It is Friday afternoon and it is time for a laugh after the NRA news of the week. My friend and fellow blogger David Yamane posted the picture below on Facebook. It had the following caption:
Photo from 2040 of Wayne LaPierre holding onto the Executive Vice Preisdency of the NRA in his cold, dead hands.
#guns #gunculture #gunculture2point0 #nra #2a
Great satire always contains an element of truth.
The news yesterday regarding the National Rifle Association was headlined by a story in the New York Times that said Chris Cox, head of the NRA-ILA, was suspended and put on administrative leave. This followed a late Wednesday filing in New York Supreme Court (the trial level courts in that state) in which the NRA sought a declaratory judgment that Ollie North was not entitled to his legal expenses as a director of the NRA. Also suspended was Scott Christman who served as Cox’s deputy chief of staff at the NRA-ILA.
Both Cox and Christman are accused along with NRA Board member and former Congressman Dan Boren of participating in a failed “coup” attempt orchestrated by Ackerman McQueen and Ollie North. Cox vehemently denies this.
“The allegations against me are offensive and patently false,” Cox said. “For over 24 years I have been a loyal and effective leader in this organization. My efforts have always been focused on serving the members of the National Rifle Association, and I will continue to focus all of my energy on carrying out our core mission of defending the Second Amendment.”
The New York lawsuit was filed on behalf of the NRA by outside counsel William Brewer III and his firm. It seeks a declaratory judgment stating that Ollie North is not entitled to reimbursement for legal fees and expenses incurred as a result of subpoenas in the second Ackerman McQueen lawsuit and the Senate Finance Committee’s request for documents. When a declaratory judgment is sought, it is making a statement that the facts are not in question and that the only thing sought is a declaration as to matters of law. That said, the complaint filed is a mish-mash of allegations that in no way could be considered a 100% recitation of facts. The full complaint is here.
The complaint alleges that North is an employee of Ackerman McQueen, that he had been asked to either resign from AckMac or the NRA board, that he has done neither, and that he orchestrated the “coup” attempt to oust Wayne LaPierre at the behest of AckMac. North is also accused of acting in bad faith and breaching his fiduciary duties to the NRA.
The complaint then includes this gratuitous mention of Chris Cox and Dan Boren. This is the only paragraph where either of these two are mentioned.
North and his co-conspirators orchestrated these threats through, among other
things, a string of text messages that are filed herewith. The text messages were produced in the
Virginia Litigation by Dan Boren, an NRA board member employed by one of Ackerman’s other
major clients, the Chickasaw Nation. Boren relayed the contents of Ackerman’s threatened letter
to North and helped to choreograph the ultimatum they presented to Mr. LaPierre. Moreover, in
email correspondence transmitted over non-NRA servers, Boren admitted his knowledge that
Ackerman may have been invoicing the NRA for full salaries of employees who were actually
working on the Chickasaw Nation account. The same text messages and email messages
demonstrate that another errant NRA fiduciary, Chris Cox —once thought by some to be a likely
successor for Mr. LaPierre—participated in the Ackerman/North/Boren conspiracy.
The text message can be seen in this exhibit. It should be noted that from what I’ve been told that exhibits are not usually submitted when asking for a declaratory judgment. Reading the texts between Boren and Cox, I fail to see this as a “coup” attempt. Rather, in my opinion, it seems they are concerned about the war between AckMac and the NRA and its future impact on the NRA. Cox is correct when he calls what had been going on “a tragic mess”.
This whole affair is so Byzantine. It reminds more of a Soviet-style purge where ministers and members of the Politburo are being purged after the head of the KGB whispers in the ear of the aging General Secretary that they are plotting against him. Insert Wayne LaPierre into the role of the aging General Secretary and William Brewer into the role of KGB head and there you have it.
Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) you may remember called a special session of the Virginia General Assembly after the murders in the municipal building in Virginia Beach. His intent is to have a number of gun control bills passed ranging from universal background checks to red flag laws. As I wrote then, none of his proposals would have changed a thing in Virginia Beach.
Delegate David Yancy (R-Newport News) has an idea for a law that might impact the criminal misuse of firearms. While it wouldn’t have changed things in Virginia Beach, it might have an impact on armed crime in Virginia. Many criminals obtain their firearms through the criminal black market where stolen firearms are bought and sold.
Yancy has proposed a bill that is similar to the Federal Rule 35 procedure. He says:
And one tool they (law enforcement) told him that wish they had is one federal law enforcement agencies have used for seven decades. It is the power to ask judges to cut convicts’ sentences if, once in prison, if those offenders give police the information needed to bring drug-smugglers, gun-runners and other organized criminals to justice.
“I think this could help,” Yancey said, adding that in his experience, most gun crime in Newport News and many other communities involves stolen weapons.
“You’ll see someone crashing a car into a pawnshop and clean out all the guns, then those guns end up on the street,” he said.
