Mossberg

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Changes Coming To NSSF Leadership

August 9, 2018 by

Steve Sanetti has been President and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation since 2008 and was President of Sturm, Ruger before that. The NSSF has announced a succession plan for when Sanetti retires at the end of 2019. Joseph Bartozzi, Executive VP and General Counsel of Mossberg, will become the new President of NSSF on September 10, 2018 with plans that he assume the CEO role on Sanetti’s 2019 retirement.

Bartozzi has been with Mossberg for the last 32 years in a variety of positions. He is also the Chairman of the Board of SAAMI and is a NRA certified RSO. You can read more about Bartozzi in the NSSF’s announcment below.

From NSSF:

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The Board of Governors of the National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association to the firearms industry, today announced that O.F. Mossberg & Son’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Joseph Bartozzi, will be the organization’s next President. Bartozzi will assume his new duties Sept. 10, 2018.

Joseph BartozziCurrent President and CEO Steve Sanetti will stay on in his CEO capacity through his retirement at the end of 2019, at which point Bartozzi will take over those additional duties.

Bartozzi has spent the majority of his career with Mossberg, joining the company in July 1986. His time with Mossberg included a wide variety of positions, including Quality Engineer, Quality Manager, Product Service Manager, Director of Technical Services, Director of Manufacturing Operations and Corporate Attorney.

Bartozzi currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI); Treasurer and Member of NSSF’s Board of Governors; Board Member and Chairman of the Governance Committee of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (CAHSS); Committee Member for the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM); and Technical Advisor to the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners (AFTE). He is also certified as a Range Safety Officer (RSO) by the National Rifle Association. Bartozzi was nominated for the 2013 “Person of the Year” by SHOT Business magazine, a nomination reprised in 2014.

In 2015, Bartozzi was admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. A member of the Connecticut and Maine State Bar Associations, he holds three professional certifications from the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and he is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).

“The Board of Governors agreed that Joe’s unique set of experiences and skills will provide NSSF and the firearms industry with the strong leadership needed to ensure we can continue our mission of promoting, protecting and preserving hunting and the shooting sports for generations to come,” said Robert Scott, Vice Chairman of Smith & Wesson and NSSF’s Board of Governors Chairman.

“I have known Joe Bartozzi for more than 20 years, on both personal and professional levels, and I believe he is an exemplary choice for this important position,” said Sanetti. “I know that he will work extremely hard to further our mission for the benefit of our industry and its customers, and I am very much looking forward to working together with Joe during this transitional period in the coming year.”

“I’ve had a tremendous career thus far at Mossberg, one for which I’m most thankful,” said Bartozzi. “As difficult as it is to leave that fine organization after 30 years, it is an honor to now take on a leadership position that will work to successfully conquer the challenges and seize the opportunities before us for the benefit of all our industry members.”

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What Does It Say When Even Hi-Point Drops You As A Customer?

May 9, 2018 by 2 Comments

Today’s Shooting Wire contained a release from MKS Supply, LLC saying they would no longer do business with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its Field and Stream subsidiary. MKS Supply is the exclusive distributor for Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing.

In recent months, Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, have shown themselves, in our opinion, to be no friend of Americans’ Second Amendment. We believe that refusing to sell long guns to adults under age 21, while many young adults in our military are not similarly restricted, is wrong. We believe that villainizing modern sporting rifles in response to pressure from uninformed, anti-gun voices is wrong. We believe that hiring lobbyists to oppose American citizens’ freedoms secured by the Second Amendment is wrong. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream, in purportedly doing all of these things, have demonstrated that they do not share our values.

MKS Supply, Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing are standing by the American people by refusing any further sales to Dick’s Sporting Goods & Field & Stream. We are proud of our products, we are proud of our customers, and we are especially proud of the freedoms secured by our great U.S. Constitution. We are committed to all three.

As I reported last week, Springfield Armory severed their ties with Dick’s and the NSSF had expelled them from membership.

This afternoon it was announced that Mossberg was refusing any future orders and evaluating their current contractual agreements with Dick’s and Field and Stream.

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., a leading American firearms manufacturer, announced today its decision to discontinue selling products to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring of gun control lobbyists in April 2018.

