Israel writes: "The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) spends
millions of dollars each year lobbying in support of gun and ammunition
manufacturers and vendors and against expanded background checks,
restrictions on semi-automatic purchases, and limits on high-capacity
magazines."
Gun show in Las Vegas. (photo: CNN )
Why Did the Department of Justice Just Award a $2.4 Million Grant to the Gun
Industry?
By Josh Israel, ThinkProgress
19 September 15
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) spends millions of dollars
each year lobbying in support of gun and ammunition manufacturers and
vendors and against expanded background checks, restrictions on
semi-automatic purchases, and limits on high-capacity magazines.
But despite its virulent opposition to those key legislative pieces of the
Obama administrations efforts to reduce gun violence, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) awarded a $2,446,888 grant late last month to the NSSF the
firearms industrys trade association to promote firearm safety and
distribute free gun locks.
Gun safety advocates say that giving taxpayer funds to the industrys
principal lobbying group a trade organization headquartered in Newtown,
Connecticut, less than seven miles from the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook
Elementary mass shooting amounts to a tacit endorsement of the industry
and its tactics. The Newtown Action Alliance and Coalition to Stop Gun
Violence have launched a petition demanding the grant be cancelled, saying
any good done by the project is vastly outweighed by the harm NSSF does in
lobbying for reckless gun laws.
Adding to the questions raised by this partnership, a 2012 letter obtained
by ThinkProgress suggests that the DOJs recent history with NSSF has been
marked by a contentious disagreement over the industrys attempts to build
support for its political action committee through their joint
communications.
Project ChildSafe
For close to a decade, federal law has required that nearly all handguns
sold by gun dealers, manufacturers, and importers include some sort of
lockable safety device to keep them out of the hands of children. And
between 2002 and 2009, the federal government gave tens of millions of
dollars in grants to NSSF for them to manage and implement Project
ChildSafe, a program designed to provide child safety locks and to educate
gun owners about using them.
According to a DOJ mailer, NSSF was chosen to implement Project ChildSafe
because of its experience and expertise in providing gunlocks and safety
education to firearm owners through Project HomeSafe, which NSSF launched in
1999 to promote safe handling and storage of firearms. The grants ceased
under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, though it is unclear
why.
But in late August of this year, the DOJ opted to revive the partnership
again for unclear reasons.
Po Murray, chairman of the anti-gun violence group Newtown Action Alliance,
told ThinkProgress that she believes giving tax dollars to NSSF for this or
any purpose is inappropriate. One has to question whether this corporate
gun lobby is the right group to push this initiative, Murray said. She also
suggested that the industry itself should be paying for gun safety locks,
likening the grants to asking the taxpayers to fund seatbelts.
Im flabbergasted, given that the Obama administration has put a priority
on gun violence prevention, that this administration would fund the
corporate gun lobby, Murray continued. Its mind boggling. NSSF has filed
unsuccessful lawsuits in Connecticut, Colorado, and communities in
California against gun ordinances. They have literally fought all and any
gun safety legislation and laws. It doesnt make sense and goes against the
Obama administrations goals and objectives.
Dont Lie For The Other Guy
While the $2.4 million for Project ChildSafe is the first Department of
Justice grant awarded to NSSF by the Obama administration, it is not the
first time the two entities have partnered. And their other major joint
initiative did not go smoothly.
In an effort to combat illegal straw man purchases of firearms a person
buying a gun on behalf of another person who is legally prohibited from gun
ownership the DOJs Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF) joined with NSSF in July 2000 on a campaign to discourage the
practice. As part of this Dont Lie for the Other Guy effort, ATF
distributed packets of campaign materials to all new vendors receiving
federal firearms licenses.
But the relationship became complicated in 2012, when ATF leadership
discovered that NSSF was also including in the ATF-distributed packet an
invitation to receive information about the NSSFs own political action
committee a move that apparently put the agencys staff on the wrong side
of a law prohibiting most federal employees from assisting with political
fundraising.
The NSSFs PAC has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to pro-gun
candidates, including dozens of the senators who in April 2013 helped
filibuster to death the Manchin-Toomey proposal to require universal
background checks.
