Shotgun Weddings

Las Vegas is the world capital of tacky weddings. You can get married by Elvis and have a shrimp buffet afterwards! So it’s no surprise that someone set up a range to sell “shotgun weddings.” It’s all in good fun. But of course, the killjoys over at CSGV and the Brady Campaign are having none of it:

“Responsible gun owners appreciate the risks of having a gun,” says Jonathan Hutson spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “They don’t treat a gun casually like a party favor.”

As long as they are following the four rules, I don’t really see what the problem is. Sure, even as a gunny, this wouldn’t really be my cup of tea, but did I mention this was Las Vegas?

To love guns enough to include them in your wedding vows is a problem with our culture, according to Ladd Everitt, the communications director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence in Washington, DC. “We live in a society where a certain subset of gun owners fetishize firearms, talking them as something akin to religious idols,” he said. “There is a strong spiritual element here, where commonly embraced maxims of faith, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me,’ are rejected outright. The gun culture takes great pride in ignoring the risks posed by firearms, and embraces the suffering they cause: ‘That’s the price of liberty.’ Some might describe this philosophy as nihilism.”

I’ll bet Ladd is a load of fun at parties. I’d have left it at “Well, it seems kind of tacky to us,” but I’m not the type of person who wakes up at one in the morning in a cold sweat worrying that someone out there might be having fun.

The State of Gun Control Finances

I’ve suspected for a while that the non-Bloomberg gun control groups had to be in pretty bad shape. Not just because gun control is a losing issue, but because to whatever extent gun control was revived by the President’s exploitation of the Sandy Hook Massacre, most of that benefit has gone to Bloomberg’s organization since everyone else seems to be getting ignored by the media. But to know for sure, we had to wait until the 2013 Form 990s we out. The answer seems to be that everyone in the gun control movement undoubtedly reaped a windfall from the massacre, and their movement’s 501(c)(3) branches continue to do better than they did pre-Sandy Hook.

First, let’s look at the Brady Campaign. In 2012, the Brady Campaign made 4.91 million dollars in revenue, which was up from 2.93 million in 2011. We suspect most of that money poured in during the few weeks after Sandy Hook on December 15, 2012. It was the fight into early 2013 where it became apparent that Bloomberg and the White House were running the gun control agenda, and Brady started falling off everyone’s radar. So it is not surprising that in 2013, the Brady Campaign did not raise as much money as it did in 2012, most of which was probably raised in the first several weeks of that year.

Now for the Brady Center, their 501(c)(3) public charity. It looks to me like they might have shifted their fundraising, and some of their personnel cost over to The Brady Center. The Center didn’t get as much of a windfall in 2012, bringing in 3.82 million versus 2.88 million in 2011. But the Center managed to increase it’s revenue in 2013 to 4.58 million.

I also note that in 2013, salary costs to the Brady Campaign drop by 33%, while the Center’s salary costs increase 31%. I suspect they are shifting more of their personnel costs to the 501(c)(3). Previously, when the Bradys were in really dire straits, it became apparent they were using the Center as a bit of a lifeboat, since the Campaign was nearly out of money. Without a doubt, Sandy Hook saved their asses, and I suspect they are still enjoying some benefit of Obama making gun control cool again.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence had a similar story to the Bradys. They had raised 333 grand in 2011, and 492 grand in 2012. But again, in 2013, they were down to 484 grand. EFSGV, their 501(c)(3) branch, also tracks the Brady Center. In 2011, 460 grand in revenue, then 638 grand in 2012. In 2013, EFSGV raised 950 grand, almost a million dollars. I guess maybe that foaming at the mouth stuff works! They outperformed the Brady Center in terms of revenue growth.

VPC is largely supported by wealthy foundations, but their revenue was also up in 2013. They managed to boost their public support percentage to 21.50%, which is actually still pretty sad, but better than 2011 when it was 17.28% and 2012, when it was 18.17%. I’m sure they are hoping since their public support is heading in the right direction, the IRS will stay off their backs. They typically have to include a letter explain why it’s so low, and what they are doing to bring it up. They’ve been doing this for a while.

It is without doubt Everytown is now king of the gun control movement, with 2103 revenues of 36 million. Their 2012 revenue was 4.86 when they were MAIG. I’d note that Everytown spends previous little on fundraising, which means most of that money is likely coming from Bloomberg. We all pretty much knew as much. Bloomberg is certainly generous about spreading his organization’s wealth around. Their 2013 990 shows a 47,500 grant to CSGV, 6 grand to CeaseFirePA, 263 thousand to Moms Demand Action, among other groups.

