Jeff Quinn of GunBlast.com passed away today according to multiple reports. I don’t know the circumstances yet but will update this later. He had health issues in recent years including diabetes.
Jeff knew his guns and did excellent reviews of them on his GunBlast.com. I featured his reports from the SHOT Show many a time as they were great.
He will be missed.
Guiding is hard work. While I have never gone out with a hunting guide, I have gone out with a fishing guide during the summer. One of my most memorable trips started at 8am and didn’t end until we got off the river at 11pm. I know it was hard for me but it was harder for the guide.
The pandemic has impacted and will continue to impact hunting guides and outfitters worldwide. I know people who have had to cancel trips to Africa and undoubtedly the pandemic will impact guided hunting here in the Northern Hemisphere.
To help mitigate the impact, Safari Club International is holding an online benefit that starts on Saturday, August 1st, and runs until August 22nd.
More about these event in their release below:
Washington, DC (July 27, 2020) – To support professional hunters and outfitters negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, Safari Club International (SCI) is launching the Share the Impact Outfitter Benefit, a multi-day online charity event that runs from August 1-22.
SCI is painfully aware of the terrible toll the current pandemic, and related restrictions continue to have on the professional hunting industry. These unprecedented challenges facing outfitters affect the entire hunting world and wildlife conservation worldwide, which is why it’s vital that we “share the impact.”
In response to this need, SCI will host the Share the Impact Outfitter Benefit, representing one of the largest-if not the largest-fundraising effort from the organization in recent memory. The online charity event is dedicated to assisting the industry and will begin on Aug. 1 and runs to SCI’s Summer Board Meeting on August 22nd.
“The challenges being faced by outfitters affect us all, and without our support, there will be devastating effects for the wildlife conservation movement worldwide,” SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin said. “It’s vital that we come together now to share the impact of the pandemic and support our guides and outfitters.”
The program will include an online auction of donated items and unique experiences, with 100% of the net proceeds going directly to industry relief through outfitter associations. These associations can provide direct assistance to guides and outfitters, making the most of fundraising contributions for those negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
Bidding opens on August 1st. For more more information about the Share the Impact Outfitter Benefit, visit safariclub.org/sharetheimpact.
Outfitter associations include those in Canada, the US, South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, and more.
I thought it might be easier for people to listen to the podcast episode in question if I just embedded it here.
As I said in my post yesterday, listening to both Dezarae Payne and Michael Schwartz describe how Paul Payne worked to rig elections at the direction of Wayne LaPierre is much more forceful than anything I could write about it.
The key thing to remember about both of these people – they are not anti-gunners but rather advocates for the Second Amendment who are still active in the fight for gun rights in California. Schwartz is the executive director of San Diego County Gun Owners and Ms. Payne is with Riverside County Gun Owners.
I have always felt that Wayne LaPierre seemed like an insecure person from the first time I saw him in person. That was at the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte in 2010 where he was walking the floor with a team of personal bodyguards. If there was anywhere he should be feel safe, you would think it was there.
While I didn’t realize it then, his personal insecurity goes far deeper in my opinion.
We have watched him force out Ollie North as NRA President and continue to harass him in court. Ollie, a long time board member, didn’t want to be a mere figurehead and that was a threat to Wayne.
We watched him accuse Chris Cox of treason based upon innocuous phone texts. Chris had long been seen as the heir apparent when Wayne retired. It led to Chris resigning instead.
We have watched him use subpoenas as a threat against both board members and outsiders.
We have watched him take private planes and try to have the NRA buy him a mansion in Dallas because he was afraid for his personal safety despite his bodyguards.
We have watched him surround himself with staff whose backgrounds made them utterly dependent upon him for their jobs. I’m talking about his personal assistant who is a prohibited person, his former chief of staff whom most found to be an incompetent, and even a CFO who had embezzled in his prior position.
Despite all of this, I never thought Wayne would have to resort to rigging elections to the Board of Directors to preserve his position.
I was wrong.
The podcast Gangster Capitalism has been running a series about the NRA this year. They thought they had finished Season Two when they got a tip from Dezarae Payne and Michael Schwartz. Both had been active in the NRA Members’ Councils of California. It turns out the Members Councils were not really the grass roots activists fighting for the preservation of gun rights in California. Rather they became a tool to be used by Wayne to assure the election to the board of people supportive of him and keep him in power.
