Buncombe County is one of the most liberal counties in the state. It is the sea of blue in an ocean of red here in western North Carolina. Cars are still covered with bumper stickers for Bernie from 2016 and for Obama from 2008. Of course, you see the Resist! bumper sticker everywhere.
It is against this background that I was a bit surprised when I heard at the January gun show that there was a move to ask Buncombe County Commissioners to make it a Second Amendment Sanctuary. I figured a few people would show up and the oh, so liberal commissioners would just roll their eyes.
I was right on the second part but extremely wrong on the first part.
People for and against making Buncombe a Second Amendment Sanctuary spoke for two hours. Given you are only allowed three minutes to speak, this was a lot of folks. From what I can gather, with few exceptions, most were in favor of making it a sanctuary county.
Amy Benedict of the Demanding Moms spoke against it. The clip above, unfortunately, doesn’t give her full comments. The on-air report noted her saying they weren’t “against guns but gun violence”. Right.
In the end, as I would have expected, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners did nothing. Nonetheless, it does let the Board and the public know that there is strong support for gun rights in my oh, so liberal county.
However, according to an internal email obtained by Newsweek, Powell has departed the NRA entirely.
It was not clear whether Powell was fired or if he resigned. The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The email clarifying the nature of Powell’s departure was sent to the board of directors Saturday evening by the NRA’s general counsel John Frazer.
“Several directors have reported receiving media queries regarding Josh Powell and his employment status with the Association,” he wrote. “For the sake of clarity, we note that Josh is no longer employed by the NRA.”
In noting the sensitivity of discussing personnel matters, Frazer made reference to “the assortment of pending and threatened litigation” facing the gun-rights group.
The Newsweek article also raised a question that someone asked me on Twitter this evening: how did Ackerman McQueen know or find out that Powell had been placed on leave?
Save the Second raised some interesting questions regarding the termination of Powell’s employment with the NRA.
2. Was this a move against Wayne’s wishes/protection?
3. Was there an insultingly generous severance package to add insult to injury after his disastrous tenure as an overpaid executive that didn’t seem to do anything right?
4. Will the problems he and his decisions/appointments caused in the NRA’s Education & Training Division be undone ?
Given that it will be classified as a personnel matter, I think the whys and wherefores of his termination may never be fully known. Moreover, unless either Wayne or one of his inner circle talks, we won’t know the answer to number 2.
We may have to wait until the Meeting of Members at the Annual Meeting in Nashville to find out if any severance package has been paid. If then.
Only time will tell if the problems Powell caused in Education and Training will be solved.
Below is the Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant’s Motion to Compel Plaintiff to Provide Meaningful and Supplemental Answers to Interrogatories. This was filed on January 23rd by attorneys for Ackerman McQueen in their legal battle with the National Rifle Association. It covers both the first and second lawsuit filed by the NRA against AckMac in City of Alexandria Circuit Court.
This is where we first learned the Wayne LaPierre’s Chief of Staff Josh Powell was on Administrative Leave. As far as I know, it had not been public knowledge before that.
There is a lot of legalese in these pages but a scan through them does give the reader a sense of the battle between the two former allies.
There is also the amusing line of Q&A indicating that Wayne was upset that someone at AckMac told the Wall Street Journal his grandniece had drawn on the walls of The Four Seasons with crayons.
If the impeachment trial in the Senate hasn’t caused you to ditch television entirely, you know that tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. That’s where one set of oversized rich guys beat up on another set of oversized rich guys to see who will get even richer.
Yeah, well, whatever.
The exciting news is that Brownells will be holding Super Barrel II!
From Brownells:
GRINNELL, Iowa (January 31, 2020) – Brownells will give away a barrel full of freedom during the biggest pro football Sunday of the year with its Super Barrel II Weekend extravaganza.
Starting at 12:01 AM Saturday, February 1, and going through 11:59 PM Sunday, February 2, Super Barrel II contestants can sign up for their chance to win at the Brownells Super Barrel II page.
One lucky winner will be drawn by random and will receive the big red barrel full of ‘Merica valued at $4,239.99.
Containing enough ammo to fill almost 70 standard-length belts for an M249, the barrel weighs more than all but the very biggest football linemen. If all 13,889 cartridges contained inside were laid to end-to-end, they would stretch over 870 yards — almost twice as far as the most passing yards ever in a modern pro football championship game.
Just think what you could do with that amount of ammo!