The Virginia Pilot story goes on to note:
The average time federal offenders serve after a Rule 35 sentence reduction is just under seven years, according to a recent U.S. Sentencing Commission study. On average, Rule 35 results in a 39% reduction in the length of a sentence, the federal agency found.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia grants the most Rule 35 sentence reductions, or some 1,645 out of a national total of 10,811 between 2009 and 2014, the study found.
Though such a rule wouldn’t have prevented a gunman from killing a dozen people in a Virginia Beach municipal building last month, Yancey said it would be a way of addressing gun violence that doesn’t infringe anyone’s Second Amendment rights. The right to bear arms doesn’t include the right to steal guns or possess a stolen weapon, he noted.
It’s also in line with legislation enacted last year that allows judges to reduce sentences for offenders who provide a lot of help to an investigation or prosecution of drug dealing.
Yancey’s proposal would allow a judge to revise a sentence after the offender has already started serving it.
His concern with stolen weapons led him last year to introduce a bill that would have set a series of mandatory minimum sentences for stealing guns with the intention of selling them, receiving or selling stolen firearms, or using stolen guns in a crime. The bill died in committee.
Providing incentives to criminals to turn in their source makes sense. His bill introduced last year to add to sentences for the theft of firearms with the intent to sell them also makes sense. Both might have a great impact on crime by drying up the supply of stolen firearms than anything Northam or the gun control industry has ever proposed.
North Carolina HB110 and SB90 as currently written were meant to allow the protection of a religious congregation that rented a school building for their services. It was even titled, “The Religious Assembly Security and
6 Protection Act of 2019.” It would allow those with a concealed handgun permit to carry a handgun on school property after school hours while in a building used for religious services. In other words, a person could serve as church security.
The NC Senate Judiciary Committee in its infinite wisdom is proposing to gut the bill and change it into one dealing with pistol purchase permits and concealed handgun permits. It would change the cost of a pistol purchase permit from $5 to $25 but would now allow unlimited numbers of purchases on the same permit for five years. That proposal has the anti-rights forces such as NCGV in an uproar because there was no limit on how many handguns you could buy with one background check.
More importantly, the proposed committee substitute would apply the same “good moral character” requirement for a pistol purchase permits (now called a Class B Handgun Permit) to the NC Concealed Handgun Permit. What is good moral character? We don’t know because it is such an amorphous phrase. It is right up there with “justifiable need” as many May-Issue permit states use as a criteria. Does someone who writes angry letters to the editor or has a Confederate flag hanging in their basement lack good moral character? Would an avowed atheist be considered to lack good moral character if the local sheriff was a deacon in his or her fundamentalist church?
The proposed committee substitute which isn’t even published on the General Assembly’s website is being pushed by the North Carolina Sheriffs Association and their director Eddie Caldwell. It is a power move on their part as all revenue from all permits would now go to the sheriff rather than being shared with the NC Department of Public Safety. Thanks to dedicated volunteers in Grass Roots North Carolina who keep their ear to the ground we even know about this PCS. The staff attorney prepared this bare bones summary which omits the key issue regarding the good moral character requirement.
This proposed committee substitute must be stopped as it would convert our shall-issue permit into a may-issue permit through the “good moral character” requirement. Grass Roots North Carolina has prepared the following alert asking people to both call and write the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as Republican leaders and say NO.
SHERIFFS GRAB POWER
TO DENY
PERMITS
https://tinyurl.com/y3w7syp9
OR
https://www.grnc.org/defend-your-rights/recent-grnc-alerts/1068-senate-republicans-to-gut-concealed-carry
This is not a drill, and this is not a joke. Republicans in Raleigh are in the process of
gutting NC’s “shall issue” concealed carry permit application structure…
Regarding
concealed carry permit (CHP) applications, we are furious (yes, furious ) to be forced to announce that the
Republicans you sent
to Raleigh have snuck language into the Proposed Committee Substitute
(PCS) of a bill that would, in essence, transform North Carolina from a
“SHALL ISSUE” state into a “MAY
ISSUE” state.
We at GRNC are incensed and you ought to be as well. As you know, GRNC engineered
NC’s “shall
issue” concealed carry law in 1995. Since then, GRNC has been
instrumental in greatly improving it with restaurant carry, limited
school/campus carry and more. We’re not about to stand by and watch a
naked power grab by NC’s sheriffs, aided by Republican senators, roll
back all
of our progress.Are You of “Good Moral Character?”
