Category: Business

Nosler Launches Project 48 Mission for New Gun Owners With Colion Noir, Tim Kennedy

From Nosler . . .

On the heels of a year where new hunter participation increased dramatically and more than 8 million people became first-time gun owners, Nosler has announced plans to launch their new “Project 48” initiative designed to welcome, engage and educate this record number of new shooting sports enthusiasts. Social media powerhouses, Tim Kennedy and Colion Noir, have been revealed as the company’s first partners to lead efforts behind the mission.

The partnerships bring together two of the industry’s most eminent 2A activists and shooting sports enthusiasts with the trusted leader in premium ammunition, bullets and rifles. In collaboration with Nosler, both Kennedy and Noir will utilize their significant social media platforms to reach new shooters and deliver content that resonates with the growing shooting sports community. Project 48 content will cover a broad range of topics including firearm safety and maintenance, shooting drills, information on 2A legislation and tips for new hunters.

An attorney by trade, Colion Noir is recognized as one of today’s leading voices for young gun enthusiasts, producing firearm lifestyle and 2A content for his millions of followers on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. In addition to social media, Colion appears regularly as a FOX News commentator on the issue of gun rights.

Tim Kennedy rose to fame as a professional MMA fighter in the UFC. A lifelong martial arts athlete proficient in jiu-jitsu, boxing and wrestling, Kennedy was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of fame in 2011 as MMA Fighter of the Year. In addition to his professional fighting career, he is an active, Ranger qualified, Green Beret, Special Forces Sniper with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as others around the globe. Kennedy’s accomplished career has catapulted him into the social media spotlight, amassing over 1 million followers across his platforms. Today, he plays an important role in empowering people of all backgrounds to take ownership over their safety by offering specialized self-defense, firearms and emergency response training through his company Sheepdog Response.

Additions to the Project 48 lineup will be announced throughout 2021 and is set to include a unique pool of talent that includes military personnel, professional athletes, 2A activists and more.

“As we charge through the first quarter of the 21st Century, we are focused on partnering with the pillars of our industry who are leading efforts to educate our millions of new consumers” said John Nosler, President of Nosler Inc. “Our new Project 48 partners are dynamic leaders who are committed to addressing the most critical issues facing our industry- new hunter recruitment and new shooter education. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Colion Noir and Tim Kennedy to the Nosler family and are looking forward to joining forces during this pivotal time in the shooting sports industry.”

More information about Nosler, Project 48 and its partners can be found at www.Nosler.com.

NRA Reveals Assets From Charlton Heston Statue to Range Rover in Latest Bankruptcy Filing

The National Rifle Association owns expensive statues, a luxury SUV, and has a private jet service on standby, according to public court filings released Monday.

Among the NRA’s assets are statues and paintings of its former president Charlton Heston worth nearly six figures, a Range Rover for the group’s treasurer, and a prepayment to a private jet company. The group also listed liabilities including millions in disputed tax payments to the IRS, millions owed to fundraising companies, and hundreds of thousands owed to lawyers. Overall, the group has roughly $245 million in assets while owing about $112 million in liabilities.

The detailed financials of the NRA were revealed as part of a summary of assets filed with the federal court overseeing its bankruptcy.

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CZ BUYS COLT:
An Exclusive Interview With Lubomír Kovařík – President CZG

Last week’s announcement finalizing the purchase of Colt by the CZ Group left fans of both brands with more questions than answers. After all, an American icon being acquired by a successful firearms company from the Czech Republic might create a bit of anxiety in the purists of our world. But unlike takeovers of American firearm brands by conglomerates with little to no industry experience, this deal seems to be different. So what does it actually mean when we say CZ Buys Colt? TFB was lucky enough to have access to CZ Group’s President and Chairman of the Board Lubomír Kovařík for an exclusive Q&A session and additional details. Continue reading “”

The NRA Owes the IRS $3.4 Million in Taxes and Penalties

The National Rifle Association owes the Internal Revenue Service an estimated $3.4 million in taxes and penalties, according to documents filed in the gun group’s bankruptcy case.

