Tanya Metaksa's column on HCI/MMM - mentions me :)

[Jim March]

From:
http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/...ksa07-03-01.htm

What's In A Name?
http://www.FrontPageMagazine.com | July 3, 2001

GUN CONTROL PROPONENTS for the past thirty years have hidden their true objectives under the guise of crime control and safety concerns – especially the safety of children. Thus all their public relations efforts are geared to avoid mention of gun registration, gun banning, or licensing. Even the names of their organizations avoid alluding to those concepts.

Thus it was not surprising that Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) -- with a host of liberal politicians and Hollywood stars leading the cheering -- put on a self-congratulatory benefit to announce their name change to The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (BCPGV). According to a Reuters report, Michael Barnes, President of the BCPGV proclaimed, "The reason for renaming the organization can be summed up in three words: Jim and Sarah." Jim Brady was President Reagan’s Press Secretary, injured in the assassination attempt by John Hinckley in 1982, and his wife Sarah.

BCPGV is a group that has changed its name three times in less than thirty years. It began its propaganda efforts as The National Council to Control Handguns in 1974. Then it simplified its name to Handgun Control, Inc. before the Bradys became involved. Several years ago HCI formed a non-profit arm, The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, to collect tax-deductible contributions. Now, they are using that name, preceded by The Brady Campaign, to totally eradicate any references to "handguns" and "control."

Its first President, Pete Shields, would take umbrage at any attempt to link him with more than "controlling handguns." I remember a car ride to O’Hare Airport with Shields where he pointedly argued that his group wasn’t interested in controlling rifles or shotguns or even interested in political involvement. I wonder what Pete would say now.

Even during the long years preceding the enactment of the Brady Law, Sarah Brady would argue against the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) claim that the Brady Law would be the "camel’s nose under the tent," by saying that all HCI wanted was a "common-sense" handgun waiting period. Yet, the day President Clinton signed the Brady Law in 1993 Sarah and Congressman Chuck Schumer appeared on television gleefully saying they were beginning the push for "the rest of the camel."

So nothing has changed but the name. Their objectives, which were originally hidden from view, are to make it difficult, if not impossible, for law-abiding citizens to own guns. "Preventing gun violence" can encompass anything. It can be working with anti-gun big city mayors to file lawsuits against the firearms’ manufacturers or passing legislation to register gun owners.

Yet, things may not be rosy for gun control advocates. Two weeks after HCI became the BCPGV, it sent out a press release announcing the merger of BCPGV and the Million Mom March (MMM) effective October 1, 2001.

Since my FrontPageMagazine.com column, The End of the Million Moms ( http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/...ksa05-16-01.htm ), an investigation by some California NRA members, especially Jim March ( https://www.keepandbeararms.com/inf...tem.asp?ID=2017 ), has led to the discovery that the MMM Chapter in San Francisco was illegally using city-owned space given to The Trauma Foundation, a tax-exempt foundation, at San Francisco General Hospital. According to the San Francisco Examiner of April 12, 2001, "The Million Mom March foundation is moving out of rent-free office space it enjoyed for two years on the third floor of a building at San Francisco General Hospital…questions about the propriety of the group’s office space was another headache for the organization." Although if one clicks on the website of the MMM San Francisco Chapter ( http://www.givingcapital.com/campai...e=1&branded_p=f ) they still list their address as San Francisco General Hospital San Francisco, CA 94110.

Thus maybe MMM hopes that a merger with BCPGV will leave its past shady leasing practices behind it. The plan is to give up its autonomy and its chapters in hope of developing a new pristine identity, a new name. The merger announcement of June 28th ( http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/200...erger_dc_1.html ) read, "Under the agreement, the Million Mom March will be known as the ‘Million Mom March, United with the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center.’"

On the other hand, what does BCPGV get? It gets 230 chapters, no money, three MMM members on its Board of Directors, but eliminates a financial competitor.

Romeo said it best: "What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Whether it’s called the National Council to Control Handguns, Handgun Control, Inc., or The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, it still smells like a gun prohibition organization to me. As for the MMM, now will it become the MMMUWTBCATBC?

(Tanya K. Metaksa is the former executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action. She is the author of Safe, Not Sorry a self-protection manual, published in 1997. She has appeared on numerous talk and interview shows such as "Crossfire," the "Today" show, "Nightline," "This Week with David Brinkley" and the "McNeil-Lehrer Hour," among others.)

