I have been sent a couple of videos taken from the Meeting of Members yesterday. Both are from the debate over moving NRA headquarters from Fairfax, Virginia to the Dallas, Texas area.
The first video is of Rob Pincus raising questions about the move including who authored the resolution. A friend who was there described Rob as being like a dog with a bone in forcing the admission that the resolution was drafted by 2nd VP David Coy.
The second video is by David Yamane who recorded the full debate on the move to Texas resolution. It runs for about 33 minutes but is well worth a look in order to get the feel for how Cotton and the Cabal lost control and the members plus reform-minded Directors took it.
It will be interesting to see if the reformers can translate this win into success on Monday in the Board meeting. Fingers crossed!
It began with the concept by Rob Pincus for an ideal concealed carry firearm and ended with the Avidity Arms’ PD10 which releases this month and begins shipping in February. In between the beginning and the end result of a production gun ready for market were changes of company structure, business plans, vendors, unavoidable delays, and a pandemic.
An ideal carry pistol, according to Pincus, needs to be built around these three concepts: carryability, shootability, and reliability. The last concept is self-evident. You want the pistol to work when you need it to work without failure every time. Both carryability and shootability deal, in part, with the size of the pistol. A full-size pistol with an 18+1 or even a 20+1 capacity is going to be heavy, hard to conceal, harder for smaller hands to grip (without interchangeable backstraps), and is better suited for law enforcement, competition, or the range. Likewise, too small of a pistol, while easier to carry, will be harder to grip and shoot accurately. This led Pincus to specify a slim, single-stack, 10+1 capacity, with a 4-5” barrel, and that allowed a grip with all fingers. The pistol, he went on to add, should be polymer, striker-fired, in 9mm, easy to field-strip, with rear sights that allowed one-handed cocking.
It is interesting to note that this is the first defensive pistol designed and brought to market by a defensive shooting instructor. Pincus left full time law enforcement in 2001 and has spent the vast majority of the twenty years since that time developing and conducting defensive shooting courses, with a student list that includes high end military units, police agencies from all around the US and Europe, and tens of thousands of concealed carriers. It makes sense that he should have some valid ideas about defensive pistol design. He also contributed significantly to the final design of FK BRNO PSD Pistol, which earned the NRA Golden Bullseye for Handgun of the year in 2020.
In the end, the production model of the PD10 meets Pincus’ requirements. Here are its specifications:
Safety index point on frame for positioning of trigger finger
Safety: Integrated trigger, firing pin block
Loaded chamber indicator
Overall Length: 6.94″
Width at widest: 1″
Overall Weight: 18.8 oz.
ISONITE QPQ Coating
As noted, there have been changes in the corporate structure of Avidity Arms since Pincus began developing this pistol in 2013. While originally envisioned as a stand alone company, the project actually started within Eagle Imports but that changed when Mike Sodini, Rob’s original collaborator and former President of Eagle Imports, left them in 2018. Fast forward through the Covid-19 pandemic to February 2022. It was at that time that Joe Worley of AlphaTech, Inc. of Fletcher, NC joined the ownership team of Pincus, Sodini, and Chuck Usina of Ancient City Shooting Range of St. Augustine, FL. Chuck, Pincus’ longtime friend had been helping the project informally with his gunsmithing and mechanical know-how from the start and formally joined the team when the company moved to Florida in 2019. The addition of Joe Worley accelerated final development of the PD10 because he brought with him a high-tech, ISO 9001, company that had state of the art machining capabilities and experience as a supplier to the firearms industry. Worley had been impressed with the design of the PD10 and wanted to be more than just a contract manufacturer of parts.
This past September, Randy Miyan, Executive Director of theLiberal Gun Owners, and I were invited by Pincus to visit the Alpha Tech facility (the new headquarters of Avidity Arms) and to test fire some of the prototypes. Given that the factory is literally 5 minutes from my house, I was thrilled with the invite. After getting some insight on the development of the PD10 and the work being done on it at Alpha Tech, we toured the plant. They had the full range of high-end manufacturing equipment including CNC machines, robots, electrical discharge machining (EDM) cutting machines, lathes, Bridgeport milling machines, and the like.