That figure represents the biggest claim by any creditor yet to come forward in the bankruptcy, which is before a Texas court. And it suggests that the IRS is applying additional scrutiny to the NRA, which the agency regulates by virtue of the group’s nonprofit status.

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As posted about a month ago,
CZG – ČESKÁ ZBROJOVKA GROUP SE TO ACQUIRE COLT

CZG – Česká zbrojovka Group SE (“CZG” or “the Group”) hereby informs that on 11 February 2021, it signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding equity interest in Colt Holding Company LLC (“Colt”), the parent company of U.S. firearms manufacturer, Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC as well as its Canadian subsidiary, Colt Canada Corporation.

Subject to the terms and conditions of the definitive agreement, CZG shall acquire a 100% stake in Colt for upfront cash consideration of $220 million and the issuance of 1,098,620 shares of newly issued CZG common stock. The agreement also provides for potential earnout consideration of up to 1,098,620 shares of newly issued CZG common stock if defined EBITDA thresholds are achieved in years 2021 – 2023.

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When the management becomes the story, instead of what the organization does, the management needs to go. Wayne needs to ‘retire’.

Disgruntled NRA Donors Push to Oust LaPierre

Disgruntled NRA donors will petition a bankruptcy court to purge the group’s leadership. 

David Dell’Aquila, who is leading a class-action suit over accusations of financial impropriety, told the Washington Free Beacon he will request a court-appointed trustee to temporarily oversee operations. 

“We’re going to definitely do a motion for a trustee,” Dell’Aquila said. “I would not be surprised if the majority of the other creditors don’t join or do a similar thing.”

The NRA filed for bankruptcy in January in a bid to relocate from New York—which is trying to dissolve the group—to Texas. Officials say that the NRA is financially solvent and the court filings are meant to ease the move. The bankruptcy, however, is not without risks. The court could appoint a trustee with the power to displace the current board and leadership of the NRA, including longtime CEO Wayne LaPierre. The court-appointed official would enjoy broad power during bankruptcy proceedings. He would be required to act in the best interests of the group’s creditors and could pursue claims that NRA leaders misused millions of dollars of the group’s money on their own personal expenses. 

“It’s in everybody’s best interest to get a trustee in there, certainly from the creditors’ point of view, and, I would argue, even for the five million members because every dime that they waste in frivolous litigation is a dime less that could go to the core mission,” Dell’Aquila said.   

The group’s top lawyer, William Brewer, dismissed the idea of a bankruptcy trustee in January. He said the NRA has responded to accusations of improper spending by filing suit against a top vendor. It has also required leaders such as LaPierre to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars stemming from reimbursements. 

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Ammunition shortage will continue throughout 2021

Director of Public Affairs at the National Shooting and Sports Foundation Mark Oliva said gun sales in 2020 surpassed previous records.

“We had 21 million background checks for a sale of a firearm that is by far the strongest year we have ever had on record. The previous record before 2020 was 15.7 million background checks for the sale of a firearm,” Oliva said.

Oliva noted that in 2020 there were 8.4 million gun purchases from first-time buyers. Moreover, 40% of overall gun sales were from women, and gun purchases by African American’s spiked by 58%.

“It really is a tectonic shift, when we look at whose the gun owner this year and you’ll see that today’s gun buyer looks a whole lot less like me, a middle-aged white guy and more like the rest of America,” Oliva said.

Oliva said the growing number of gun owners has contributed to the increased demand for ammunition.

“You start to throw in all these new buyers, all the people who are using already, and you start to throw in a little bit of the panic effect that goes in with seeing a bare shelves you kind of get a picture of why it’s been so difficult to find the ammunition we need.”

Oliva said it’s uncertain when manufacturers will catch up to the heightened demand for ammunition.

“We are probably going to have elevated buying that is going to go well into this year, how long that goes on for will really, be dictated by the opening moves of the Biden administration when it comes to gun control,” Oliva said.

Owner of Firearms Training of Western New York James Emmick said new gun owners in western New York options were limited in learning how to shoot their firearms due to COVID-19 restrictions and winter weather.