You could give the Demanding Moms, the Cult of Personality known as Giffords, AND Brady United the collective vapors.
It could make Mike Bloomberg’s campaign against Big Gulps looks as small as he is.
Or it could give you enough ammo to become really proficient with your AR-15!
Wayne LaPierre’s Chief of Staff Joshua Powell has been placed on administrative leave. This is according to court filings in one of the lawsuits involving the NRA and Ackerman McQueen in Virginia courts.
A top National Rifle Association official has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the nonprofit group’s lawyer, according to a recent court filing, in a sign of ongoing turmoil surrounding the nation’s largest gun group.
The removal of Joshua L. Powell, the NRA’s chief of staff, was referenced in a Jan. 23 filing in Alexandria Circuit Court by the NRA’s former public relations agency, Ackerman McQueen. “Mr. Powell has now been placed ‘on leave’ by the NRA pending an investigation by NRA counsel,” the filing in Virginia says.
According to the story by Beth Reinhard, the NRA has not responded to multiple requests for comment. It is also unknown whether he is on paid or unpaid leave. His last reported compensation was $919,969 according to the 2018 NRA Form 990.
Powell also refused comment. The Post notes that he, ” removed “National Rifle Association Chief of Staff – Senior Strategist” from his Twitter bio this week.”
Powell has had a checkered history at the NRA. He was the one responsible for rushing CarryGuard out before it was ready when he served as Director of General Operations. He has also been named in sexual harassment allegations involving an Ackerman McQueen employee. It was serious enough that AckMac told Wayne LaPierre that they refused to work with Powell anymore.
As to why now and not earlier, that is unknown. Some have speculated he knew too much dirt and the powers that be wanted to keep him close. Powell has had a reputation according to some of looking out for himself above all else. If so, it would not have been unreasonable to suspect that he would cut a deal to save himself if it came to it.
Eventually we may know the full story. As for today, we know he is on administrative leave and that’s that.
UPDATE: Thanks to Rob Pincus, we have a photo of the filing in question. It is a filing by Ackerman McQueen asking the court to force the NRA to provide additional information regarding its interrogatories. As Powell is on administrative leave and “not in good standin”, his prior responses on behalf of the NRA under oath are no longer sufficient.
Note: Every ballot will have the same names on it. However, the order of the names may vary from one ballot to another. Look for the name and not the number! Thanks to David Z. for this reminder.
You will only see two names chosen on my ballot: Graham Hill and Frank Tait. There are some others on the list who may be worthy of your vote but I am a bullet voter. That is, I pick a limited number of candidates in an effort to increase the efficacy of my vote.
Jeffrey Hague of Ellendate, Delaware is on the ballot but has withdrawn his name. It was too late to remove it from the ballot. From what I read elsewhere, he thinks he can do more for gun rights in Delaware by continuing his work as president of the Delaware State Sportsman’s Association.
Existing Board members who would have been up for re-election but were not renominated include Melanie Pepper, Lance Olson, and Heidi Washington. Melanie Pepper asked too many questions which irritated the Old Guard. She had been removed from her committee assignments. Lance Olson, though long thought to be a member of “Wayne’s Posse”, somehow ran afoul of him. If you remember, he was one of the Board members subpoenaed in the fight in Virginia courts with AckMac. Finally, Heidi Washington, the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections and daughter of former NRA President Tom Washington, asked not be to renominated.
Frank Tait is running by petition for the Board of Directors. He was the one who authored the petition of no confidence in Wayne LaPierre at the 2019 Meeting of Members. I helped gather signatures for Frank’s petition and continue to support his candidacy. He has a business background that has long been needed in board members. Moreover, he is a NRA Training Counselor, Chief RSO, an Appleseed and Revere’s Riders trainer, and an active IDPA competitor.
I voted for Graham Hill in 2017 and I’m proud to vote for him again. Graham is an attorney, lobbyist, former Congressional staffer, President of the 50 Caliber Institute, and a board member of the American Suppressor Association. Graham is an active 3-Gun competitor as well as a hunter. He does this from a wheelchair and without assistance. With the turmoil in the NRA-ILA, Graham brings the knowledge and experience on Capitol Hill to help provide a guiding hand to it.
I might have voted for Mark Robinson except he is running for Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. The time he might have devoted to the NRA will be, of necessity, devoted to his campaign.