AlphaTech floor
Robot feeding CNC machine
After touring the factory, we adjourned to their small outdoor firing range to fire the prototypes of the PD10. My first impressions were that the pistol was easy to control, it fit my smaller hand with short fingers well, it didn’t have much muzzle flip, it was accurate, and I really liked the sights. The prototypes had the I.C.E. Claw rear sight (also designed by Pincus about a decade ago) which was all black and the front sight was an Ameriglo™ lumisquare™ with Tritium™ insert. It made it easy to concentrate on the front sight.
Testing PD10 prototype
In mid-December, I returned to the Alpha Tech facility to meet with Pincus and the team at Alpha Tech. I also met Chuck and Krista Usina for the first time. This visit offered a chance to participate in a multi-day endurance test that was being conducted to take two production specification samples past 5000 rounds. All the metal parts of the PD10, with the exception of a few springs and the magazine bodies, are now being manufactured by Alpha Tech and the complete pistol is 100% US made. Changes from what I saw in September include coating internal parts for wear and lubricity and replacing the polymer backplate with a steel backplate. In addition, they now had an optional optics cut slide for red dot optics. As noted in the specs, they use the Holosun Optics 507K / Shield RMSc footprint.
Courtesy of Rob Pincus
Joe Worley emphasized two major things about the manufacture of the PD10. First, there are no MIM (metal injected molded) parts in any component. The metal parts are all machined from high-grade billet or stamped. Second, instead of using stock roll pins, they precision grind all their own pins for best fit and function. This takes tolerances from +/- .002 to +/-.0001 or 20 times more precise.
After meeting in the plant, I went down to their range to meet with Pincus and Cannon Dillon who is the project manager for the PD10. They were in the process of durability testing the PD10. The goal was 5,000 rounds per pistol. I got to shoot a few mags through one of the pistols that had a Holosun red dot on it.
PD10 with Holosun EPS Carry
While taking a break, there was some discussion on whether the PD10 would be shown at the upcoming SHOT Show. I learned that it will be featured it will be shown at the Davidson’s booth (72317) as they will be distributing the PD10-OC. This has great implications for the general public in that they will be able to take advantage of Davidson’sGallery of Guns to purchase the PD10. This means you can have the PD10 delivered to your local FFL with no transfer fee because, in essence, you bought it from the FFL. From my own parochial perspective, I love the North Carolina connection in all of this. Davidson’s, while now headquartered in Arizona, was founded in my hometown of Greensboro and now will be distributing a North Carolina-made pistol.
A carry pistol needs a holster and the PD10 will have them available from three different holster makers. Leather holsters for outside waistband, inside waistband, and appendix carry will be available fromJM4 Tactical of Abilene, Texas. G-Code Holsters out of Burgaw, NC will be making the Kydex holsters for the PD10 in their Phenom Stealth and the Synchron models. Finally, hybrid holsters will be available from TacRigof Shorewood, OR. The shell can be used either OWB or IWB. All three companies will have them available in either right or left handed versions and they will be available directly from those manufacturers or through the AvidityArms.com website before the first pistols are shipped in February.
JM4 Tactical
Tacrig
Pricing has been set for the PD10. The MSRP for the standard PD10 will be $599. The optics cut version will have a MSRP of $625. Given the minimal price differential, if it were me, I’d go with the optics cut version just for the versatility. Street prices will probably be a bit less.
In conclusion, I liked it and intend to buy one. This is not because it is being made in North Carolina or that I was given a chance to shoot both the prototype and the pre-release production models. I liked it because it felt good in my hands, it shot well, and it was accurate.
The ballots for the 2020 NRA Board of Directors Election were included in the February issues of the official magazines. Those who get the magazines electronically should have received their ballots separately in the mail. If you haven’t received your ballot and you think you are eligible to vote, contact NRA Membership Services at 1- 703-267-1000. Ask for membership. (Correction courtesy of Dave V.)
Completed ballots must be received back by March 29th. Late ballots will not be counted.