So how does Moms Demand Action look? She raised 890 large in 2013, and we know 30% of that came from Bloomberg through Everytown. She spent a reasonable amount on fundraising. You’ll note in their 990, however, that MDA as a separate entity officially terminated the same year, and merged into Everytown. So Shannon Watts’s operation is entirely Everytown, and not a legal, separate entity. Everytown’s 2014 990s will be very interesting. I doubt MDA was ever really independent from Bloomberg, and the whole thing was a Bloomberg-backed venture from the get go.

So where does that leave things? A gun control movement that probably got most of it’s boost in the weeks after Sandy Hook, but are still largely benefitting from the raised awareness the President and Bloomberg’s money have bought the movement. I would not get despondent over their improved fortunes, however. Why?

Because in 2012, NRA’s revenues went from 219MM to 256MM, and in 2013 they went to $348MM. Get that? Between 2011 and 2013, NRA’s revenue increased by 129MM. That’s more than 3x the amount of every other gun control group’s revenue increase from 2011 to 2013 combined. And that’s just NRA proper. The NRA Foundation went from 29MM to 43MM from 2011 to 2012, then dropping slightly to 41MM in 2013, I suspect because people wanted to donate to the political arm since that’s where the threats were coming from.

The President’s and Bloomberg ginning up of gun control post-Sandy Hook has made NRA much stronger proportionally than the gun control movement. That’s because of people out there like you.

More Dumb Lawsuits

Rev. Michael “Snuffy” Pfleger has a problem. He can’t sue gun shops anymore, because they are immune from frivolous lawsuits under PLCAA, and he can’t sue the state or federal government, because they have sovereign immunity. So what’s a radical gun hating Catholic priest to do? Well, sue the town the gun shops are in, of course, under the theory they aren’t keeping a close enough eye on what’s going on in their towns. Our opponents have done very well in the courts, largely because the legal establishment doesn’t think too much of the Second Amendment. I can’t think of any better way of helping change that than by repeated filing of frivolous lawsuits that simple waste the generally very limited time of judges and the court system.

Major Loss for Antis in Court

You remember how Trinity Wall Street church sued Wal-Mart over their selling of AR-15s? The church is a shareholder in Wal-Mart, and they tried to get a proxy ballot put in place that would allow shareholders to vote on whether to tell the Board of Directors to implement standards for gun sales. They had won in district court, but the Third Circuit Court of appeals overturned that decision, arguing that the shareholders were trying to inject themselves directly into Wal-Mart’s business operations, and federal law permits the company to reject attempts to do that. Needless to say, this is good news. If this had been permitted, it would create a template by which anti-gun people could attack all the large FFLs. This ruling is limited to the Third Circuit, but since the Third Circuit encompasses Delaware, and a very large number of businesses incorporate there, this will cover most big companies they might try this with.

Things aren’t going to well for the Brady Center to Cling to Relevance either. A judge has rebuked their complaint against a local FFL, and told them they had 20 days to amend their lawsuit to remove what the judge said “pushes a social agenda” and has nothing to do with the suit. They are not off to a very good start, making a poor impression with the judge.

How’s That Gun Ban Working Out Uber?

Last week Uber decided to add itself to the list of anti-gun companies I won’t do business with. It didn’t take long for one of their drivers to get robbed at gunpoint. I guess the robber hadn’t heard that Uber made a new policy. Surely he’ll be disappointed he’ll be removed from Uber’s network. No stars for you! Then an Uber drive shot someone who was allegedly trying to choke him. I can’t blame him. My car, my life, I’ll take my chances. What’s worse? Ending up dead or ending up kicked off Uber? Uber’s new policy will be widely ignored, and it should be, because the criminals will be the first to ignore it.

Actual Common-sense

Albeit with a side order of a”I’m a gun owner but…” and of course the condescension that the NRA wouldn’t support punishing people who actually misuse firearms, or that the laws he wants generally already exist, or would represent a loosening of the existing laws.

The post proposes (after a lot of political bumph) in a fairly sane way, that the NRA’s safety rules be enacted as federal law and that be it. And, shockingly enough, that safety education be left to a free market, not forced.