The key to the scheme was Paul Payne who is employed by the NRA as the Liaison to the Executive Vice President. Payne, who is separated from Ms. Payne, was paid by the NRA $80,000 annually, had a $3,000 monthly expense account, had a leased car of his choice, and had a personal assistant who was paid $60,000 a year. Of course, he had benefits on top of this.
From The Trace which picked up the story:
Dezarae Payne told the podcast that every year LaPierre’s office gives Paul Payne the names of NRA board candidates considered allies of the longtime boss of the gun group. Payne then works through the council to lobby NRA members in California to vote for those candidates. Because such a small percentage of members take part in the annual mail ballot election for board seats, Dezarea Payne said, her husband’s electioneering has routinely been critical to victory.
But that wasn’t the whole of it.
Every year, Dezarea Payne said, her husband solicits volunteers who are flown to the convention to encourage members to back LaPierre’s favored candidate for the one-year term. These volunteers are given free concert and event tickets at the convention, and treated to a lavish dinner with LaPierre and his key aides. Payne said the trip costs the NRA $35,000 to $45,000 and has been a clandestine affair. “You have to be completely loyal to Wayne,” she said of the volunteers, who typically number up to a dozen. “You can’t question what they are doing, you have to be secretive, you can’t tell people what you are doing, who you work for.”
I saw this in action at the 2018 Annual Meeting in Dallas. Liston Matthews of the Good Hill Press Blog and I stayed at the Fairfield Inn in the Cockrell Hill section of town. There were a number of people there from the Members’ Council of California and they were talking up Herb Lankford for 76th Director. However, we were supporting Adam Kraut in his second attempt at the board. If you walked on the floor of the expo center, you saw support for Adam everywhere. Nonetheless, Mr. Lankford was elected. Not to dismiss Mr. Lankford but I wondered why a bunch of guys from California were so up on someone from Columbia, South Carolina. It didn’t make sense then but it does now.
You really need to listen to the podcast. You have to hear it in the words of Ms. Payne and Mr. Schwartz. Merely reading it does not have the same impact.
Wayne’s personal insecurity reminds me a lot of Richard Nixon in 1972. They both directly or indirectly resorted to stuff to assure their position when it wasn’t needed. There was no way that Richard Nixon was going to lose to George McGovern but Watergate still happened. As to the NRA, the bylaws make it virtually impossible to oust Wayne.
What happens now is anybody’s guess. The Board could demand Wayne’s retirement or resignation but I somehow doubt that will happen. The Attorney General of New York will probably add this to her list of things to investigate. The one thing that is sure is that just when we face a critical election for gun rights, Wayne’s attention – and the NRA’s by extension – will be elsewhere.
As I posted last week, the Gun Rights Policy Conference is going virtual. With the restrictions due to the pandemic, it is was just impossible to hold the conference like normal. Alan Gottlieb said on the Polite Society Podcast that the hotel would have had to limit attendance in the ballroom to 125. Given that last year in Phoenix on Saturday they had more than 1,000 attendees, this just was not workable. When you add in congregating in the hallways during breaks in the session, it would have been a nightmare.
If you are on any of the email lists for the gun prohibitionist organizations like Brady United or the Cult of Personality Known as Giffords, you know that you get requests for donations on an almost daily basis. They are almost as bad as the politicians and that is saying something. People will often complain about the NRA but their pleas for money are not nearly as frequent as any of the anti-gun folks.
So why am I bringing this up?
A friend who I have met at multiple Gun Rights Policy Conferences sent me a suggestion on Sunday. Brent said that wouldn’t it be cool if people donated some of the money saved not traveling to Orlando to the Second Amendment Foundation.
What a great idea!
Say you were driving from Atlanta to Orlando. That is about 450 miles one-way or at least two tanks of gasoline. Let’s say you have a 15 gallon tank and gas is $2 a gallon. That’s $30 each way plus two nights in a hotel. I would conservatively estimate you would have had to spend $300 not including food. While donating $300 to SAF would be fantastic as would even half of that, I think a donation of the equivalent of a tankful of gas at $30 would certainly be helpful in their fight to win back gun rights one lawsuit at a time.
The Gun Rights Policy Conference is a money-spender and not a money-maker for SAF. It costs them a bunch to put the event on. Attendance is free, the box lunches are free, the coffee and treats during the breaks are free, the receptions are free, and the pile of books you get are free. Even with sponsors it still costs a lot of their own money to put on. And it will still cost money to do it virtually.
So if you were planning to attend GRPC – or even if you were not – think about making a donation to help the fight go on. Your future gun rights may depend on it.