Last week, in Raleigh, Republicans snuck new language into a PCS for Senate Bill S90 (“Protect Religious
Meeting Places”) (=H110),
and
it’s worth noting that, initially, S90 was not even written to deal with
the concealed carry application process. It’s also worth noting
that before the poisonous PCS, S90 was a promising pro-gun bill.Yet, the PCS language strips “shall issue” status from the people and confers
“may issue” power to your county sheriff. According to the
PCS, a sheriff can deny CHPs by claiming applicants are not of
“Good Moral Character,” the same shameful Jim Crow-era language that
still exists on Pistol Purchase Permit applications, which GRNC has
been fighting to eliminate.And you’ve probably guessed already: there is no strict definition for “good moral
character,” and truly, no definition would suffice in this context anyway. Therefore
(and
conveniently), lacking “good moral character,” grounds for denying a
CHP, is an open-ended label that any sheriff could attach to any
applicant for any reason.Shifting Power from Citizen to Sheriff
Lest you wonder, “good moral character” has nothing
to do with an applicant’s criminal history. Exhaustive,
indeed intrusive, criminal and medical background checks, and (de facto)
long waiting periods are already part of the CHP application process.
The sheriff’s personal, subjective and nebulous analysis of your character can have no legitimate purpose.
The only
clear purpose of this language in S90’s PCS is to take power away from
you, the law-abiding citizen, and hand it to your county sheriff to lord
over you, so he can withhold your rights at will.Perhaps you’re thinking, “Sheriffs would never
use this new power to deny permits to qualified people.”
Yet, if they’d never use their newfound power, why enshrine it in our
state’s laws? It can have only one purpose, and if there is no
intention to use it (now or later), it would not have been proposed as
substitute language for S90.What You Can Do
Are you
prepared to live in a state that treats gun rights the way California
does—like “gun privileges?” Are you ready to cede your Natural rights to
your county’s sheriff, so he can ration them back to
you as he sees fit? If not, please join other gun rights supporters in
putting an immediate halt to this attack on your gun rights (from the
Republicans no less!). Once again, we must remind these politicians who “brung ‘em” to the dance, and it looks like
we’ll have to be more stern than usual.Below, see how you can easily contact
Senate Judiciary Committee members (and Sen. Berger) to tell them,
emphatically, that any vote, indeed any support whatsoever, for S90’s Proposed Committee Substitute will be considered a severe and
blatant anti-gun action!
Support “Rights Watch International”
Learn more about Rights Watch
International
You shop. Amazon
Gives. (What is Amazon Smile?)
- EMAIL MEMBERS OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Use the copy/paste email list provided below and the copy/paste text provided
under ‘Deliver This Message.
- PHONE REPUBLICAN LEADERS &
YOUR SENATOR:
This is serious and so phone calls to committee chairs and to your own senator
are just as important as sending an email message. Call today and leave a message; call Monday and call Tuesday. That’s how important this
is. Please use the phone numbers provided below to contact
Judiciary Committee leaders. Also, please call your own senator (find
contact
details below). When you reach each senator’s office, tell him or her:
I
am a gun rights voter, and I am enraged that
Republicans are seeking to force a huge step backwards for gun rights in
our state. The ostensibly pro-gun party should be ashamed to be
identified as
the party that introduced Senate Bill 90’s PCS language, which would
grant “may issue” power to sheriffs for Concealed Carry
Permits, stripping citizens of the unalienable portion of unalienable rights. Any Senator supporting this PCS will be considered
anti-gun, and will pay at the polls. Thank you.- ATTEND TUESDAY’S COMMITTEE HEARING: The presence of gun rights voters at this meeting is critical. Committee members must know that we see what
they’re trying to do, and that we’re serious about stopping them. Please attend Tuesday’s committee
meeting. You may have an opportunity to speak, so arrive early in case you need to sign up. Find details below.
- PLEASE
CONTRIBUTE TO GRNC: Help us fight gun control while we promote Second Amendment principles. Please CLICK HERE to contribute. Bear in mind that GRNC is an all-volunteer organization, so you can be sure your
donations are put to the best possible use. Any amount helps, and any amount is appreciated.
NC Senate Judiciary Committee, Copy/Paste Email List:Dan.Bishop@ncleg.net; Dan.Blue@ncleg.net;
Danny.Britt@ncleg.net; Harry.Brown@ncleg.net; Jim.Burgin@ncleg.net;
Warren.Daniel@ncleg.net;
Jim.Davis@ncleg.net; Toby.Fitch@ncleg.net; Kathy.Harrington@ncleg.net;
Rick.Horner@ncleg.net; Brent.Jackson@ncleg.net; Jeff.Jackson@ncleg.net;
Natasha.Marcus@ncleg.net; Mujtaba.Mohammed@ncleg.net;
Paul.Newton@ncleg.net; Terry.VanDuyn@ncleg.net; Phil.Berger@ncleg.net
Senate Member Phone Senator
Danny Britt, Jr.
Senate Judiciary Committee Co-chair(919) 733-5651 Senator Warren Daniel
Senate
Judiciary Committee Co-chair(919) 715-7823 Senator Phil Berger
Senate President Pro Tempore(919) 733-5708 Please call your senator, too.
Need name/contact information?
Click Here and select the ‘NC
Senate‘ option to find your senator.
Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee
Attend to Stop the Gutting of Concealed CarryWHEN: Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 10:00 am WHERE: NCGA Legislative Building
Room
1124/1224
16 West Jones Street
Raleigh, NC 27601IMPORTANT
NOTES:Please arrive early to allow extra time to park and to get through building security. 60 minutes early is
recommended.Please dress for the press. Business attire preferred. Please no inflammatory slogans on clothing or
otherwise.Please bring a roll-up paper sign with the following message on it: “SENATOR BERGER: DON’T GUT CONCEALED CARRY”DELIVER THIS
MESSAGE
Carry”Dear
Senator:I have just
learned of the Republican Party’s effort to transform North Carolina’s
concealed carry permit (CHP) application structure from
“shall issue” to “may issue.” I see that Senate Judiciary Committee
members have snuck language into S90’s Proposed
Committee Substitute (PCS) that would grant sheriffs unchecked power to
deny concealed carry permits to any applicant, any time, for effectively
any
reason. The PCS’s language, which poisons an otherwise pro-gun bill,
allows a sheriff to declare that an applicant, any applicant, is not of
“good moral character.” This is the same shameful Jim Crow-era language
that still exists on the Pistol Purchase Permit application,
language that ought to be removed (not added elsewhere).Of course, “good moral character” has no
particular definition, nor would any be satisfactory given the
context. Exhaustive and intrusive background checks and (de facto) long
waiting periods are already part of the CHP application process. The
sheriff’s personal, subjective and nebulous analysis of an applicant’s
“character” has precisely zero legitimacy. Clearly, its
only purpose is to wrest power from the law-abiding citizen and hand it
to our county sheriffs to lord over the citizens, so sheriffs can
withhold
Natural rights by fiat.This is unacceptable! I am incensed that the committee members,
especially those in the Republican Party, would even consider such an
anti-gun scheme.
North Carolina is not California, it is not New York, and gun voters
will not allow this state to transform into one of these states in the
context of
the Second Amendment.Be
warned:
Any
favorable vote, even the slightest measure of support for S90’s PCS,
with its “good moral character” clause, will be perceived as a threat to
every gun rights voter in this state, myself included. Do not
doubt it, backing S90’s PCS will be recorded as an extreme anti-gun
action!Put a stop to
S90’s anti-gun PCS now. I will be monitoring your actions on this
critical matter through alerts from Grass Roots North CarolinaRespectfully,
UPDATE: My sources in GRNC tell me the bill has been pulled from the committee calendar. It appears the committee heard from you.
It is fitting that both Bourbon Day and Flag Day are being celebrated on June 14th this year. What distilled spirit is more identified with America than bourbon? If you said rye, I would point out that most Canadian whiskey is called rye.
One of the most significant legal developments in the history of bourbon was the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897. It said that only domestic distilled spirits that met certain qualifications could use the terms “bond”, “bonded”, “bottled in bond”, “aged in bond” or similar phrases. This told the consumer that the whiskey, bourbon, or other spirit that they were buying was what it said on the label. They weren’t getting some neutral spirit with added coloring and tobacco juice added for “flavor”.
This was codified into Title 27 CFR 5.42. Section 3 states:
(3) The words “bond”, “bonded”, “bottled in bond”, “aged in bond”, or phrases containing these or synonymous terms, shall not be used on any label or as part of the brand name of domestic distilled spirits unless the distilled spirits are:
(i) Composed of the same kind of spirits produced from the same class of materials;
(ii) Produced in the same distilling season by the same distiller at the same distillery;
(iii) Stored for at least four years in wooden containers wherein the spirits have been in contact with the wood surface except for gin and vodka which must be stored for at least four years in wooden containers coated or lined with paraffin or other substance which will preclude contact of the spirits with the wood surface;
(iv) Unaltered from their original condition or character by the addition or subtraction of any substance other than by filtration, chill proofing, or other physical treatments (which do not involve the addition of any substance which will remain incorporated in the finished product or result in a change in class or type);
(v) Reduced in proof by the addition of pure water only to 100 degrees of proof; and
(vi)Bottles at 100 degrees of proof.
In addition to the requirements of § 5.36(a) (1) or (2), the label shall bear the real name of the distillery or the trade name under which the distillery produced and warehoused the spirits, and the plant (or registered distillery) number in which produced; and the plant number in which bottled. The label may also bear the name or trade name of the bottler.
Bernie Lubbers, the Whiskey Professor and brand ambassador for Heaven Hill, is a true believer in Bottled in Bond bourbon. So much so that he has it tattooed on his arm and his license plate reads “Stay Bonded”. He and fellow writer Fred Minnick explain it in the YouTube video below. Bernie is the author of Bourbon Whiskey: Our Native Spirit which is an excellent book in my opinion and Fred is the author of Bourbon Curious: A Simple Tasting Guide for the Savvy Drinker which is another great book on bourbon. I both in my collection.
