Follow the Money

Not just the money, but that's a start.

It's now coming out that "Everytown for Gun Safety" - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg - has been partnering with merging with buying up state-level "gun control" groups.

Remember when Hizzonner pledged $50 million of his own money to help build "grassroots" support for "gun control"?  This is apparently how he intends to do it.  Corporate takeovers, starting in Washington and Nevada.

So, how do we tell if we're dealing with real grassroots, or a Bloomberg front?  Follow the money - or in this case, the IP registration.

David Codrea,
National Gun Rights Examiner

From David Codrea, checking into the new group, "Nevadans for Background Checks":

Looking for the organization’s name leads to a one-page safenevada.org website, with no other information outside of what it is they’re trying to do and why, a press contact email, and that the information is “© Paid for by Nevadans for Background Checks.” Who these “Nevadans” are is left unstated.

A Who Is domain registry search shows the site registrant is masked through Domains By Proxy, LLC, of Scottsdale, Ariz. The “Nevadans” trying to influence public policy evidently do not want that public to know who they are.

Looking the group up in a Nevada Secretary of State corporation search shows the “Reservation Holder” for the business entity name is one Margaret Rohlfing, who provided an address of “575 7th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004. That is the address for Venable LLP, the law firm representing Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown in trademark registration. Again, how anyone involved can claim to be a "Nevadan" is not addressed.

That's not the end of the rabbit hole - click through for the rest - but you get the idea.  The "Nevadans" group is run from out-of-state, and has no in-state membership to speak of.

Gun rights - both ownership and politics - is a popular, grassroots, "every man's (and woman's)" movement.  Contrary to the mainstream media reports, we don't have endless financial resources.  But in the end, the money doesn't count.  Popular support counts.  People count.  Votes count.

"Gun control," on the other hand, has no grassroots.  This latest attempt to "buy" the appearance of grassroots speaks volumes.

(David reports on gun rights at Examiner.com, runs the War On Guns blog, writes the monthly "Rights Watch" column for GUNS magazine, posts articles for the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and contributes to The Shooters Log.  If you're not following at least some of his stuff, you're missing out on a lot of first-rate information, insight, and analysis.)

(NOTE: This post had originally gone live yesterday, Aug. 5, at about 10:40 PDT, but I took it down temporarily in order to keep the scheduling of posts more consistent.  I offer my apologies to anyone who may have read it and tried to link to it - all 3 of you. ;) )