SAF’s donation page is here. Please donate generously!
According to an article in the Springfield, MO News-Leader, the NRA Annual Meeting of Members and Board Meeting scheduled for Labor Day weekend is being rescheduled.
The head of Springfield’s convention and visitors bureau confirmed Monday that the National Rifle Association annual meeting slated to be held in Springfield on Sept. 5 is expected to be rescheduled.
“Apparently, they are going to reschedule for November here in Springfield,” said Tracy Kimberlin, president and CEO of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, in an email to the News-Leader.
Dana Maugans, another CVB official, said NRA leadership “have not settled on dates yet” but intend to move the meeting to November.
This goes to confirm a Tweet posted yesterday by Asher Stockler who formerly was with Newsweek.
NEW: Something odd afoot. The NRA’s perennially rescheduled Annual Meeting is… being rescheduled *again*.
— Asher Stockler (@quasiasher) July 19, 2020
A hastily called meeting of the Executive Committee (to occur via teleconference Monday) will “address the need for further rescheduling” of Annual & Fall board meetings. pic.twitter.com/aw80uyUdmS
Rumors of the rescheduling surfaced on the Facebook group Save the Second this morning as well.
As I understand it, the City of Springfield and Greene County had significant limits on the number of people that could attend in their Phase 3 Road to Recovery plan. By my estimation, the Springfield Exp Center would have been limited to 375 attendees provided they used the entire meeting space of 45,000 square feet. Public assemblies are limited to 25% of the capacity until October 15th.
Of course, I have my plane ticket and room reservations. The reservations for the room are no problem but now I have see whether I can roll the previous ticket over to the next meeting.
As soon as I have a confirmed date, I will post it.
The McClatchy chain of newspapers is in bankruptcy. The chain includes such newspapers as the Sacremento Bee, the Miami Herald, and The State (Columbia, SC). Closer to me they own three of the ten largest newspapers in North Carolina including The Charlotte Observer and the News and Observer of Raleigh. While I can’t speak to the non-NC parts of McClatchy, their NC papers tend to be very anti-gun.
New Jersey-based Chatham Asset Management, a hedge fund, is their largest creditor and has won an auction to buy the chain. The auction results must be finalized by the bankruptcy court.
“From the outset of this voluntary Chapter 11 filing, our aim was to permanently address both the company’s legacy debt and pension obligations and strengthen our balance sheet in order to provide greater certainty and stability to the wider group of our colleagues and stakeholders who benefit from a restructured McClatchy,” Craig Forman, president and CEO of McClatchy, said in a statement Sunday.
“We’re pleased that Chatham and the supportive secured first-lien creditors believe in our business and our mission and are helping to achieve these goals.”
When McClatchy, the nation’s second largest local news company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, its restructuring plan called for Chatham, which has been an investor since 2009, to emerge as owner. The company, whose stock had been publicly traded, would be under private ownership.
After the pandemic disrupted the economy in March, McClatchy added a second exit option, putting itself up for sale.
Chatham owns a couple of other newspaper & media companies: Canadian based Postmedia Network and American Media.
American Media was the parent company of the National Enquirer until April 2019 when it was forced to sell it by Chatham. It was erroneously reported by the News & Observer that they still owned it. Nonetheless, they retained such paragons of journalism as US Weekly, the Star, and inTouch.
As the conservative-leaning Carolina Partnership for Reform noted:
Just think… if you didn’t believe the news from these papers before, now you’ll have a reason to say why. And if you like scandal and sensation, you won’t have to go to the grocery store checkout aisle to get it.
When you consider it, the pairing of the News and Observer as a sister company to the American Media offerings is quite appropriate. While they are now piously progressive, as a student of North Carolina history, it is hard to forget their role in advancing white supremacy on behalf of the Democratic Party. Whether it was editorials attacking miscegenation or their scurrilous cartoons, the N&O (and the Charlotte Observer) was more sensational in its earlier days than even the tabloids are today.
As I said in the headline, how appropriate.
Another major event in the outdoor-sporting-weapons space has been canceled due to COVID-19. The 2020 BLADE Show scheduled for August 7-9 in metro Atlanta has been called off. It had been previously postponed from June.
The BLADE Show is the major event of the year for knife lovers and knife makers. It was to have had 950 exhibitors, multiple seminars and classes, and competitions such as the Balisong Flipping Championships. Unlike the SHOT Show, it was open to the public and you could buy from exhibitors. Sponsored by BLADE Magazine, this was to have been the 39th annual show. Moreover, unlike the Gun Rights Policy Conference, it would have been impossible to hold such an event virtually.