I do have misgivings about some candidates. For example, Thomas Arvas, Clel Baudler, and Howard “Walt” Walter are all in their 80s. With all due respect to their age and experience, they are past their prime and younger, more active candidates are required if the problems facing the NRA are to be resolved. I also have misgivings about Charles Cotton who is currently the First VP. In addition to being First VP, Cotton has been chair of the Audit Committee for a number of years. Too many things have been rubber stamped after the fact by the Audit Committee. This has contributed to the dysfunction in board governance which in turn has made the NRA vulnerable to the attack by the Attorney General of New York. Then there is John Cushman who is running by petition. His comments at the 2019 Gun Rights Policy Conference thanking women for being there to support their men (3:45 mark) were sexist, demeaning, and insulting. I know many women expressed to me their disdain for his comments.
If you are voting member, you should have received your ballot in the February issue of the official magazine (American Rifleman, American Hunter, America’s 1st Freedoms, or Shooting Illustrated). To be a voting member, you must be either a Life Member (or above) or an Annual Member with five or more years of membership without any interruptions. If you qualified and didn’t receive a ballot, I’d urge you to contact the Secretary’s Office at NRA Headquarters.
On average, only 6% of eligible members vote in any year. This is a disgrace and why too many people who have no business being on the board get elected year after year. If you are eligible, do yourself, the NRA, and everyone else a favor and vote after you have done your research.
I know that they call New York City “the city that never sleeps.” It applies equally as well to Las Vegas.
My flight home was at 6:05am so I left for the airport a bit after 4am. There were a ton of people out and about the MGM Grand at that time of the morning. Some were doing the walk of shame, some were drunk, some were hardcore gamblers, and some must have just been night people.
My Lyft driver Amanda was quite pleased to know I was an airport fare. She said at that time of the morning she either got drunks or people heading to the airport.
The flights home on Southwest were uneventful in terms of turbulence and I was able to get an aisle seat on both legs. My first leg was noteworthy but more on that later.
I enjoy the SHOT Show but it is great to get home. Sleeping in your own bed with your own pillow is the key to a restful night’s sleep for me. That and having the Complementary Spouse next to me. I think I was asleep by 9:30 last night. There are people that are “road warriors” who travel constantly for work. They have my admiration for their ability to do it because I know I sure could not do it.
Now back to the first leg of the trip home. Southwest Airlines had routed me from Las Vegas to Baltimore and from there on to Greenville-Spartanburg. When I arrived at the gate in Las Vegas I noticed there were a number of passengers wearing paper surgical masks. I didn’t think too much about it at the time since it is a common practice for many Asians. It turns out most were part of a Chinese group of tourists.
About an hour and a half into the flight I noticed the flight attendants checking on a passenger many rows in front of me. I didn’t think much about it. Then they started passing out paper surgical masks along with alcohol wipes to those around that passenger. They later offered them to anyone who wanted them.
We landed and then stopped short of the gate. They announced that they had a sick passenger and were waiting on health officials to meet us. Below is a picture of what I saw outside the window. There were multiple ambulances, fire department vehicles, and other emergency vehicles.
The captain came on the PA, explained the situation, and said he was just being extra cautious. He later went on to say we were free to leave once we got off the plane.
After about 20-30 minutes, health officials escorted the passenger and his wife off the plane. Then the head of the BWI Emergency Department announced that the passenger was being taken to a local hospital for testing as he had recently been in Beijing, China. He went on to say there was a very small chance that it was coronavirus and we would be notified by Southwest if the passenger tested positive.
Finally, before we were allowed to deplane, they had the tour group leader who spoke both English and Mandarian explain the situation in Mandarian to the Chinese tour group. They were to remain on the plane for a special briefing.
As we got off the plane, paramedics squirted our hands with hand sanitizer. I did speak to one of the paramedics who said they were just being overly cautious about the situation given the spread of coronavirus in China.
This afternoon, a passenger arrived on a flight from Las Vegas to BWI who showed flu-like symptoms and had recently traveled from Beijing, China.
The person did not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for 2019 novel coronavirus testing but was referred to a medical facility for evaluation to determine whether additional follow-up was necessary. Per guidance from the CDC, no special action was indicated for this person or for any other passengers or crew on the flight.
Following evaluation by medical personnel, the person was released.
The passenger was previously screened and cleared in Mexico and Las Vegas.
Local medical personnel met Flight 2889 once it arrived at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport from Las Vegas due to reports of an ill Customer. Out of an abundance of caution, and in light of the recent concerns of the coronavirus, our Crew followed recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control for responding to concerns to ensure the Customer, and those traveling with them, receive the assistance or support they may need.
