The winner for tweet of the day goes to the Firearms Policy Coalition.
Update: 10 of those 15 states have now passed permitless carry. pic.twitter.com/nCSmF4fLnp
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 22, 2022
The Interwebs never forget.
Well played, FPC! Well played.
Smith & Wesson filed suit against New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal yesterday. The suit is brought in US District Court for the District of New Jersey. It was brought in response to a fishing subpoena issued by Grewal’s office “seeking evidence of consumer fraud related to advertising.”
Smith & Wesson accuses Grewal of trying to suppress free speech.
Following in the abusive footsteps of these repressive regimes, the New Jersey Attorney General has taken a series of actions to suppress Smith & Wesson’s speech, and with the intention of damaging Smith & Wesson both financially and reputationally. The most recent such action is the issuance of an administrative subpoena (the “Subpoena”) on October 13, 2020 that allegedly seeks evidence of consumer fraud relating to advertising – but in reality, it seeks to suppress and punish lawful speech regarding gun ownership in order to advance an anti-Second Amendment agenda that the Attorney General publicly committed to pursue.
The lawsuit goes on to accuse Grewal of conspiring with “anti-Second Amendment Activists” such as Brady, Everytown, and Giffords to use the power of the courts and prosecutors to “name and shame” firearms companies such as Smith & Wesson. It mentions the proxy proposals brought by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility that would have hamstrung Smith & Wesson.
The complaint then goes on to accuse Grewal of working directly with FACT (Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force) which is a tool of the “anti-Second Amendment Activists” to circumvent the legislative process:
It is against this backdrop of coordinating with anti-Second Amendment Activists to search for new theories to litigate the firearms industry out of existence, that the Attorney General issued his Subpoena against Smith & Wesson here. To this end, in addition to publicly partnering with anti-Second Amendment Activists, the Attorney General has also hired FACT
counsel, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP as his own counsel specifically to pursue firearms manufacturers, further solidifying the anti-gun agenda as his own.The Attorney General’s actions surrounding the issuance of the Subpoena and initiating the related investigation are forcing Smith & Wesson to expend substantial financial resources, and are threatening to cause irreparable damage with key stakeholders and necessary business partners, and create reputational harm.
The Attorney General’s campaign to silence, intimidate, and deter Smith & Wesson and other Second Amendment advocates, gun manufacturers, and gun owners from exercising their constitutional rights, his consignment of the State’s prosecutorial authority to nongovernmental partisans, and the targeting of protected, disfavored speech, violate numerous provisions of the U.S. Constitution, including the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
By circumventing the legislature and the courts and, where possible, invading the board room, the anti-Second Amendment Activists disguise their true motives and avoid exposing their agenda to the robust political debate surrounding firearms in the United States. Their allies then use the issues that they create, to falsely foster with shareholders, business partners and other stakeholders a perception of unmitigated risk. Through these coordinated activities, in which the Attorney General and State of New Jersey now are complicit, the activists have denied and continue to deny Smith & Wesson any meaningful access to the only fora that can stop these illegal actions and protect Smith & Wesson’s rights.
Smith & Wesson lists 11 counts of violations. Among these are violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendment through unlawful viewpoint discrimination, restriction of political speech, and restriction of protected commercial speech. It also alleges violations of the Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights of both the company and its consumers. Finally, it says the company is protected the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act as well as the Dormant Commerce Clause meaning this is a matter for Federal courts and that state officials like Grewal are encroaching in Federal matters.
The lawsuit seeks both injunctive and declaratory relief as well as attorney fees along with anything else the court might deem “just and proper”.
The attorneys representing Smith & Wesson are all partners in the international law firm of DLA Piper. In one of those delicious bits of irony, this is the same firm where Douglas Emhoff, spouse of presumed VP-elect Kamala Harris, is a partner. Indeed, when you open up the list of the firm’s attorneys by “relevance”, he is the first one listed.
If you are a gun control group running ads against pro-gun incumbents, why would you shy away from mentioning guns? Could it be that you know that gun control is not a winning issue given the massive number of new gun owners?
Mike Blomberg’s Everytown PAC is running negative ads in North Carolina and Iowa against Republican incumbent Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Joni Ernst (R-IA).