So when you get home from work tonight, pour yourself a nice bourbon or mix a cocktail with bourbon and then sip it while looking at your flag. Better yet, make it a bottled in bond bourbon!
In a story from Washington State on how gun owners are preparing for new gun control law that go into effect July 1, there is this.
He tells Action News that as July approaches, his military surplus store, The Bunker, is selling more receivers for ArmaLite Rifle 15-style (AR-15) than expected.
I’m glad that that the author of the story recognizes that AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle and not “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle”. That said, you see it so rarely spelled out that when you do, it just looks looks weird.
As the story itself, people shopping at this gun store in the Tri-Cities area are buying lots of AR lowers and putting them away before the new law goes into effect. There is also the question of how to sell stripped lower receivers once the new law goes into effect as it isn’t clear.
Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) introduced HB 216 in February of this year. The School Self-Defense Act would create the position of volunteer school faculty guardian. This would apply to either full or part-time faculty and staff who possessed a valid NC Concealed Handgun Permit. The school faculty guardian would also have to take a special 16-hour training class, submit annual certification of marksmanship and of possessing a CHP to the chief administrator of the school system, keep the handgun concealed unless responding to an act of violence, and submit to an annual drug testing. School systems would have the opportunity to opt out of this program.
Grass Roots North Carolina is urging that people contact Republican legislators and urge them to bring this bill forward. Their alert is below.
DEMAND REPUBLICANS
PROTECT NC’S
SCHOOLS
H216 is a bill that will
allow the true protection of schoolchildren…The anti-gun crowd is content to posthumously praise the
brave souls who throw themselves in front of innocents, or charge wicked
gunmen
in order to save the lives of others. Save lives these courageous people
do, and heroes they are.Yet, anyone with exceptional sense would be hard-pressed to come up with
a
reason why these heroes must always be unarmed, only to be seriously
injured or killed while carrying out their valiant acts. Why must the
fruitfulness of these acts be so limited?The answer is simple: political leaders and activist
groups have set it up that way. Those hostile to the Second Amendment
are proud
of having disarmed the good guys by creating “gun free” zones in schools
and elsewhere, leaving adults and the children in their care to
fight psychotic leviathans with staplers and pencils. Well, it doesn’t
have to be this way.H216: Genuine School Safety
Pro-gun stalwart and GRNC four-star Representative Larry Pittman
(Cabarrus, Rowan), is once again at the forefront of the push for a
practical and appropriate solution to this societal concern.For the sake of protecting schoolchildren, Rep. Pittman is imploring his Republican
colleagues to advance H216 (School
Self-Defense Act) to once and for all put responsible adults, those nearest to the schoolchildren during daytime hours, in a position to
actually protect those children in a practical and effective manner, should it be necessary.On a
volunteer basis, H216 would allow educators to carry concealed firearms
to
deter mass killings in schools. It is modeled after a federal program to
arm professional airline pilots as “Federal Flight Deck
Officers.” Have questions? Below are some facts related to this
proposal:
- 25 states allow schools or districts to give permission to individuals to
carry guns:
Alaska,
Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Ohio,
Rhode
Island, South Carolina, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Vermont, and
West Virginia.- At least 14 states allow concealed carry in schools: The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri,
Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington.- At
least 9 states specifically allow school employees to carry guns on school property: The states include: Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, and Wyoming.- Florida created a school marshal
system:
Florida created a
$67 million “school marshal” program to arm teachers in classrooms, in
response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School.- Arming faculty reduces school
shootings:
A new study
entitled “Schools that Allow Teachers to Carry Guns Are Extremely Safe:
Data on the Rate of Shootings and Accidents in Schools that Allow
Teachers to Carry found that:
- Zero school
shootings at schools with armed faculty: During hours when armed teachers would logically be present, none of the schools with armed faculty experienced
school shootings.- A significant increase in school shootings at schools which do NOT
allow armed faculty: Between 2001 and 2018, the number of school
shootings at schools which did not allow armed faculty more than doubled.
You Can Help Protect Schoolchildren
Representative Pittman and the other sponsors of H216 need your
help. They want to shepherd H216 through the legislative
process and get down to the serious (and very sensible) business of
actually
protecting children in schools, rather than doing everything under the
bureaucratic sun to stall. Enough blue-ribbon panels, enough useless gun
control proposals.
If
you’re
a parent, you know what parents really want, parents who have real-life
children in real-life schools (and incidentally, parents who
vote). You want your children protected—really protected—Now! Another
“Governor’s Select Committee” isn’t going to cut it.
Below,
see how you can easily contact Republicans in the NC House to demand
that they
stop stalling, and get to the serious business of protecting children in
schools—now! Insist they do whatever is necessary to move H216 through
committee, on to the floor for a vote, so it can move to the NC
Senate.