Punishing the people who actually misuse a tool, and leaving the innocent users in peace. It’s a radical idea whose time has come, I say.

I can quibble with some of his details (the safe storage requirement he wants is a little too much pre-crimey for me), but it’s a hell of a lot better than anything I’ve seen come out of anti’s recently. And a lot of it should be done by enacting uniform state laws, not action at the federal level. And a lot of his anecdotes would not be changed by changes in law, but by changes in culture – that people be prosecuted for negligent discharges, not allowed to call it an accident and go on. But that’s a problem with drunk driving (his comparison) as well. I have no issues with treating NDs as DUIs, assuming we don’t go to MADD-level idiocy. And he doesn’t mention that the reduction in DUI was achieved not only be increased penalties and enforcement, but by PSAs and other societal education.

The Pope is a Hypocrite

Not being Catholic, and therefore believing the Pope is just a man like any other, I don’t think much of pointing out that the Pope is a hypocrite for declaring that weapons producers and sellers can’t possibly be Christian, and using all manner of pejoratives to describe them. One has to wonder if this includes the weapons producers who make the firearms for his Swiss Guard, which include SIG, Glock, H&K, and Styer? Is that not a who’s who of top global small arms companies? Surely the Swiss Guards themselves are Christians? So how, exactly, are the companies who manufacture, and the people who ultimately sell firearms to his armed guards suddenly not Christians?

This is ludicrous, but I wouldn’t expect much more from someone who very much seems to believe in Liberation Theology. He should disarm the Swiss Guards before he casts stones at others.

This isn’t good news, folks

A lot of people are pointing to a CNN article that references an official statement that the shooter bought the pistol used in the attack himself (and thus passed a NICS check), rather than being given one; despite being under indictment for a disqualifying charge. This is being used as a talking point about the uselessness of BG check. That’s not a good argument against universal background checks, though, certainly not one for our side. It’s an argument for doing away with NICS, yes, but replacing it with the kind of invasive and lengthy background check that predated NICS, and is still in use in NJ and some other places.

We need to be very careful about handing talking points to the other side – pointing out flaws in NICS gives them ammunition to replace it with an actual background investigation.

Brady Loses Another “Bad Apple” Dealer Suit

This was the case in Alaska, where a guy came into Rayco Sales gun shop and stole a gun when the dealer had his back turned. Remember that the Brady Campaign are preying on grieving families by backing their filing of these meritless suits:

“The family is crushed,” Mark Choate, co-counsel for the Kims, told the Empire. “… There was so much evidence that showed there was something being hidden about (Coxe’s) behavior.”

I feel sorry for those people, but the odds were very much stacked against success from the beginning. Their grief was exploited by a gun control organization that is struggling to find relevance in a movement increasingly centered around Mike Bloomberg and his fat wallet.

Choate said even though the jury found Coxe did not sell the weapon to Coday, it doesn’t mean Coxe wasn’t negligent. But a federal gun law — called Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA for short — shields guns dealers and manufacturers from claims of gross negligence, he said.

At first I thought he was wrong about PLCAA covering gross negligence, but it only exempts negligent entrustment and negligence per se. That means they had to prove that Coxe violated a statute or regulation, and couldn’t just argue that overall, he was a sloppy dealer. They jury did not find Brady’s argument credible. Negligence and gross negligence is a more subjective standards, which is probably why they were not exempted. Find the right jury, and they might be willing to side with a plaintiff on those claims even if they are meritless.

This was the Brady Center’s best case, and best hope for a victory, and it’s now gone down in flames. PLCAA is not quite a brick wall for the Brady Center, but it’s certainly harding up very quickly.

More Anti-Gun Bills Introduced by Dems

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) is introducing a bill that would ban the carrying of firearms in the unsecured part of airports unless they are “unloaded and contained in clearly marked, locked cases.” This is, of course, a reaction to the doofuses openly carrying rifles into Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. While I don’t think this bill is going anywhere, it’s always refreshing to have to go on the defensive to fight for what’s already legal and no one was worried about until somebody gave them a reason. But I’m sure some “awareness was raised,” and travelers “educated.”

What’s with the clearly marked cases though? You know that just says “steal me” right?  Theft from airports is already a big problem without having clear external indications as to what’s in the bag. Either way, this is solving a non-problem. What’s interesting is that his bill is being backed by the usual suspects, but not Everytown.