In an October 9, 2012 letter, obtained by ThinkProgress under the Freedom of
Information Act, the acting chief of ATFs public and governmental affairs
liaison division wrote to NSSFs senior vice president and general counsel
to follow up on earlier phone conversations:
During this phone call you confirmed that the National Shooting Sports
Foundation (NSSF) would continue to include a Political Action Committee
(PAC) letter in the Dont Lie for the other Guy Federal Firearms Licensee
(FFL packet). Former AD Gant advised that ATF would cease to include the
NSSF PAC letter in the FFL packet that ATF distributes
While ATF is not opposed to the inclusion of NSSF membership applications in
the FFL packets, ATF is unable to distribute FFL packets that contain the
NSSF PAC letter. The Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 7321-7326, specifically
prohibits any Federal employee from using his or her official authority to
affect the results of an election, assisting with political fundraising, or
soliciting political activism from any person who seeks a ruling, license,
or permit from (or is the subject of an audit or enforcement action by) a
Federal employees employing agency.
In short, the NSSF was using federally-distributed packets to enlist donors
for its PAC funds that are then used to thwart gun legislation and the
ATF wanted it to stop.
The letter noted that NSSF had earlier said that it does not consider the
PAC letter to be a solicitation and would continue to include those letters
in the FFL packets, preferring to assemble and distribute them on its own.
The acting chief concluded with a plea, ATF wishes to continue its ongoing
partnership with the NSSF in the context of the Dont Lie for the Other
Guy program and requests that the NSSF discontinue the inclusion of the
one-page NSSF PAC form from existing and future FFL packets.
Mike Bazinet, public affairs director for NSSF, said in an email that the
matter was resolved and that the PAC letter it had included in the packets
(both when they were distributed by ATF and after NSSF took over) was
nothing more than a communication that seeks permission to send PAC
information directly to company personnel, as required by federal election
law. Now, he explained, we fund and distribute the Dont Lie kits
ourselves and send them to FFLs directly. And, he added, since ATF no
longer distributes the kits, they include the PAC information and other NSSF
membership application.
Larry Noble, senior counsel at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, told
ThinkProgress that the Hatch Act applies only to government employees, but
violation of it can lead to suspension or even termination. Its
problematic a letter from the PAC going in government supported material,
he said, noting that the prohibition of soliciting has been broadly
defined. Beyond the legal question, Noble added, even the idea of the
government helping to distribute non-PAC materials encouraging NSSF
membership would be inappropriate.
An ATF spokeswoman said in an email that ATF no longer has involvement in
the creation or distribution of packets distributed by NSSF to FFLs. She
did not respond to questions about why the NSSFs DontLie.org website still
features branding from both ATF and NSSF and a 2015 copyright date, but did
note that the two entities partner on an anti-theft initiative and observed
that ATF regularly meets with various organizations in the firearms
industry nationwide to educate them about the firearms laws and regulations,
as well as enhance our relationship with the industry.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice did not respond to questions
about why NSSF was selected or whether the Dont Lie experience was taken
into account, but said in an email that the new $2.4 million grant was
awarded under a competitive solicitation. She said that information about
other applicants was not available.
Tacit Approval?
In their petition to stop the federal government grants to NSSF, the Newtown
Action Alliance and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence quote a March blog
post in which NSSFs senior vice president and general counsel Larry Keane
denounced the Obama administration as willing to try virtually anything to
pursue its gun control agenda in defiance of Congress and existing law.
Whatever good might be done by Project ChildSafe is vastly outweighed by
the harm NSSF does in lobbying for reckless gun laws, the petition states.
No taxpayer in America should have to foot the bill for a profit-focused
lobby looking to improve its public image.
Chelsea Parsons, vice president for guns and crime policy at the Center for
American Progress, echoed this concern. It is disappointing that the
Department of Justice would award such a substantial grant to an
organization that has prioritized lobbying against common sense gun laws
that would help close dangerous loopholes that allow high-risk people to
have easy access to guns, she said, adding that awarding NSSF this grant
represents a tacit approval of this organizations persistent efforts to
undermine the nations gun laws and lends it a level of legitimacy that is
completely unwarranted and undeserved. (Disclosure: ThinkProgress is an
editorially independent site housed at the Center for American Progress.)
But the NSSFs Bazinet said his organization was the right choice to
implement the project: The industry now provides locks with every new gun
sold. The Project ChildSafe Locks are distributed through law enforcement
partners nationwide (some 15,000 of them have been involved over the 15
years of the program) and help secure access to older firearms that are in
the hands of citizens. This is a practical, on-the-ground safety program
that also was funded by the previous administration. It is not political. We
have produced an array of safety information over the years.