Support “Rights Watch International”
International
You shop. Amazon
Gives. (What is Amazon Smile?)
- EMAIL REPUBLICANS IN THE NC HOUSE: Use the copy/paste email list provided below, and the copy/paste message
provided under ‘Deliver This Message’ section.
- PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TO GRNC: Help us fight gun control while we promote Second Amendment principles. Please CLICK HERE to contribute. Bear in mind that GRNC is an all-volunteer organization, so you can be sure your
donations are put to the best possible use. Any amount helps, and any amount is appreciated.
*NC House
Republicans Copy/Paste Email List(s):
Dean.Arp@ncleg.net; Lisa.Barnes@ncleg.net; John.Bell@ncleg.net;
Hugh.Blackwell@ncleg.net; Jamie.Boles@ncleg.net;
William.Brisson@ncleg.net;
Mark.Brody@ncleg.net; Dana.Bumgardner@ncleg.net; Jerry.Carter@ncleg.net;
Debra.Conrad@ncleg.net; Kevin.Corbin@ncleg.net; Ted.Davis@ncleg.net;
Jimmy.Dixon@ncleg.net; Josh.Dobson@ncleg.net; Jeffrey.Elmore@ncleg.net;
John.Faircloth@ncleg.net; John.Fraley@ncleg.net;
Edward.Goodwin@ncleg.net;
Holly.Grange@ncleg.net; Destin.Hall@ncleg.net; Kyle.Hall@ncleg.net;Bobby.Hanig@ncleg.net;
Jon.Hardister@ncleg.net; Kelly.Hastings@ncleg.net;
Cody.Henson@ncleg.net;
Craig.Horn@ncleg.net; Julia.Howard@ncleg.net; Chris.Humphrey@ncleg.net;
Pat.Hurley@ncleg.net; Frank.Iler@ncleg.net; Steve.Jarvis@ncleg.net;
LindaP.Johnson@ncleg.net; Brenden.Jones@ncleg.net;
Donny.Lambeth@ncleg.net; David.Lewis@ncleg.net; Pat.McElraft@ncleg.net;
Chuck.McGrady@ncleg.net;
Allen.McNeill@ncleg.net; Tim.Moore@ncleg.net; Gregory.Murphy@ncleg.net;
Larry.Potts@ncleg.net; Michele.Presnell@ncleg.net;Dennis.Riddell@ncleg.net;
David.Rogers@ncleg.net; Stephen.Ross@ncleg.net; Jason.Saine@ncleg.net;
Wayne.Sasser@ncleg.net; John.Sauls@ncleg.net; Mitchell.Setzer@ncleg.net;
Phil.Shepard@ncleg.net; Carson.Smith@ncleg.net; Sarah.Stevens@ncleg.net;
Larry.Strickland@ncleg.net; John.Szoka@ncleg.net;
John.Torbett@ncleg.net;
Rena.Turner@ncleg.net; Harry.Warren@ncleg.net; Donna.White@ncleg.net;
Larry.Yarborough@ncleg.net; Lee.Zachary@ncleg.net
*
Limitations of
certain email programs and spam filters may require you to send this
message to smaller lists. If that is necessary, the above email list is
conveniently split into three parts to allow you to easily send this
message three times—once to each list.
DELIVER THIS
MESSAGE
Protect Schoolchildren”Dear Representative:I am writing today to make it clear
that I’ve had it “up to here” with blue-ribbon panels,
governor’s select committees, and useless gun control proposals. Every
second that ticks by is another second that schoolchildren in North
Carolina are not protected in any effective manner from mass shooters.
You have the power to change that, and I demand that you do.Right now, H216 (the School
Self-Defense
Act) is in a position to receive a committee hearing and then move to
the floor for an up-or-down vote. This bill would allow educators to
carry
concealed firearms to deter mass killings in schools, and is modeled
after a federal program to arm professional airline pilots as “Federal
Flight Deck Officers.” Below is some information that greatly
strengthens the case for H216:–
25 states allow schools or districts to give permission to individuals
to
carry guns.
– At least 14 states allow concealed carry in schools.– At least 9 states specifically
allow school employees to carry guns on school property.– Florida created a school marshal system in response to the mass shooting at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
– Arming faculty reduces school shootings. Note
there have been zero school shootings at
schools with armed faculty. During hours when armed teachers would logically be present, none of the schools with armed faculty experienced school shootings. There is a significant increase in school
shootings at schools which do NOT allow
armed faculty. Between 2001 and 2018, the number of school shootings at schools which did not allow armed faculty more than doubled.The Republican Party still holds a majority in the
General Assembly and the excuses are wearing thin. I demand that you do
whatever it takes to shepherd H216 through the legislative process.