The official announcement of the cancellation is below:
With the 39th annual BLADE Show scheduled for Aug. 7-9, we have been receiving countless questions from exhibitors and attendees about the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the show and its guests.
Unfortunately, we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it’s in the best interest of all concerned to cancel BLADE Show 2020.
Please know that we did not reach this decision lightly. Having been in daily contact with guests, exhibitors, local officials and the show venue for the past two months, it has become apparent that we cannot present a 2020 event that meets exhibitor and attendee expectations and BLADE Show standards.
While the state of Georgia continues to grapple with decisions about new guidelines and restrictions to deal with the pandemic, BLADE Show too recognizes its responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of all attendees.
BLADE Magazine and the BLADE Show staff appreciate the support we received from our many industry friends who worked with us to plan for the alternate August dates after we were forced to cancel the original June event.
The 40th Annual BLADE Show is scheduled for June 4-6th 2021, at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.
**CURRENT EXHIBITORS & TICKET HOLDERS: Please check your emails for further instructions**
If this pandemic ever ends, events held in 2021 should have tremendous attendance due to pent up demand.
The Czech Republic is on its way to add the equivalent of the Second Amendment to their Constitution. The right to defend oneself and other with a firearm would be added to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. That is their Bill of Rights.
The Czech government had thrown its support behind amending the country’s constitution to add the right to defend oneself and others with a firearm to the list of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
The Czech Senate proposed the amendment after it had received a petition with more than 100,000 signatures fearing the potential impacts of the EU’s Firearm Directive on the possession of firearms in the country.
While the government was expected to take a neutral stance on the issue, it nevertheless decided, after an intense debate, to support the amendment.
However, the amendment needs to be backed by three-fifths of lawmakers in both of parliament’s chambers.
The EU’s firearms policy reform toughened gun control across the bloc and made it harder for EU citizens to obtain and possess certain weapons, as well as created tougher rules for licensing and registration of guns.
The Czech Republic had challenged the ban on semi-automatic rifles for private use.
Not too surprisingly, it seems that the countries in Central and Eastern Europe that were under Communist domination actually take their freedoms more seriously than Western Europe.
The ‘Rona has struck again. The 2020 Gun Rights Policy Conference scheduled for September 18-20 in Orlando, Florida is going virtual. I got notified about it this afternoon.
I was scheduled to speak in Orlando so will be doing it virtually. Fortunately, I’ve been working virtually since March including doing live WebEx presentations. Thus, I have a bit of experience with it.
The Second Amendment Foundation sent out the following notice.
BELLEVUE, WA – For the first time in its 35-year-history, the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms will be a virtual online event, due to the current COVID-19 situation.
“We will definitely miss the face-to-face personal contact with so many friends and activists,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb acknowledged. “By switching to an online virtual event for the 2020 conference, we will reach a far broader audience. Between the actual event, and future visits, we hope to reach at least 300,000 gun owners and rights activists, which will be important in this critical election year.
“Having to go virtual for this year’s event may be a blessing in disguise,” he stated.
Since the first GRPC was held in Seattle in 1986, the event has evolved from 20 speakers and 70 attendees to more than 90 speakers and 1,100 attendees in 2019. The GRPC has become a “must attend” event for gun rights advocates and grassroots activists across the country. This year we anticipate having nearly 100 gun rights speakers.
“This year’s theme remains the same,” Gottlieb said. “We’re calling this year’s event ‘Elect Freedom,’ and we will provide updates on confirmed speakers and the multi-media platforms where activists can join us Sept. 19 and 20.
“GRPC is older than two of my children,” said SAF Director of Operations Julianne Versnel. “I will miss seeing everyone and moderating the event. However, just because it’s virtual doesn’t mean it won’t stay on schedule.”
“We are living in extraordinary times,” Gottlieb observed. “This decision was made after carefully analyzing and considering all of the circumstances. Given the current COVID-19 environment and constraints on travel, as well as the inability of our reserved hotel to accommodate us, we will make this year’s ‘virtual’ GRPC the important and memorable event of 2020. Together we will all make the Second Amendment great again.”
It is also my understanding from Paul Lathrop that AMM-Con media conference will also be held virtually. I have participated in all three AMM-Cons and highly recommend them to all bloggers, podcaster, YouTubers, and anyone using new media to get the 2A message out.
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