Here is an ad that is running in Iowa against Joni Ernst. Nary a word about guns is mentioned.
While they do have one ad running in North Carolina that barely mentions firearms, here is their primary ad against Tillis.
The Free Beacon ran an article written by Stephen Gutowski about this today. One of the people he interviewed for the article is Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said Everytown’s attempt to appeal to issues beyond the Second Amendment could indicate that the group is not confident in gun control’s appeal in swing states.
“One reason Everytown brings up those other issues may be that the Democratic Senate candidates in Iowa and North Carolina will probably need some Trump voters to win,” Coleman told the Washington Free Beacon. “In both states, there were several Obama-to-Trump counties in rural areas. Hitting Republicans on gun control may not be enough to make them unacceptable to those voters.”
Given that it is obvious that Mike Bloomberg and his organization want to swing control of the US Senate from Republicans to Democrats, it would instructive to look at what the candidates who benefit from these ads think about gun control.
In Iowa, Democrat Theresa Greenfield had this on her website. It must not be an issue that she wants to publicize too much as it was somewhat hidden away. She lumped it under “public safety”.
In the Senate, Theresa will fight for legislation that keeps our kids and our communities safe. Whether it’s working to expand background checks, funding critical gun violence research, keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and other criminals, such as those on the No Fly list, she will bring people together to find commonsense solutions to ensure we address gun violence.
In North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, who you know won the Bronze Star, no V for Valor for his JAG work in Iraq, is a bit more obvious about it. He also touts that Everytown and Giffords have endorsed him.
Cal believes there are commonsense steps we can take to protect our communities from gun violence while protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens. Cal will work to keep our kids safe and to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, criminals, and terrorists by supporting efforts to expand background checks, ban the sale of high-capacity magazines, pass extreme risk laws, and fund gun violence research on an issue that has become a public health crisis.
To be perfectly blunt, there is nothing moderate about their stances on gun control and that is exactly what Everytown wants to obfuscate in their advertising.
As Tom Knighton said in reference to the announcement that Everytown endorsed 11 Democrats for the US Senate, they “announced Senate candidates it was buying.” I think he hit the nail on the head.
As with their endorsements for the House of Representatives, they rolled out the announcement to The Hill.
The gun-control advocacy group threw its support behind 11 Democratic Senate candidates including Mark Kelly in Arizona, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, Sara Gideon in Maine, Rep. Ben Ray Luján in New Mexico, Cal Cunningham in North Carolina, Jaime Harrison in South Carolina and MJ Hegar in Texas.
The endorsement of Gideon is particularly notable given the group endorsed incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) in 2014.
The group also backed incumbent Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Gary Peters (Mich.) and Tina Smith (Minn.).
With the possible exception of Gideon, there are no surprises on this list.
Mark Kelly was a gimme given he is “Mr. Gabby Giffords” and is trying to ride the gun control train into office. Likewise, John Hickenlooper aka Hickenstupid sold his soul to Michael Bloomberg years ago.
Closer to me, Jaime Harrison is the former head of the SC Democrat Party, is a protege of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, and parlayed his work for Clyburn into a job as a lobbyist for the Podesta Group. I have been seeing his ads since early spring as our local TV stations cover the Upstate of South Carolina. If his ads were the only thing you knew about him, you would know he got a scholarship to Yale and that he taught school for a year. He never happens to mention he went to law school or that he worked for many years as a lobbyist.
Moving on to Cal Cunningham here in North Carolina, you saw a ton of ads for him early in the spring. Some so-called veterans PAC was running a lot of ads for him touting that he served in Iraq and was awarded the Bronze Star. You got the impression he was like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) who, despite being a Harvard Law School grad, served as an infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. If that was your impression, you’d be wrong. Cunningham served as a JAG attorney in the Army Reserve attached to the XVIII Airborne Corps. His Bronze Star was awarded for meritorious service overseeing a number of attorneys and paralegals. In other words, he got it for acting like the managing partner of a law firm – not for leading troops in combat.