Unfortunately, there is always a lingering possibility of a school
shooting. With that in mind, I insist that you do everything you can to
make it
possible for teachers to protect the children under their care.I will be monitoring your actions
on this matter through alerts from Grass Roots North Carolina.Respectfully,
Those of us of a certain age will remember former Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was President Nixon’s running mate in 1968 and 1972. Prior to that he had been the Governor of Maryland and the Executive of Baltimore County. His service in those prior positions would come back to bite him but more on that later.
Agnew’s primary role as Vice President always seemed to me was to serve as Richard Nixon’s attack dog. Whether it was with the press or with other administration opponents, Agnew was ready at a moment’s notice to go on the attack. His way with words was excellent due in no small measure to having William Safire as his speechwriter. Perhaps the most famous phrase written by Safire for Agnew was “nattering nabobs of negativism” in reference to the administration’s critics.
It seems to me, and this is my opinion only, that someone somewhere in the NRA’s hierarchy has deemed that this should now be the role for 2nd VP Willes Lee. If you have been following his posts on Facebook such as the one below, you will understand what I mean.
Saving freedom and the Second Amendment is important. Otherwise, we’d do something else, or nothing. Thank you for your support, encouragement, & prayers.
You are either with us, or you’re not. Just how it is in today’s world.
Good 2A folks do not have to take abuse from haters, Dems, bots, nor trolls (heh, all the same). No one here will appease your bad behavior. You have others who kowtow to & mollify you.
This may help:
My page. My rules. I’m not an employee, this page is mine (& FB). This page is for people who want to save freedom. I came to fight. Don’t care whether the fight is for the Second Amendment & for freedom or against gun control, Democrats, & haters. Don’t like the rules? Wah, wah.1. We give as many answers as possible. Scroll the page. Do your homework. You won’t get a response to an answer already posted.
2. Send snark? Get snark in return. I decide what is snark, & I’ll mock you for 101-level crap.
3. Show disrespect to NRA? Get disrespect in return, if anything. I decide what is disrespectful.
4. Nasty gets nasty in return. If you can’t take it, don’t send it.
5. Profanity on this page is ok.
6. Name calling gets you poofed. The more haters who self-ID, the better.
7. I decide what hater notes to keep so we can see that you have no intention of helping the movement.
8. Disgusting gets deleted. Good members shouldn’t see your depravity.
9. Bots & trolls abound. I decide if you’re a bot or troll.
PS. This is the most fun “tell”. If someone yells “snowflake” in a crowded room & you think they are talking to you, then YOU have a problem.A lot of good folks are working hard for 2A. I appreciate every good member who helps & wants us to be successful, to defend freedom, to defend the Second Amendment. Be polite. Be respectful. Or, ha, get what you get.Thank you. Thank you, very much.
I didn’t realize until just now that as I was reading through Willes’ Facebook timeline that I am now officially “a hater”. I was a guest on Eye on the Target Radio with Amanda Suffecool and Rob Campbell in which I discussed the Ack-Mac lawsuits, the leaks, and other stuff related to the NRA’s current problems. I concluded by saying we need the NRA and that it is up to us to make the changes needed. I knew there was another guest that would follow me but didn’t realize that it was Willes.
Sunday.
For people who want to know what’s going on. Interesting format, challenging questions. BFF to all Amanda Suffecool Rob Campbell hosted first half hater, second half me. Never enuf time to hit all the juicy gossip but we got a lot. With the pot stirred today, you’ll want to listen.
The funny thing about being called “a hater” is that in 2017 when Willes Lee was just another guy running for the Board of Directors and I endorsed him, he couldn’t thank me enough. Even in 2019 when I bullet voted for Adam Kraut, I said Willes was worthy of your vote. I might be considered “a hater” or a “nattering nabob of negativism” in Agnew’s terms but like Pete Townshend of The Who wrote, “I won’t be fooled again.”
If those of us who have been calling for changes in the NRA and for it to clean up its house didn’t give a damn and didn’t care if we had a strong, effective advocate for the Second Amendment, we wouldn’t be writing or talking about it. I have been a Life Member and then an Endowment Life Member of the NRA since 2010 and an Annual Member on and off since I was 17 years old. Hell, when I first became a member you had to have either a Life Member or a public official sign your membership application. I had my neighbor Rep. Charlie Phillips of the NC House sign my application. One wonders how long people like Willes have been members of the NRA and if it is just another step in their career path.
As Paul Harvey often said, now for the rest of the story. Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace from the Vice Presidency. On October 10, 1973, Agnew, in a plea bargain, pleaded no contest to a felony charge of tax evasion and was sentenced to three years probation. He resigned the Vice Presidency that same day. Agnew had been taking kickbacks from contractors doing business with Baltimore County and then the State of Maryland. The cash payments even continued after he became Vice President.
UPDATE: The episode of Eye on the Target Radio where I gave my views on the NRA issues for which Willes has deemed me “a hater” has just been posted. You can find it here.