As for the MMM, now will it become the MMMUWTBCATBC?

For some reason, that reminds me of the hat that Rosewood was wearing in Beverly Hills Cop III.

All that aside, you did good Jim. It's an honor to have pro-active members like you among us.

[Tom B]

A job well down Jim!

[TheBluesMan]

Jim,

I saw your name in the last issue of America's First Freedom (NRA Publication). There was a story in there about the former Many Misguided Mommies and how they lost their digs in SFGH.

Great Job!

[Monkeyleg]

Great work, Jim. How does it feel to be at the top of Sarah's "hit list?"

[JoshM75]

Well done Jim!!!
The newly merged MMMUWTBCATBC sounds like an acronym of a fringe third world political party and hopefully it will be just as effective.

I'm wondering where the Monster.com sponsered "Americans for Gun Safety" fits in here, as you stated about the removal of financial competition. Maybe the amalgamation is also about getting one single big trough for the various Brady, MMM, HCI,etc lobbyists, there can only be so much anti gun funding, don't want to spread it around too much.

Opps, I forget they're not interested in grubby $$$, they're doing it for the children.

All the Best. Josh

[B9mmHP]

Jim, Thank you very very much for all you are doing. You, i`m sure would make our Founding Fathers proud of you, as I, and i`m sure all here on TFL are proud of you.

[Scott Evans]

Jim,
I am proud to know you!

You know how to fight man ... good job; stay with it!

[Jim March]

Heh. Three points:

1) The fight against the MMM (and now HCI/Bradys/etc) is still going on. It's being turned over to others, and shifting direction in ways I can't discuss. It's happening with my full support . I've prepared huge piles of briefing materials for the specialists that are going to finish the job. I need to focus my efforts on the CCW lawsuit, which is coming to a head. To repeat: when y'all find out what the next steps are in the MMM saga and that I'm mostly not involved, understand that I'm OK with that!

2) Part of what happened with the merger is that the MMM was about to die off completely. The Chicago offices they fled to were being donated by a 501(c)(3) children's charity (Uhlich House) that absolutely could not legally sponsor the MMM's 501(c)(4) politics. HCI wanted to save the reasonable-sized grassroots chapter system that the MMM had patterned off of the California NRA Member's Council system (which Andrew McGuire was quite clear about on 4/10/01 while giving a speech at a Catholic church in Marin County, Calif).

One key difference between their grassroots system and ours: we meet in pizza parlors, gun shops, etc, sucking down zero tax dollars. THEY use Churches, schools and other 501(c)(3) taxpayer-supported orgs to sponge off of.

3) So far as I can tell, the AGS/Monster.com crowd is different from the HCI/Brady/MMM bunch. The AGS approach features slightly different tactics, and at least at first glance there's no current financial connections. Something may turn up, but at present it appears that they're more or less "competitors" the way, fr'instance, the NRA and GOA sorta compete for the same pro-gun dollars (but see note below).

(NOTE: in many cases, I believe that GOA and NRA do NOT compete for the same dollars, and by both being in the fight, the net amount of pro-gun dollars in the fight rise. There's crossover of course, but in many cases some people "buy into the GOA approach" and others prefer NRA-style action. Fine. I don't mean to turn this into a debate on one versus the other - what I am saying is that I suspect that the variety increases the overall dollar supply.

Or to put it another way, if there were only four kinds of candy in the world versus hundreds (thousands?), the net dollar sales in candy would be far less.

All this also applies to our enemies.)

Jim

[satchmo]

Congratulations Jim!

Take a bow - You've earned it.

You are finally getting recognition for your efforts. You've been plugging along like the Energizer Bunny for years - on your CCW project and other RKBA efforts. We have been admiring your
work all along but it is nice to see you get noticed by the big guys.

You and Nadja exposed the illegal nature of the MMM offices at
SF General Hospital. This was truly a "David vs. Goliath" feat.

Let your bravery (or pure stubbornness) be an inspiration to the rest of us.

Hey, guys and gals - Let's banish the "I'm just one guy - What can I do?" comments from our vocabulary. Let's honor Jim with our words but, more importantly, with actions. Let's follow his lead - get out there and do something. No more excuses!