The first published endorsements that I saw were from Lt. Col. Robert Brown of Soldier of Fortune Magazine. Col. Brown has been a member of the Board of Directors for a number of years and has been a somewhat independent voice on the board. He endorsed six people for the Board. He notes elsewhere he is NOT voting for Charles Cotton, the current 1st VP.
Steve Schreiner
Tom Arvas
William Carter
John Cushman
Curtis Jenkins
Robert Mansell
Ammoland News is endorsing only two candidates this year: Anthony Colandro and Graham Hill. They go on to say:
Based on the last years’ controversy at the NRA AmmoLand News is very cautious in who we are endorsing as we wait and see how the NRA’s legal challenges work out. Graham Hill is one of those Directors that we know very well and have much respect for his work and trust his leadership skills can help guide the NRA in the year to come. Please Bullet Vote only for Graham Hill and Anthony Colandro when you return your NRA ballot.
Anthony’s DECADES of Second Amendment activism experience, fighting for all of us, with a target on his back, is the thing legends are made of! Leading rallies, testifying for gun owners at hearings held at our state capitol, hosting Tony Simon’s Diversity Shoot and the Second Amendment Women Shooting Club–SAW at his range. He never stops fighting! His in-your-face weekly radio broadcast reaches millions of gun owners nationwide.
The Trigger Pressers Union (a training organization) has endorsed Frank Tait and Jim Wallace. Klint Macro, the head and founder, is also endorsing Todd Ellis and Anthony Colandro according to their Facebook post.
Next up is Save the Second. The organization itself has not endorsed any candidates. They have, however, provided a valuable service by creating a guide to all candidates which can be found here. It has many links to candidates’ social media sites, endorsements, and biographical information.
They also have produced a 2 1/2 hour YouTube where they discuss the candidates. It is worth watching.
The individual directors of Save the Second have made their own recommendations independent of the organization.
Jeff is blunt on what the NRA faces and the assortment of candidates on this ballot.
The NRA is in deep trouble. I honestly expect indictments and financial sanctions to be coming down very soon from investigations being conducted by the New York and DC attorneys general and other agencies. All of these troubles tie directly back to Wayne LaPierre and the NRA Directors who allowed him to abuse his power so egregiously. If the Association can be saved, it’s going to require Directors willing to make hard decisions and stand firmly on principles. This ballot doesn’t offer a lot of hope for that, but we must do what we can with what we’ve got.
Jeff has made both endorsements and non-endorsements. The non-endorsements are those who should not get your vote under any circumstances. These include Charles Cotton, Ron Schmeitz, and Alan Cors. Rejecting these three would, in Jeff’s words, send a “loud message to the Board and the powers that be.” He also mentions John Cushman who is running by petition. Cushman has been on the Board off and on for 20 years. Jeff considers him part of the problem and not part of the solution.
In years gone past, Jeff has endorsed bullet voting. This year he has broadened the number of candidates he supports. They include:
Frank Tait
Phillip Journey
Niger Innis
Jim Wallace
Anthony Colandro
Mark Vaughn
Mark Robinson
Robert Mansell
Kevin Hogan
Paul Babaz
Finally, as a reminder, I am endorsing both Frank Tait and Graham Hill. I think both are excellent candidates and worthy of your support. I am also suggesting bullet voting. The NRA Board election is what is termed in political science an “approval election“. This means there are multiple candidates running for multiple seats and you can vote for as many candidates as there are seats. Social scientists have written extensively on approval elections and on voting strategically in these elections.
Since you cannot rank order your preferences, if you vote for as many candidates as there are open seats, then your most favored candidate is equal to your least favored candidate. One merely needs to look to the presidential election of 1800 to see the consequences. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both got the same number of electoral votes even though one was running for president and the other for vice-president. This became known as the Burr Dilemma. That election was ultimately decided in the House of Representatives.
If you see other endorsements for the Board that you think should be highlighted, please comment and include a link to the endorsement with your comments.
The legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel is reported to have said, “Can’t anybody here play this game”, in reference to the abysmal performance of the 1962 New York Mets. That became the name of a book by Jimmy Breslin telling the story of that season.