“It’s really is frustrating to have all these new gun owners going, I’m a little nervous I have this new gun and I need training, and saying there is not much we can do right now,” Emmick said.

Emmick noted that half of his students in 2020 told him they never thought they would own a gun.

“A lot, a lot of people, I mean people who said my spouse always wanted me to get my pistol permit and I never thought I would, but now I should,” Emmick said.

The New Americans
In a moment of anger, chaos, and disintegration, they gave us hope

Them GameStop and AMC boys. Te salutant!

By now, every sentient American, meaning everyone not completely narcoticized by political propaganda and fear or by prescription drugs, is familiar with the basics of the story: A bunch of small investors, day trader types, banded together on a Reddit thread called WallStreetBets to drive up the prices of two stocks, GameStop and AMC, with the goal of profiting by bankrupting hedge funds that had taken massive short positions in those stocks. As the prices of both stocks increased, the hedge funds were forced to cover their bets, vomiting up billions of dollars to the kids who had banded together to play the markets just like the big boys do, the difference being that they had placed their bets in public, with full transparency, proclaiming the goal of sending AMC and GameStop stock, as they put it, to the moon.

That’s how the game of markets is played, and there is nothing wrong with it, in theory, unless of course you happen to work at AMC or GameStop, which are the companies that some of the big boys were trying to destroy through gamified short-selling. They also happen to be the kinds of companies that day traders on Reddit threads have fond feelings about, whether as consumers of video games and movies or as former or current employees. The particular target of the short squeeze was a fund called Melvin Capital, and as the short bets went south, Melvin had to explain to the people whose money it was investing—who included Mets owner Steve Cohen and the Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin—why billions of their dollars were now running into the sewers, a prospect that Cohen, Griffin, and their peers no doubt found alarming and no doubt also a bit humiliating.

The math was so simple that any child, or unemployed day trader playing the market with the proceeds of their $600 government stimulus check, could understand it. As one tweeter named TSLA1Trillion who boasts the grand total of 83 Twitter followers put it: “Every 12 dollars up. Melvin loses 1 Billion! Game over at 175. $GME.”

Here, in other words, was Occupy Wall Street in action, but maybe a hundred times more effective: ordinary people protesting against the financialization of the U.S. economy by taking collective action to squeeze the short-sellers, saving companies they cared about and saving thousands of jobs belonging to the people who work at those companies, while forcing the suits to disgorge some part of the money they were making by treating the market like a giant video game and squeezing the life out of companies for profit. Give the money back to the people! And hats off to them boyz and girlz willing to show their faith in collective action by putting their measly day-trading accounts on the line. What a perfectly American act. What a demonstration of collective solidarity in action at a time of increasing social atomization and economic suffering, in the dead of winter, in the middle of a pandemic—why, I could just go on and on and on. …

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66% of Voters Believe Insiders Manipulate Stock Market.

With small-trader enthusiasm for GameStop roiling the stock market, most voters say Wall Street insiders manipulate the market, and don’t have much confidence that President Biden will crack down on insiders.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 66% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Wall Street insiders manipulate the stock market to their own advantage. Only 13% of voters disagree, while 22% say they’re not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Opening Shot? OCC ‘Pauses Publication’ of Fair Banking Access Rule

Has Joe Biden fired the first subtle shot in his war on guns by “interfering in the affairs” of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and pausing publication of a new rule designed to protect small businesses “fair access” to bank surfaces?

That’s what The Outdoor Wire is reporting. After the OCC “paused publication” if the new rule, an official with the National Shooting Sports Foundation ripped the move.

“The first salvo in the gun control fight has begun and the Biden Administration has fired the first shot by improperly interfering in the affairs of the OCC which is an independent agency,” National Shooting Sport Foundation’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane.

The OCC put things on hold less than two weeks after NSSF hailed finalizing the rule ending discrimination “by financial service providers against the firearm industry and others.”