- Satch

[scud]

I see your name all over the place anymore Jim, you certainly hit em where it hurt. I am honored to have seen this whole episode go down, it also was a hell of a moral boost as you have proven that one man can indeed make a difference. Thanks.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

AGS - HCI/MMM Financing

3) So far as I can tell, the AGS/Monster.com crowd is different from the HCI/Brady/MMM bunch. The AGS approach features slightly different tactics, and at least at first glance there's no current financial connections. Something may turn up, but at present it appears that they're more or less "competitors" the way, fr'instance, the NRA and GOA sorta compete for the same pro-gun dollars (but see note below).

There is some financial competition and connections between AGS and HCI/MMM.

McKelvey basically funds AGS out of his own pocket. Prior to this he had been very generous to HCI and MMM. His organization had donated $1 million to the MMM and another $2 million to HCI (who rewarded him with a chair on the board of directors). On top of this he had given the maximum personal donation to several gun control politicians running for office (Carolyn McCarthy, Mel Carnahan, Katina Johnstone (an MMM chapter president), and Kenneth Toltz (up against NRA-backed Tom Tancredo in Colorado, post-Columbine))

When McKelvey decided to split off and formed AGS, he did it primarily because as a billionaire CEO, he didn't like decision by committee and wanted to do things his own way. Since he was funding AGS out of his own pocket, the funds for HCI and MMM dried up. He also paid out $60,000 to 28 state gun control groups that had been working closely with HCI. The $60,000 was a payoff to "join" AGS and push for AGS agenda. Most of the groups didn't accept the AGS agenda (particularly the part about a right to own guns) but were willing to get paid to push for more gun control of any kind and McKelvey didn't demand doctrinal adherence so long as they supported his legislative goals.

The end result is that HCI and MMM lost a lot of funding because McKelvey was using all of his money to push AGS. They also lost some of their state-level worker bees who were now financially obligated to push for McKelvey's agenda first (although a lot of them of found enough time to push for additional legislation beyond McKelvey's goals)

[C.R.Sam]

Jim; goodonya Sir, you have been good and true over a long haul.

Bart; thanks for the AGS - HCI/MMM Financing clarification.

All; There are NO uninportant elections.

[Jim March]

Bart, do me a favor, post any references you have on that AGS/Monster.com guy giving money to the MMM? In particular, I'd like to know when that was, and whether the money went to the 501(c)(3) MMM Foundation (or Bell Campaign?) or the 501(c)(4) MMM.

I can't say *why* this is important, but it may prove to be downright critical. If the money went out after mid-2000 to the 501(c)(4) org, then there's no violation of tax codes on Mr. Monster's part, I don't think. I could be wrong though, it'll still need checking out.

Anybody who gave 501(c)(3) donations to this crowd while knowing they were doing partisan politics or fraud, could be in deep trouble. There's at least two professional investigations going on; I would urge anyone with info to filter it back to me either here or in EMail, but don't do "active intelligence gathering" that the other side can see. Not now. Pull data off of websites or similar, that's fine. But don't go walking into Uhlich House in Chicago trying to duplicate what Nadja and I did in SF. Now is the time to avoid "spooking 'em" .

Muuuuahahahahahhahaha

Jim

[TheBluesMan]

As suggested in this thread: http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...threadid=24026 you can request a copy of HCI's IRS form 990.

This is a nice little trick to use up their resources on paper, postage and staff time instead of lawyers and it gives you valuable information on HCI and their contributors. Requesting this form shouldn't set off any "intellegence gathering radar" either. It is a pretty standard request.

I have their 1998 form 990 in front of me now, and I don't see an Andrew McKelvey on the list of contributors of more than $5,000.

I do see Tony Bennett, Rosie O'Donnell and Jerry Seinfeld though.

[labgrade]

To segue offa Jim's last - I'd strongly suggest that any intel NOT be posted here. Use e-mail to forward the stuff to where it needs to go.

If our opposition doesn't have lurkers here, they should & no sense tipping our hand prior to springing the trap.

[Jim March]

Labgrade is right.

Also, form 990s by themselves aren't all that useful. That same info and a lot more will soon be in the hands of genuine pros above my level, might be best to hang backon that for now.

Jim

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Check your email gentlemen