The Washington Post ran an article yesterday that discussed the monies that flowed to certain members of the Board of Directors. According to the article, 18 Board members received some sort of compensation over the past three years. Some of this is already well known such as the amount of money paid to Marion Hammer for lobbying in Florida. Some of it was merely the commission NRA recruiters earn for new members.
Without getting into the meat of the article, one quote just stuck out.
After learning about the money his fellow board members received, Malone
said he was concerned.“If these allegations are correct and 18 board members received pay, you’re
damn right I am,” he said. “If it’s correct, the members who pay their dues
should be damn concerned, too.”
Karl Malone has never attended a board meeting and, to the best of my knowledge, has never even been sworn in as a Board member. Nonetheless, the Nominating Committee put him up for reelection and he was reelected in April to another three year term with the 16th highest vote total.
Perhaps it is cynical of me to think that Mr. Malone’s concern is a bit late in the game. If he had bothered to attend meetings, he might have been aware of this and might have had an impact. Then again, he was selected for the Board of Directors due his celebrity status and not expected to have an actual impact on the running of the organization.
Well, at least his heart is in the right place which is more than I can say about certain other members of the board.
I missed this story when it came out three days ago. It seems that attorneys for the NRA in their suit against Ackerman McQueen have issued subpoenas to three Board members. The subpoenas for documents were sent to Oliver North, Lance Olson, and Dan Boren.
From the Daily Beast which I acknowledge is a left-leaning anti-NRA publication:
Previously unreported court documents show the group served a subpoena on Oliver North late last month. It also subpoenaed Lance Olson and Daniel Boren, according to the documents; all three men are members of the NRA’s own board.
The subpoena asks for a number of documents from North: anything sent from April 10 to May 22 regarding people who work for the NRA’s longtime ad firm, Ackerman McQueen; any communications sent over the NRA’s contentious Indianapolis convention about CEO Wayne LaPierre or Ackerman McQueen; documents about the NRA’s expenditures; documents about North’s expenses; and communications about leaks.
The subpoena points to the friction between the NRA and its former president and highlights the extent to which the fight roiling the organization is focused on money and media. It specifically demands communications “related to a ‘leak’ or dissemination of previously non-public documents or information,” and cites stories from the Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Beast. The NRA previously alleged that the ad firm leaked confidential information to media outlets as part of an effort to damage senior officials in the NRA.
The NRA made the same document demands of Boren and Olson. It also demanded that North appear for a deposition on June 13 in a location the two parties would agree to, and that Olson do the same on June 17.
Lawyers for North did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Ackerman McQueen declined to comment.
The story did not publish the court documents nor did it specify whether the subpoenas were in relation to the first lawsuit the NRA filed against Ack-Mac or the second. Without paying a significant fee, access to the City of Alexandria Circuit Court filings is limited to a dated notation listing the filing in a case.
I can see the NRA’s attorneys issuing a subpoena to Oliver North as he is at the center of the lawsuits. I can even see the subpoena for Dan Boren who is from Oklahoma and reportedly opposed Wayne LaPierre at a reception during the NRA Annual Meeting. However, I don’t understand the subpoena to Lance Olson nor why certain other members such as Lt. Col. Allen West or Richard Childress didn’t receive subpoenas.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the next NRA Board meeting scheduled for September 13th in Anchorage, Alaska. Will there be a move to expel certain board members such as Lt. Col. North, Allen West, and others from the Board of Directors? An unnamed board member told me not to be surprised if this happens. North, by the way, was the leading vote getter in the 2019 BOD election surpassing even Ted Nugent.
UPDATE: The number of people getting subpoenas is now at least four. Rob Pincus acknowledged on Facebook that he had been served with one by the NRA’s lawyers with reference to the Ack-Mac lawsuit. Stephen Gutowski of the Free Beacon tweeted about it a few hours ago. A copy of the subpoena with Rob’s address information redacted can be found on Scribd.com here. He is being asked to produce letters, memos, and other communications concerning “previously non-public” information related to Wayne LaPierre, Oliver North, Marion Hammer, and Tyler Schropp. Mr. Schropp is in charge of the NRA’s fund raising operations.
UPDATE II: Checking the case number on the subpoena served on Rob Pincus it comes from the second NRA lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen. This is the lawsuit which accuses Ack-Mac of instigating a “coup” against Wayne LaPierre. I presume the other three who have been subpoenaed are being subpoenaed as a result of this suit as well.
The big picture question in all of this is what role is being played by the NRA’s outside counsel William Brewer III. Due to his ethics issues in Texas which are now before the Texas Supreme Court, he has not been granted leave to practice in Virginia.
UPDATE III: Checking the docket for this case, I see that there have been a total of six subpoenas issued. Two more were issued on June 4th. As to whom they were issued, I don’t know yet. I will report on that when I find out. To read case documents for that case directly from the City of Alexandria Clerk of Circuit Court’s website is $50 per month which I don’t anticipate me deciding to pay anytime soon.
by