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Here’s How Much Money Some Reddit Trolls Cost the Hedge Funds, and It’s Going to Get Worse

The story of some Reddit investors on a board called Wall Street Bets crushing a hedge fund has tapered off as the weekend has carried on, though they are promising to resume their mission when trading opens on Monday. RedState has covered the story extensively, including how they targeted GameStop (among other stocks) after Wall Street got way out over their skis shorting the stock in hopes of profiting off its demise (see Reddit Trolls Beat the Stock Market, and the Elites Are Really, Really Mad).

Whatever your moral opinions on short sellers and hedge funds may be, watching a bunch of internet trolls turn the system on its head was legitimately funny. It was also somewhat cathartic to see elites that have rigged the system in their favor have it used against them. Things got so bad that trading apps moved to shut down trading on the targeted stocks in order to manipulate the markets and protect the positions of the hedge funds.

Now, we are starting to learn just how successful the retail investors on Reddit were, with the standard of success here being how much it hurts the hedge funds, not all the retail investors ultimately making money.

Melvin Capital Management, the hedge fund that has borne the brunt of losses from the soaring stock prices of heavily shorted stocks recently, lost 53% in January, according to people familiar with the firm.

Melvin was founded by Gabe Plotkin, a former star portfolio manager for hedge-fund titan Steven A. Cohen. It started the year with about $12.5 billion and now runs more than $8 billion. The current figure includes $2.75 billion in emergency funds Citadel LLC, its partners and Mr. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management injected into the hedge fund last Monday.

As part of the deal, they got noncontrolling revenue shares in Melvin for three years. So far, Citadel, its partners and Point72 have lost money on the deal, though the precise scope of the loss was unclear Sunday.

Melvin Capital lost 53% of it’s value in one month. That comes out to about $3.5 billion. Hardly enough to crush the system, but certainly enough to send a message about predatory short selling.

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HIJACKING THE CLOWN CAR:

America, in many ways, has become a clown country.

We lack borders, societal cohesion, shared values, trust in one another, a common culture, and a clear direction for our future.

One could argue that we are more of an economic zone than a nation-state. Multinational corporations park their assets here, and those assets are managed by the ruling class oligarchs to the benefit of the corporate plutocracy and the detriment of the common man. That’s why Walmart can move into your town, sell products at a loss to bankrupt the small businesses, and then jack its prices back up after it successfully kills off the competition.

There’s no system of checks and balances for this pernicious behavior. It’s the “free market” at work, we’re told. If you don’t like it, you can just bootstrap your own multibillion-dollar retail giant.

Politicians are on the other side of the ruling class coin. They are pimped out by their friends in big business in exchange for campaign donation kickbacks, and they pull out all the stops to ensure their pimps get paid. Wall Street, which publicly trades behemoths like Walmart, is the biggest, baddest pimp on the block. Along with securities, Wall Street has been buying and selling our politicians for decades, and everybody knows it. The only time the peasant class—you and I—have a say in any of this, is when the politicians and the plutocrats nearly crash the world economy, and we’re forced to say “yes” to a massive taxpayer-funded bailout to keep their scheme afloat.

The people who are supposed to represent honest, hard working Americans long ago dropped the façade that they are even trying to make our lives better. They represent special interests while they attempt to keep us, the cattle, busy so they can rob us of our milk. It’s been working like a charm.

If America is a clown country, the ruling class on Wall Street, along with their ruling class friends in Washington, are driving the clown car.

Enter Reddit.

You might have noticed that the suits are very upset this week. That’s because anonymous Redditors, while presumably brushing the Cheeto dust off their laptop keyboards, decided to do a little bit of stock speculation.

They had no fancy tools, no quantitative analysis, no Bloomberg terminals, and they’re certainly not members of the elite class who are entitled to engage in such sophisticated business.

What they did have was unbridled rage and disdain for the drivers of the clown car, and when they found a way to exploit them, they hijacked the clown car for themselves and took it for an epic joyride.

Reddit realized that a billionaire member of the Wall Street ruling class had a massive short position on GameStop stock—position that was coming due on Friday—and they decided to stick it to him. They bought thousands of shares of the fledgling stock, driving the price per share up approximately a gazillion percent.

That was bad news for Mr. Moneybags. It was, and perhaps still is, going to cost his fund, Melvin Capital, billions of dollars to cover his short position.

