be a pyramid scheme, among other claims. The Illinois Better Business Bureau and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined Brown in investigating the company.^[20]

Brown sued the company for $25 million in early August 2008, charging unfair business practices, false advertising, and operating a “gigantic pyramid scheme that is immensely profitable to a few individuals on top and a complete rip-off for most everyone else”.^[21] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings showed that the company’s three creators earned more than $2 million in 2007, a dozen salespeople earned more than $800,000, and dozens earned more than $100,000.^[11] Brown’s lawsuit indicates that 45,000 sales reps earned an average of about $90 in 2007 and of their 200,000 total agents, some 125,000 earned nothing and 37,000 earned less than $39.^[11] On May 14, 2009, California authorities settled their suit with YTB for $1 million. As part of the settlement, YTB agreed to restructure, possibly hastening a transition to a franchise system. That same day, Madigan filed a similar suit in Illinois.^[22] Brown said the agreement would put an end to the $450, $50 per month unprofitable personalized websites.^[15]

Their Wikipedia page also notes that:

However by late 2008, YTB laid off 17 employees, a move that was part of a reorganization.^[12] Later that year it announced plans to sell an office building and its corporate Learjet.^[13] In 2008 the company’s revenues were $44.8 million.^[14] YTB said its independent audit at the end of 2008 expressed “substantial doubt about our company’s ability to continue as a going concern”,^[15] a sentiment the company itself later echoed.^[16]

The company hit trouble spots in 2009, operating at a loss of $1.9 million for the first three months of the year. Revenue in that quarter dropped 49% to $21.8 million^[15] and then to $18 million in the second quarter.^[16] The company’s paying members also declined substantially in number, from a high in April 2008 of 138,000 to 60,414 in mid-2009.^[17] In 2009 YTB also sold RezConnect, by then its technology and booking arm, to two of RezConnect’s officers. Under the terms of the sale, YTB would indemnify the new owners for any YTB-related liabilities.^[18]

Sounds like they are a perfect match for the Bradys, since their future seems to be just about as bright, and their product is a lie. John Richardson notes, “I guess when donations are down you’ll do just about anything to stay afloat.” How right you are, because that would seem to involve jumping into partnership with people who are highly questionable, at best, and then hawking it to their presumably unaware members.

Apparently the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence Executive Director, Thom Mannard, thinks McDonald was a front for corporations who just want to make a profit off selling guns. Complete denial that this is a grassroots civil rights movement. I wonder how he’d react if he knew that the gun industry was completely on board with the Gun Control Act of 1968, since the importation restrictions greatly benefited a domestic industry that was hurt by cheap surplus imports. Let’s also not forget the industries attempts in the 1990s to make nice with the Clinton Administration by accepting gun control arrangements. Hate to tell Thom Mannard, but it’s his fellow citizens, not the gun industry, that are driving this movement.

But I suppose it’s easier for him to live with himself if he believes he’s fighting some faceless “gun lobby” and dispassionate “gun industry” rather than trying to deny a retired veteran living in a gang infested neighborhood his God-given right to defend himself.

So now VPC is proud that they are supplementing and updating their excellent Google research with even more Google research. It’s easy to understand why. VPC increasingly has no money to spend on programs. On their 2008 tax return, of the approximately 890,000 dollars VPC took in, they spent 513,738 on salaries and benefits for employees, including a compensation package of 145,120 each for Sugarmann and Rand. That’s almost a 6% raise in compensation over the previous year. Not bad for tough times, eh? Sure, they had a better fundraising year in 2008, 7% higher than 2007. But their public support percentage dropped by 2%, from 24% to 22% meaning they are getting more big donors rather than many smaller ones. The NRA Foundation, on the other hand, has a public support percentage of 92%.

I guess it’s a good thing for Sugarmann and Rand that their donors don’t check to carefully, or don’t care what they are getting for their money. It’s a sweet gig he has going. I’m almost jealous.

Looks like Bellesiles was taken for a ride by his student. Jim Lindgren notes there will be more later.

I think the amusing thing about the Brady reaction to Skoien is that they seem to be most happy that they believe this has taken the jam out of our donut, so to speak. I also notice that Dennis can’t bear to say gun rights without the delegitimizing quotes.

The truth is that we’re going to have setbacks, and looking at things, it would seem the 7th Circuit may fight to the Supreme Court on guns. It’s guaranteed that sister circuits may rule differently. To me the question is how strong the Heller majority is. The 7th circuit may be closed to us, but other circuits are sure to be more obedient, and take the right more seriously. It’s not time for the Brady’s to be giving us the raspberry quite yet.