Since the Newtown shootings, a small number of states have tightened their
gun laws, but federal action has proved elusive. After opponents
successfully filibustered action in the Senate in 2013, the House did not
even consider gun legislation.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, at least 1,318 accidental shootings
have already been verified in the United States this year alone.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Gun show in Las Vegas. (photo: CNN )
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/09/18/3702591/gun-safety-grant-to-gun-
industry-nssf/http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/09/18/3702591/gun-safety
-grant-to-gun-industry-nssf/
Why Did the Department of Justice Just Award a $2.4 Million Grant to the Gun
Industry?
By Josh Israel, ThinkProgress
19 September 15
he National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) spends millions of dollars
each year lobbying in support of gun and ammunition manufacturers and
vendors and against expanded background checks, restrictions on
semi-automatic purchases, and limits on high-capacity magazines.
But despite its virulent opposition to those key legislative pieces of the
Obama administrations efforts to reduce gun violence, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) awarded a $2,446,888 grant late last month to the NSSF the
firearms industrys trade association to promote firearm safety and
distribute free gun locks.
Gun safety advocates say that giving taxpayer funds to the industrys
principal lobbying group a trade organization headquartered in Newtown,
Connecticut, less than seven miles from the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook
Elementary mass shooting amounts to a tacit endorsement of the industry
and its tactics. The Newtown Action Alliance and Coalition to Stop Gun
Violence have launched a petition demanding the grant be cancelled, saying
any good done by the project is vastly outweighed by the harm NSSF does in
lobbying for reckless gun laws.
Adding to the questions raised by this partnership, a 2012 letter obtained
by ThinkProgress suggests that the DOJs recent history with NSSF has been
marked by a contentious disagreement over the industrys attempts to build
support for its political action committee through their joint
communications.
Project ChildSafe
For close to a decade, federal law has required that nearly all handguns
sold by gun dealers, manufacturers, and importers include some sort of
lockable safety device to keep them out of the hands of children. And
between 2002 and 2009, the federal government gave tens of millions of
dollars in grants to NSSF for them to manage and implement Project
ChildSafe, a program designed to provide child safety locks and to educate
gun owners about using them.
According to a DOJ mailer, NSSF was chosen to implement Project ChildSafe
because of its experience and expertise in providing gunlocks and safety
education to firearm owners through Project HomeSafe, which NSSF launched in
1999 to promote safe handling and storage of firearms. The grants ceased
under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, though it is unclear
why.
But in late August of this year, the DOJ opted to revive the partnership
again for unclear reasons.
Po Murray, chairman of the anti-gun violence group Newtown Action Alliance,
told ThinkProgress that she believes giving tax dollars to NSSF for this or
any purpose is inappropriate. One has to question whether this corporate
gun lobby is the right group to push this initiative, Murray said. She also
suggested that the industry itself should be paying for gun safety locks,
likening the grants to asking the taxpayers to fund seatbelts.
Im flabbergasted, given that the Obama administration has put a priority
on gun violence prevention, that this administration would fund the
corporate gun lobby, Murray continued. Its mind boggling. NSSF has filed
unsuccessful lawsuits in Connecticut, Colorado, and communities in
California against gun ordinances. They have literally fought all and any
gun safety legislation and laws. It doesnt make sense and goes against the
Obama administrations goals and objectives.
Dont Lie For The Other Guy
While the $2.4 million for Project ChildSafe is the first Department of
Justice grant awarded to NSSF by the Obama administration, it is not the
first time the two entities have partnered. And their other major joint
initiative did not go smoothly.
In an effort to combat illegal straw man purchases of firearms a person
buying a gun on behalf of another person who is legally prohibited from gun
ownership the DOJs Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF) joined with NSSF in July 2000 on a campaign to discourage the
practice. As part of this Dont Lie for the Other Guy effort, ATF
distributed packets of campaign materials to all new vendors receiving
federal firearms licenses.
But the relationship became complicated in 2012, when ATF leadership
discovered that NSSF was also including in the ATF-distributed packet an
invitation to receive information about the NSSFs own political action
committee a move that apparently put the agencys staff on the wrong side
of a law prohibiting most federal employees from assisting with political
fundraising.
The NSSFs PAC has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to pro-gun
candidates, including dozens of the senators who in April 2013 helped
filibuster to death the Manchin-Toomey proposal to require universal
background checks.