Effective immediately, O.F. Mossberg & Sons will not accept any future orders from Dick’s Sporting Goods or Field & Stream, and is in the process of evaluating current contractual agreements.

“It has come to our attention that Dick’s Sporting Goods recently hired lobbyists on Capitol Hill to promote additional gun control.” said Iver Mossberg, Chief Executive Officer of O.F. Mossberg & Sons. “Make no mistake, Mossberg is a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution and our Second Amendment rights, and we fully disagree with Dick’s Sporting Goods’ recent anti-Second Amendment actions.”

Consumers are urged to visit one of the thousands of pro-Second Amendment firearm retailers to make their purchases of Mossberg and Maverick® firearms. Firearm retailers can be found through the Mossberg Dealer Locator by visiting http://www.mossberg.com/dealers/.

Dick’s might not be hurt by this but Field and Stream is going to miss both Springfield and Mossberg. The average Field and Stream store devotes about one-third of its overall space to hunting and shooting. A few more of these announcements and they can kiss the hunting and shooting business goodbye.

Finally, when even a low-end producer like Hi-Point wants nothing to do with you, it says you suck and big time.

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SHOT SHOT Day One – Gunblast.Com

January 19, 2017 by 1 Comment

Jeff Quinn in this report on Day One of the SHOT Show starts off with a great interview of Ruger CEO Mike Fifer. The other highlights were a Colt representative talking about the reintroduced Colt Cobra and a discussion by Linda Powell of Mossberg’s new 590 Shockwave shotgun. This latter product is quite interesting in that it is a pistol-gripped 14″ shotgun that does not require a NFA tax stamp.

To read more about the Mossberg 590 Shockwave, go here.  Ammoland.com does report that the shotgun is sold with this disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Although the Mossberg 590 Shockwave is classified as a “firearm” under the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), and is not subject to the provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA), state and local laws may be more restrictive. Even though, it is legal federally, the 590 Shockwave may be considered a “short-barreled” shotgun or “assault weapon” by certain state and local laws; and therefore illegal to possess. Please check with your local authorities concerning the legality of possessing a firearm of this configuration.

Checking North Carolina law, 14 NCGS § 14-288.8.(c)(3) classifies a shotgun as a “weapon of mass death and destruction” if it has “a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length or an overall length of less than 26 inches.” If you have a Federal tax stamp then possession of such a shotgun is permitted. As I read this – and I’m not a lawyer – the shotgun must be both greater than 26 inches overall in length and must have a barrel of 18 inches in length or greater. By using “or” instead of “and” in the description of such a prohibited shotgun the legislative intent is that both conditions must be met. This leads me to say that this is a law that needs changing as I’d like one of those shotguns!


UPDATE: Regarding North Carolina law and the legality of possessing the Mossberg Shockwave, I received this message on Facebook from fellow blogger Chris Maynard.

It is not a shotgun because it never had a stock, rather a pistol grip from the factory… If it was under 26″ in length, it would be an AOW… But over 26″ makes it a “firearm”… Per federal law…

So that should mean that it is not restricted by NC law supposing they follow the federal definition of “shotgun”

But the same statute also restricts ” Any type of weapon (other than a shotgun or a shotgun shell of a type particularly suitable for sporting purposes) which will, or which may be readily converted to, expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, and which has any barrel with a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter” so this gun should qualify under that.

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To Paraphrase, It’s Jobs, Stupid

February 26, 2013 by

The National Shooting Sports Foundation held a series of interviews with managers and workers of a number of Connecticut firearms and firearms accessory manufacturers recently. As the Connecticut legislature looks at a number of draconian gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown shootings, this video puts a human face on the workers of the Connecticut gun industry.

The interviews are with the leaders and employees of O.F. Mossberg, Stag Arms, and magazine maker Ammunition Storage Components.

To paraphrase political strategist James Carville, it’s jobs, stupid. While the jobs may not disappear overnight as it is hard to transfer operations to other locations, if these laws pass, I think you will see more and more of their operations being moved to more gun-friendly states. Indeed, industrial recruiters from such states are already hovering.