While Cunningham served in the State Senate from 2000-2004 representing Davidson County, he now lives in Raleigh though he is still listed as an attorney in his father’s law practice in Lexington. He is also the VP and General Counsel of solid waste company WasteZero. If I had to characterize Cunningham, it would be as the John Edwards of 2020 without the narcissistic attention to hair. Cunningham has also been endorsed by the Cult of Personality known as Giffords.
One final note – Mary Jane “MJ” Hegar of Texas is in a runoff for the nomination. She faces State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) in the July 14th runoff. While she leads in money raised and came in first in the primary, West has the backing of most Democrats in the Texas Legislature.
Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown rolled out their first round of endorsements today. In an “exclusive” to The Hill, they listed 58 incumbents and challengers in districts across the country. Some are names you’ve heard of before and some are newcomers with a boatload of money behind them. It is expected that Everytown will spend at least $60 million of Bloomberg’s money to get them elected to promote gun control.
Not surprisingly, there is only one Republican (in name only) on the list along with 57 Democrats.
The list includes Rep. Lucy McBath (D) in Georgia’s 6th District, Rep. Jason Crow (D) in Colorado’s 6th District, Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D) in Florida’s 26th District and Rep. Sharice Davids (D) in Kansas’s 3rd District.
The group’s senior political adviser, Charlie Kelly, said Everytown’s priority is to defend a number of incumbents facing contested races in an effort to defend the pro-gun control majority in the House.
“Time and again, this gun sense majority in the House has made it absolutely clear, and made gun safety a priority,” Kelly said. “It’s important that we keep the leadership of the chamber and that gun sense majority.”
They say they plan to plan to spend big bucks in Texas as well as at least $5 million in Arizona to help elect Mr. Gabby Giffords (Mark Kelly).
The full list is below:
The full list of Everytown’s House endorsements is Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.); Hiral Tipirneni, who is running in Arizona’s 6th District; Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.); Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.); Rep. TJ Cox (D-Calif.); Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.); Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.); Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.); Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.); (Jason) Crow (D-CO); Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.); (Debbie) Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL); (Lucy) McBath (D-GA); Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa); Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa); Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.); Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, who is running in Illinois’s 13th District; Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.); Christina Hale, who is running in Indiana’s 5th District; (Sharice) Davids (D-KS); Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.); House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.); Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.); Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.); Dan Feehan, who is running in Minnesota’s 1st District; Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.); Jill Schupp, who is running in Missouri’s 2nd District; Kara Eastman, who is running in Nebraska’s 2nd District; Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.); Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.); Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.); Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.); Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.); Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.); Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.); Jackie Gordon, who is running in New York’s 2nd District; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.); Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.); Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.); Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-N.Y.); Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.); Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.); Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.); Eugene DePasquale, who is running in Pennsylvania’s 10th District; Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.); Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.); House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.); Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas); (Wendy) Davis (D-TX); Sri Kulkarni, who is running in Texas’s 22nd District; (Gina) Ortiz- Jones (D-TX); Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas); Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.); Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.); Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.); and Carolyn Long, who is running in Washington’s 3rd District.
We should be thanking Everytown for providing this list of anti-freedom, anti-gun, and anti-self defense candidates. If you ever needed to know just whom should never get your vote, this is it.
H/T Sean S.
I address this to all the women (and men) who wear their red Moms Demand Action t-shirts. I realize that you think, though misguidedly, that you are doing something to promote gun control so as to stop the criminal misuse of firearms.
How does it feel to learn that you are nothing but a useful pawn in Mike Bloomberg’s quest for more and more political power?
From the (progressive) paper of record aka the New York Times who just did a long story on the interrelationship between Mike Bloomberg’s charitable giving and his political ambition.
Everytown is managed directly by one of Mr. Bloomberg’s close lieutenants, John Feinblatt, a former New York deputy mayor whose wedding Mr. Bloomberg officiated in 2011. Numerous people connected to the group said it channeled Mr. Bloomberg’s priorities, including his strong preference for working with both parties.
The organization came into existence through an almost corporate-style merger: Mr. Bloomberg already had a gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but he needed a grass-roots army to compete with the National Rifle Association. So it joined forces with an existing activist group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, to form Everytown.