After checking in at the security desk around 12:30pm, Rob was removed from the meeting area…. not a meeting room, not from trying to steal a free lunch with the Directors… from the entire meeting area at the hotel. He was at first told that he could not come back until Saturday Morning for the main Board Meeting. After challenging that he believed that Members were allowed to attend Committee Meetings, security relented and said he could return at 1:30 on the afternoon, but would not provide any details about what committees were meeting or in which specific rooms.
Rob returned to the meeting area at 1:30pm, the scheduled time for the Legal Affairs Committee. He was greeted by the same security supervisor that escorted him out of the area less than an hour before. He was told specifically where to sit in the room… and a security guard at next to him.
It only gets worse in Rob’s own words.
“The thing that is bothering me right now: NRA claims 5 million Members. Members are ostensibly allowed to attend these meetings. Social media is on fire in regard to the crisis at the organization. There was only one committee meeting this afternoon, one of the most important ones, the Legal Affairs Committee.
There were less than 10 empty chairs in the room and I was basically given a personal security escort. The NRA wasn’t prepared for Members to attend, nor did they appear to want Members to attend.
After the meeting went into Executive Session, I went to the Secretary’s Office adjacent to the meeting room to request a schedule of the meetings scheduled for the next day and, as the staffer was writing them down for me, Security showed up and told me I needed to leave. Rudely. They would not even let the staffer provide me with the information. At that point, NRA Director Robert Brown came over to see what was going on and Security insisted that I leave the entire meeting area forcing the Director to walk out into the hallway to finish his conversation with me. Security was smug and increasingly aggressive as the short moment went on.”
This is NOT how to play the game. All it does is show fear and you never want to show fear.
Here is how it should have gone.
“Mr. Pincus, thank you for registering and attending. We rarely get members coming to these meetings. We are glad to have you here.”
“Here is a list of the committee meeting and times. Which committee meeting did you want to attend first? Oh, the Legal Affairs Committee? Bob (big security guard) here will show you how to get there. The room is somewhat out of the way.”
When the Legal Affairs Committee went into Executive Session, the Chairman should have said, “Mr. Pincus, we are going into Executive Session to discuss (whatever). I hate to do this but I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room. If you’ll head to the Secretary’s desk, I’m sure that they will be happy to point you to other committees. We really do hope to see you again tomorrow at the Board Meeting.”
The proper way to have done all of this was to kill Rob with kindness. Butter should not have melted in their mouths. Even if Rob was aggressive, which I don’t think he was, your goal was to disarm him with politeness.
Treating Rob like some interloper who had dog shit on his shoes was stupid. All it did was show fear and weakness which is the last thing any organization should want to do.
Whoever decided that this was the way to treat Rob or any NRA member who shows up to the meeting deserves to be fired. Immediately if not sooner. It was stupid, it was counterproductive, it was bullying, and it creates more bad PR and attention for the NRA at a time when they can least afford it.
As was mentioned in yesterday’s post on the Rob Pincus’ deposition in the NRA v Ackerman McQueen case, it was explicitly acknowledged that Rob was not properly served and that he appeared voluntarily. In the video below you can hear the objections of the attorneys for AckMac to the deposition including the fact that it was delivered to a location in New Jersey where he had not lived for years. You will also hear the fact that Rob explicitly acknowledges he is appearing voluntarily when asked by the attorney from the Brewer firm Michael Collins.
Thanks to Rob for providing this video excerpt of the deposition.
UPDATE: Rob has released a second video excerpt of his deposition. In the video below, he explains how he first came across the documents that purportedly were “leaked”. It was on Facebook on a page where he didn’t even know who managed the page. You can’t get any more public domain than that!
Earlier in June, it was revealed that a number of people had been subpoenaed in the NRA’s lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen. While most of those who received a subpoena were NRA Board of Director members, trainer and activist Rob Pincus was also served. Ostensibly, the subpoenas were to find out who leaked information such as the bills from Ackerman McQueen regarding Wayne LaPierre’s clothing purchases, Oliver North and Richard Childress’ letter regarding outside counsel William Brewer III, and other such information.