In an October 9, 2012 letter, obtained by ThinkProgress under the Freedom of
Information Act, the acting chief of ATFs public and governmental affairs
liaison division wrote to NSSFs senior vice president and general counsel
to follow up on earlier phone conversations:
During this phone call you confirmed that the National Shooting Sports
Foundation (NSSF) would continue to include a Political Action Committee
(PAC) letter in the Dont Lie for the other Guy Federal Firearms Licensee
(FFL packet). Former AD Gant advised that ATF would cease to include the
NSSF PAC letter in the FFL packet that ATF distributes
While ATF is not opposed to the inclusion of NSSF membership applications in
the FFL packets, ATF is unable to distribute FFL packets that contain the
NSSF PAC letter. The Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 7321-7326, specifically
prohibits any Federal employee from using his or her official authority to
affect the results of an election, assisting with political fundraising, or
soliciting political activism from any person who seeks a ruling, license,
or permit from (or is the subject of an audit or enforcement action by) a
Federal employees employing agency.
In short, the NSSF was using federally-distributed packets to enlist donors
for its PAC funds that are then used to thwart gun legislation and the
ATF wanted it to stop.
The letter noted that NSSF had earlier said that it does not consider the
PAC letter to be a solicitation and would continue to include those letters
in the FFL packets, preferring to assemble and distribute them on its own.
The acting chief concluded with a plea, ATF wishes to continue its ongoing
partnership with the NSSF in the context of the Dont Lie for the Other
Guy program and requests that the NSSF discontinue the inclusion of the
one-page NSSF PAC form from existing and future FFL packets.
Mike Bazinet, public affairs director for NSSF, said in an email that the
matter was resolved and that the PAC letter it had included in the packets
(both when they were distributed by ATF and after NSSF took over) was
nothing more than a communication that seeks permission to send PAC
information directly to company personnel, as required by federal election
law. Now, he explained, we fund and distribute the Dont Lie kits
ourselves and send them to FFLs directly. And, he added, since ATF no
longer distributes the kits, they include the PAC information and other NSSF
membership application.
Larry Noble, senior counsel at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, told
ThinkProgress that the Hatch Act applies only to government employees, but
violation of it can lead to suspension or even termination. Its
problematic a letter from the PAC going in government supported material,
he said, noting that the prohibition of soliciting has been broadly
defined. Beyond the legal question, Noble added, even the idea of the
government helping to distribute non-PAC materials encouraging NSSF
membership would be inappropriate.
An ATF spokeswoman said in an email that ATF no longer has involvement in
the creation or distribution of packets distributed by NSSF to FFLs. She
did not respond to questions about why the NSSFs DontLie.org website still
features branding from both ATF and NSSF and a 2015 copyright date, but did
note that the two entities partner on an anti-theft initiative and observed
that ATF regularly meets with various organizations in the firearms
industry nationwide to educate them about the firearms laws and regulations,
as well as enhance our relationship with the industry.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice did not respond to questions
about why NSSF was selected or whether the Dont Lie experience was taken
into account, but said in an email that the new $2.4 million grant was
awarded under a competitive solicitation. She said that information about
other applicants was not available.
Tacit Approval?
In their petition to stop the federal government grants to NSSF, the Newtown
Action Alliance and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence quote a March blog
post in which NSSFs senior vice president and general counsel Larry Keane
denounced the Obama administration as willing to try virtually anything to
pursue its gun control agenda in defiance of Congress and existing law.
Whatever good might be done by Project ChildSafe is vastly outweighed by
the harm NSSF does in lobbying for reckless gun laws, the petition states.
No taxpayer in America should have to foot the bill for a profit-focused
lobby looking to improve its public image.
Chelsea Parsons, vice president for guns and crime policy at the Center for
American Progress, echoed this concern. It is disappointing that the
Department of Justice would award such a substantial grant to an
organization that has prioritized lobbying against common sense gun laws
that would help close dangerous loopholes that allow high-risk people to
have easy access to guns, she said, adding that awarding NSSF this grant
represents a tacit approval of this organizations persistent efforts to
undermine the nations gun laws and lends it a level of legitimacy that is
completely unwarranted and undeserved. (Disclosure: ThinkProgress is an
editorially independent site housed at the Center for American Progress.)
But the NSSFs Bazinet said his organization was the right choice to
implement the project: The industry now provides locks with every new gun
sold. The Project ChildSafe Locks are distributed through law enforcement
partners nationwide (some 15,000 of them have been involved over the 15
years of the program) and help secure access to older firearms that are in
the hands of citizens. This is a practical, on-the-ground safety program
that also was funded by the previous administration. It is not political. We
have produced an array of safety information over the years.
Since the Newtown shootings, a small number of states have tightened their
gun laws, but federal action has proved elusive. After opponents
successfully filibustered action in the Senate in 2013, the House did not
even consider gun legislation.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, at least 1,318 accidental shootings
have already been verified in the United States this year alone.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