People involved in the group described being forced to communicate exclusively in canned talking points. Kate Ranta, shot twice by her ex-husband in front of her young son, was a member of Everytown’s network of survivors. She was asked to address a rally on the steps of the Capitol, along with her son. Standing beside Nancy Pelosi, then the House minority leader, and Representative John Lewis, she found herself stumbling over the text she had been given.
“Someone from Everytown wrote my speech. It was pushing their legislative agenda versus my authentic voice,” Ms. Ranta said. “I couldn’t say ‘gun control.’ It was moderate messaging — ‘gun safety’ and ‘gun violence prevention.’”
Other members greatly appreciated the new direction from Everytown. “A structure began to be put into place, and we could avail ourselves of the data that was offered so we could speak more intelligently,” said June Rubin, a Moms Demand Action volunteer in New York. “So we’re focused and single-issue and highly recognizable and speaking with one voice, and it’s powerful.”
The policy agenda was to be focused on tightening background checks; more radical ideas like banning assault weapons were off the table. “There were people who were very, very troubled by that,” Ms. Rubin said. “I became very pragmatic.”
More confrontational tactics were also rejected. After the mass shooting last year at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex., other groups organized protests to pressure the retailer to change its policies. But Moms members were discouraged from attending and told not to show any affiliation if they did. One Moms official told volunteers in a closed Facebook group that doing otherwise could “undercut our relations with responsible gun owners whose support we need.”
“Our goal is always to get results, and sometimes that means playing the outside game and sometimes it requires playing the inside game and working with partners who have shown themselves to be amenable to change,” said Maxwell Young, chief of public affairs for Everytown. “We’ve found Walmart to be an ally on gun safety and an example of a leader always willing to engage in productive conversations.”
You thought you could leave. You thought you could go your own way. You thought you and Everytown/Moms Demand were done with one another.
Not so fast.
Former members of Moms Demand Action, who had been cut off from private Facebook groups and blocked by leadership on Twitter, were surprised when they received emails from Mike Bloomberg 2020. Then they learned his campaign had rented the group’s email list, for $3.2 million, two days before he announced his candidacy in November.
It is like one of those messianic-led, off in the ozone cults. You try to leave but they will always come looking for you…because no one is allowed to leave.
But don’t feel too bad as you debate should you burn that red Moms Demand t-shirt. You aren’t alone. There aren’t many progressive or liberal constituencies that Mike Bloomberg hasn’t tried to buy on his way to grab for political power.
Climate change activists? Ask the Sierra Club.
Women’s rights? Ask Emily’s List.
Education policy? Ask NC’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson.
Abortion? Ask Planned Parenthood.
And the list goes on. Mike Bloomberg may engage in sexist and racist behavior and fly in a fleet of private jets but his money buys willful ignorance and useful pawns.
Jared Yanis of the Guns & Gadgets YouTube channel interviewed Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina at the recent SHOT Show.
Paul, who is president of GRNC, made the point that North Carolina is ground zero in the fight for gun rights. Everything you have seen in Virginia could happen here.
Lawsuits by Eric Holder and Democrats over redistricting. Check.
Money from Michael Bloomberg. Check.
Growth in sanctuary counties. A good thing but still check.
Paul made the point to me in Las Vegas that Virginia had to resort to the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement. They had lost their other options. We in North Carolina are not at that point. Yet.
Everyone who attends a county sanctuary meeting needs to be registered to vote. Even more importantly, they need to recruit 10 likeminded friends and make sure they are registered to vote. Then all 11 need to vote for pro-gun candidates in both the March primaries and November general election.
The other thing they need to do is join groups like Grass Roots North Carolina to give us the money and power needed to stand up the influx of money that Michael Bloomberg has already promised will be sent to North Carolina. That $250,000 is just the beginning.
To join GRNC – even if you don’t live in North Carolina – go here. We sure could use the help!
After I posted about the indictment of Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell for theft from her own charity, I began to wonder about her campaign finances. One of the charges against her included failing to file a campaign finance report. What I found was interesting.
Johnson-Harrell was quoted in a fawning story by the Philadelphia Inquirer on her motivation to run for office as saying this:
“I ran because we need the bodies to stop dropping in every city across the nation,” said Johnson-Harrell, 53. “It’s our responsibility as legislators and leaders to do this.”