Frankly, I’m very glad that they took it seriously and didn’t just slough it off.
As to the other leg of the trip to GSP, the plane was half full so everyone was encouraged to spread out. There were a handful of people on that flight who had been on the previous leg and who also had attended the SHOT Show.
The DC Project held a rally yesterday at the Fiocchi booth. It featured many of the women of the DC Project who were attending the SHOT Show. My guesstimate on the number of women wearing teal DC Project shirts was over 50.
From DC Project Facebook Page
This rally attracted the attention of the local Las Vegas media. The focus of the report was on women becoming involved in both armed self-protection and the shooting sports.
Dianna Muller, championship shooter and the founder of the DC Project, and California attorney Lara Smith were featured interviewees in the story.
While at the SHOT Show, I learned that there are plans to expand the DC Project. The goal is to recruit at least one woman in every Congressional district. The hope that these women will establish relationships with the local representative and become viewed as a resource on firearms issues.
Speaking of women at the SHOT Show, there were quite a number of women participating as buyers, exhibitors, and media. Yes there were a few “booth babes” but the number continues to decrease each and every year. This is good news for the industry as it realizes that women are a growing market that needs to be shown the respect they deserve.
Delegate Lee Carter (D-VA-Manasas) is a drama queen.
From PotomacLocal.com
The “pro-gun” people that terrorized Richmond yesterday probably don’t realize that all they did was tag team with fascists, strengthen the liberals’ resolve to pass gun control bills, and force the most gun-friendly Dem (me) to not show up for a day.
Carter is a second term delegate representing the 50th House District in Virginia. According to Wikipedia, he defeated incumbent House Majority Whip Jackson Miller in 2017 and then won reelection in 2019. He is also an avowed socialist and has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. He has characterized himself as “to the left of where the Democratic party [is]”.
Carter served in the US Marine Corps from 2006 to 2011 as an IT specialist. It seems his only overseas deployment was to Haiti. Despite his young age, 32, he seems to have trouble staying married as he has been married and divorced three times.
Remember, it’s all about being open-minded and listening to each other for the Left.
Virginia Del. Lee Carter (D-Manassas) went on a Twitter tirade over the weekend, telling people on multiple occasions to “shut the f**k up” and accusing police of making threats of violence against him over the Second Amendment rally at the Capitol.
Carter, says he has been so concerned about the death threats that he has started openly carrying a handgun to protect himself.
On Monday, when tens of thousands of gun rights activists will converge on the state capitol in Richmond for what is expected to be a volatile demonstration against the new gun control bills introduced by Virginia Democrats, Carter said that he plans to be in hiding, at an undisclosed location, concerned that he might be a target of violence even in his own home.
Right. Guns for him but not for thee and me.
Carter obviously has long forgotten the oath he took when he enlisted in the Marines. Like many socialists, he believes in guns, free speech, and the right to assemble for himself but not for thee.
First off a disclaimer. I was not at the VCDL Lobby Day in Richmond on Monday. I was in Las Vegas at Industry Day at the Range. Secondly, I am not an expert on crowd estimation.
Numerous mediareports have said the attendance at Lobby Day was 22,000. They break it down to 7,000 within the fence and the remainder outside.
From VCDL Facebook Page
I spoke to both friends of mine that attended and Stephen Gutowski of the Free Beacon who have described the size of the crowd. On that estimate of 22,000, I am raising the BS flag.
Gutowski described to me some of the crowds in the side streets. One street was filled sidewalk to sidewalk for three blocks deep. Another 2-3 side streets had were packed similarly 1-2 blocks deep.
From VCDL Facebook Page
Officials in the Northam administration and their allies in the media would like you to believe the crowd really wasn’t as big as it actually was. If you throw out an exact number like 22,000, it sounds authoritative and the gullible media will go with it.
This is the converse of when the Demanding Moms and other gun control groups have events. There they stage photos to make the crowd look larger than it really is. The prime example is the NRA Annual Meeting that was held a few years ago in Nashville. The late Bob Owens called them out on it. They said 500 attended which the media reported and Bob showed how they staged the photo which actually had about 150 people in it.
From VCDL Facebook Page
I think when all is said and done, the crowd of gun rights supporters attending Lobby Day on Monday probably was double the official figure and approached 50,000. Whether Democrat legislators in Virginia will take notice and temper their plans is the real question.
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