Yesterday, Rob gave his deposition in the case to attorneys representing both the NRA and Ackerman McQueen.
He noted this on Facebook about his testimony in the deposition yesterday.
As I’ve said many times, I wasn’t involved in any “leaks” and I don’t know who was. Now that is part of the court record… officially. After consider time, effort and expense.
The NRA sent a team of lawyers from VA & TX and hired a local videographer and court reporter.
They sent them to one of the most remote locations in the Continental US and rented the town hall for the proceedings.
I walked over with my daughter and she hung out with the local pre-schoolers and a friend while the deposition took place.
I had offered to provide the documents that revealed pretty clearly when I first encountered the (already public) documents and save everyone a lot of time and money. The NRA Attorney’s wanted to do this today. Ackerman’s attorneys attended via phone line and video feed.
The location was Silverton, population 630, which is the county seat of San Juan County, Colorado. In other words, it was a long way from the big city. Or even any city.
Rob was gracious enough this morning to spend 20 minutes on the phone with me providing an after-action report. We discussed a number of things in the conversation including the why of the subpoena, what he thought they were trying to find, the cost to him, the monetary costs incurred by the NRA ‘s lawyers, and more.
The deposition took five hours, two attorneys for the NRA, a court reporter who had to travel from Denver, a videographer from Durango, and an expensive video conference hook-up so that the Ackerman McQueen attorneys could participate. Rob estimated that the costs ran upwards of $20,000 before you begin to figure in the attorneys’ billable hours. It was also very needless as Rob had made a good faith offer to provide all documentation and a sworn statement on what he knew. This offer was rejected by the lawyers representing the NRA.
As Rob travels often, the date could have been adjusted so that the deposition could have taken place in a more convenient and more cost effective location for the NRA and AckMac. The attorneys for AckMac noted in the meeting for the deposition that there was no reason to rush the process as it was early in discovery and no trial date had been set. Nonetheless, the lawyers for the NRA were insistent that the deposition be taken on June 28th as it appears they were more interested in speed. Rob believes that they were more interested in finding “the leak” than they were in the case itself.
The attorneys for the NRA, Robert Cox of Briglia Hundley and Michael J. Collins of Brewer Attorneys, admitted that Rob had not been properly served with the subpoena. As such, he appeared voluntarily at this deposition. In his opinion, the subpoena itself was an abuse of the discovery process meant as a fishing expedition and was meant to intimidate Rob as he has been a vocal critic of Wayne and the “Old Guard”.
I asked Rob about the costs to him both financially and emotionally. The financial costs were the distraction from his training and other businesses plus the lost productivity. The emotional costs were much higher. He had heard horror stories from friends about what to expect so he was very wary going into the deposition. Rob found that a number of people who had been talking with him before the subpoena suddenly stopped post-subpoena. Fortunately, he found the deposition “went far better than it could have with the lawyers” as they were professional, polite, and focused on the issues.
Rob wanted the following things highlighted.
The deposition established nothing was leaked to Rob, nothing was stolen, and that everything he as received was in the public domain.
He appeared voluntarily. As noted above, he was not properly served.
He had nothing to hide.
While subpoenaed by the attorneys for the NRA, he was critical of both sides in the case.
Rob has told me that he will have video excerpts on the deposition available later today. I will post them as they become available.
I want to thank Rob again for taking the time out of his morning and out of his time with Baby Pincus to talk with me about the deposition.
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.
The highlights of Jeff Quinn’s third day at the SHOT Show include the Sig Sauer P320 X version, Rob Pincus’ Avidity P10, and a unique barreled rifle from the Italian firm Sabatti. I will say I learned something about rifling as I had never heard of multi-radial rifling which sounds quite intriguing as it helps increase velocity and reduce bullet drop at longer ranges.
Firearms training is serious stuff. You remember “we do dangerous things”. However, just because it is serious doesn’t mean it can’t be fun and innovative.
In this video – released on Halloween – Rob Pincus shows a class how to counter a Zombie ambush. It could just as easily be a mob of crazed anarchists from Occupy (Insert City Name) on a rampage who have surrounded your stalled vehicle.
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