She made “gun violence” (sic) and gun control a centerpiece of her campaign in the special election. She was already known for having started the Charles Foundation to advocate for more gun control in memory of her murdered son. She was also the Vice Chair of Heeding God’s Call to Eliminate Gun Violence (sic). Thus, it was reasonable to assume she would get support from the gun prohibitionists.
And she did with a stirring endorsement from Everytown.
“After more than a dozen Moms Demand Action volunteers won elected office in 2018, I’m so excited to see yet another strong candidate emerge from our grassroots army of volunteers,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “Movita Johnson-Harrell has been invaluable to our Pennsylvania chapter and I have no doubt that she’ll be an incredible leader at the statehouse, too.”
Endorsements are nice but modern campaigns run on money.
Johnson-Harrell also received a $1,000 donation from Dana Bazelon of the Soros-bought Philadelphia DA’s Office and a $5,000 donation from the Committee for a Better Tomorrow which is the PAC for the Pennsylvania trial lawyers. She also received substantial donations from a variety of union-affiliated political action committees.
Johnson-Harrell’s financial issues were not a secret. Before she got the nomination by the Philadelphia Democratic Committee, she was grilled on her finances by ward leaders. Moreover, she only got the nomination because the more established candidates had issues with residency.
Going back to the headline, were those anti-gun stalwarts who donated to Johnson-Harrell duped by her? Or, could it have been that despite her known troubled finances, her fur coats, and her Porsche, they just didn’t care because they knew they would have a gun control advocate in Harrisburg? Would it have been, “Yeah, she’s a thief but she’s our thief” and the optics of having an African-American, Muslim woman who had family members murdered outweighed every thing else?
I doubt we will ever know and I know we would not get an honest answer if we asked.
The pantheon of lies include the check is in the mail, I’ll respect you in the morning, and I’m from the government and I’m here to help. Thanks to Shannon Watts, we can add another one to that list.
In an email to the Demanding Mommies as reported by Mother Jones, she wrote:
Watts said that Bloomberg’s entry into the race would “ensure gun safety remains front and center during the 2020 election season” but affirmed that nothing would be asked of its volunteers to support Bloomberg’s candidacy. “We are a single issue organization—but none of us live single issue lives,” Watts wrote. “I want to be clear that it is entirely your choice regarding how you spend your volunteer time in this election and which candidates you choose to support. Elevating the voices of all gun sense champions is part of what you do every day, and that should continue.”
Yeah, right. Tell me another one, Shannon. Without Bloomberg’s money backing you, Everytown, and the Demanding Mommies, you would be just another out of work PR executive who snagged a rich husband.
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| Photo by Manchester (NH) Police Department |
Don’t be this guy!
Robert Blaisdell, 44, of Manchester, New Hampshire is a well-known lobbyist in the New Hampshire Statehouse. Blaisdell is the managing partner in the lobbying firm of Demers, Blaisdell, and Prasol, Inc. Among his many clients are the NH Troopers Association, the NH Police Association, Everytown for Gun Safety, Bank of America, and Walmart.
Why not be this guy? Other than being a lobbyist, his bio make him sound like an upstanding citizen serving on numerous municipal boards and school foundations.
Well, according to The Patch, he was involved in a “domestic disturbance” on the evening of May 2nd.
From The Patch:
(He) was arrested on May 2, 2019, and charged with domestic violence-simple assault, false imprisonment, and criminal mischief. According to court documents and scanner chatter, a large police presence was sent to a Union Street address at around 9 p.m. for an incident that had escalated from a domestic disturbance.
When they arrived and after conducting an investigation, police charged Blaisdell with three counts. They allege that he “knowingly” confined a family member “so as to substantially interfere with their ability to physically movement by holding the laundry room door closed over a period of several minutes” when the person tried to leave the room. Blaisdell is also accused of stepping on the person’s hand during the disturbance. Court documents also allege that he grabbed the victim’s cellphone and “using his hands in a twisting motion thus cracking the screen and rendering the phone useless, causing damages in excess of $100.”
I wonder if when gun controllers push for more gun control it is because they think most people are violent like them. Hint — we aren’t.
H/T Rob Reed
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