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Biden’s climate executive orders devastated these US workers in a day.

*******

On the morning of Jan. 20, every room of the two-story Stroppel Hotel in Midland, SD, was filled with men and women who work on the Keystone XL pipeline. Most of these union laborers, welders and pipefitters started their day over a cup of coffee in the hotel’s common room before heading out to their jobs.

By 4 p.m., the entire place was cleared out, leaving the historic hotel silent for the first time since owners Laurie and Wally Cox took it over six months ago.

“Our whole world turned upside down with the stroke of a pen,” Laurie said.

She is speaking of President Biden’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, that halted work on the Keystone XL pipeline in South Dakota and immediately eliminated 1,000 union jobs. TC Energy, the company that was developing the project, predicts that more than 10,000 jobs will be lost in 2021 due to the order.

Now Laurie, who holds a master’s degree in social work, sits alone in the vacant hotel while her husband Wally finds work as a millwright hours away. She starts to cry as she recalls how they bought the building in late September and quickly turned it into an affordable and social place for pipeline workers to stay.

Robinhood App Exposes Hedge Funds And Commits Suicide.

The Robinhood App is all in the news. The app has been used by young traders to build portfolios through brokerage fee free trades. The app’s motto is “We’re on a mission to democratize finance for all.” Then the GameStop short squeeze happened and the hedge fund elites were exposed and Robinhood committed suicide.

Most of us who have savings and retirement accounts are in indexed funds. Our funds follow closely along with the returns of the Russell 2000, Nasdaq or S&P. We want our money as safe as possible. But, young folks, who are not risk adverse and can afford to start again, may choose to invest in hedge funds to get higher returns on their investments.

Hedge funds need managers. If Wall Street bankers are considered Masters of the Universe, hedge fund managers are Alpha Masters. Yes, there is a hierarchy.

The Robinhood App was founded in 2014 by former Stanford University roommates and 78% of the app users are under the age of 35. They like to invest in brands they know. Which brings us to GameStop.

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KIMBER STATEMENT ON MONTANA CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY EDITORIAL

TROY, AL, January 27, 2021

Kimber Mfg., Inc. has recently been made aware of opinion articles published respectively in the Sidney Herald (Sidney, Montana) entitled “Being Pro-Gun Also Means Being Pro-Responsibility” and in the Missoulian (Missoula, Montana) entitled “Being Pro-Gun Also Means Being Pro-Responsibility: We must oppose HB102”.

The author of this article, Ryan Busse, is no longer an employee of Kimber and has not worked for Kimber since August of 2020. His statements and opinions expressed regarding the opposition of Montana House Bill 102 are not authorized by or attributable to Kimber. “Kimber is a proud supporter of our Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms,” said Leslie Edelman, CEO and owner of Kimber. “We support organizations that defend these rights, and we are committed to providing the people of this great nation with the finest premium firearms available.”

Hypocritical Jeff Bezos Suddenly Doesn’t Like Voting By Mail – When It’ll Hit His Wallet

Billionaire Jeff Bezos claims that mail-in voting is safe and secure and that its results are valid and unquestionable when it suits his business interests (at The Washington Post and Amazon Web Services), but says that only an in-person election can be “valid, fair and successful” when it comes to his Amazon employees voting on whether to unionize or not.

Hmm. Imagine that.

Employees at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama facility are scheduled to vote on unionization in February, and last week the NLRB ruled that due to an “outbreak” of COVID the election would be conducted by mail ballot. Amazon filed an appeal Jan. 21 asking the NLRB to reconsider its decision, stating that a mail-ballot election would “disenfranchise” workers because of its lack of security, and that the NRLB failed to outline what constituted an “outbreak.” Continue reading “”

Missouri Gun Shop Refuses To Sell Weapons, Ammo To Biden Supporters, And They’re Very Upset

Immediately following Joe Biden’s inauguration, Trigger Firearms & Reloading, in Jefferson City, Missouri, published a statement indicating the company will no longer sell munitions or firearms to his supporters.
“We don’t have guns or ammo for Biden supporters,” the gun store wrote on its Facebook page. “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

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