I’ve been in this gun blogging biz for some five years. I’ve seen the antis duck and dive, pursuing and abandoning a range of strategies to advance the cause of civilian disarmament. Most recently, they’re pursuing gun control as a “health issue.” In this case, what’s old is new again. Former TTAG debater Elliott Fineman [above] wants the city of Niles, Illinois to force a proposed gun store/range to sign up to the abandoned, deeply unconstitutional Brady Center National Gun Dealer Code of Conduct – or else! “This code has been developed to address the 5% of rogue gun dealers that provide 90% of the crime guns in the United States,” Fineman opines at journal-topics.com. Elliott ain’t afraid to name names . . .
A May 2014 report by the City of Chicago, with technical data assistance from the University of Chicago Crime Lab, revealed that more than 3,000 guns — or nearly 20% of all guns recovered from crime scenes in Chicago between 2009 and 2013 — were sold by just three of the state’s more than 2,000 gun dealers and one in nearby Indiana. These “rogue” gun dealers were Chuck’s in Riverdale, Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, Shore Galleries in Lincolnwood, and Westforth Sports in Gary, IN. The average number of guns traced back to other Illinois gun stores was three.
As you well know, the Vice President and Retail Operations General Manager of the gun store you have authorized for the village is going to be Michael Darga, who managed Shore Galleries, one of the rogue gun stores in Illinois, for a considerable number of years.
Why do anti-gun writers, editors and publishers always seem to forget to link to their source material? While more and more mainstream media websites are linking to gun control bills in their stories, most do not. It’s almost as if the antis don’t want readers to think for themselves.
Also, “rogue gun dealers” my toches. All of the gun dealers named are legal businesses selling legal products legally. They are no more responsible for what their purchasers do with their firearms than car dealers are responsible for what people do with the cars they purchase (drunk driving, manslaughter, etc.). If they were truly “rogue”, how long would the ATF let them continue to do business?
Given this factual information, the Niles trustees would be well advised to require the owners of the gun store and shooting range to sign the Brady Dealer Code of Conduct as a prerequisite for issuing an operating license. Failure to do could be considered a “willful and wanton” breach of the Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act. [link] The act states that such a breach is not protected and this exposes each of you to personal liability when the predictable (foreseeable) gun violence takes place as a consequence of your having granted the special use permit.
Is that a threat or a promise? A promise!
In the event that the gun store and shooting range does not sign the Brady Dealer Code of Conduct by April 1, 2015, [ED: didn’t happen] we will reserve our right to sue for an injunction banning the opening of the gun store. Please confirm that as a prerequisite to your issuing an operating license to the gun store, you are going to require the owners to sign the Brady Dealer Code of Conduct by April 1, 2015, and report back to us whether they have done so.
Eliott Fineman lost his son to a deranged killer in 2006. Unfortunately, he also lost his ability to connect cause and effect, and the importance of the Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. We commiserate with his loss but oppose his anti-gun jihad as a misplaced efforts to reduce the carnage we deplore.
Fineman lost a son to a crazed man. That a gun was used is immaterial. It could have been a kitchen knife or little fire bomb. Fineman couldn’t take the heat of going after uncontrolled schizophrenics and serious bi-polar cases….the lobby is too powerful and too deeply hooked into the left-wing of the democrat party. So guns.
I’ve listened to his broadcasts twice. Both times it was 90 minutes of closed-minded incoherent whining. Pathetic. And yet he is able to raise money for himself (er, for his non-profit!), and so has probably replaced the income lost when his consulting practice (marketing) stopped producing. Is this a great country or what?
Approximately no one but RF listens to the guy, so none of this really matters.
Well said as I lost a daughter to a crazed man and a knife. No gun was involved so no one cares…..tongue in cheek please understand.
Factoid: After the Stockton School Yard Massacre/Bush Ban the next 8 homicides in the city of St. Louis, Mo. were done with knives….No relation…
IMHO these people have a very distinct and diagnosable personality problem…they think they are more important than the rest of us!
Parents of two students in Isla Harbor who were knifed by Elliot Rodgers might prefer that activists like Mr Fineman and Captain Kelly focus on getting help and earlier police intervention for the mentally ill.
I can only offer condolences and prayers for their losses, and the hope that reason will guide him to a more productive way to make a difference. If Mr Finemans resume item about being a strategic consultant for Fortune 500 companies is correct, then he should know that focusing on the tool, vs the user, is not working, and the more his “brand” is associated with blatant shills and sockpuppets like Shannon Watts, the more his credibility declines.
Does Mr. Fineman’s list of “rogue FFL’s” include the BATF? (Fast & Furious) and the DOJ?
.’
.
Fineman can go suck start a Glock. The council has no authority under Illinois law to require such an action. He and his cronies are personally liable for any loss of business by the dealer as a result of this nonsense. I hope they sue his worthless ass into abject poverty.
Code of Conduct, rule #10- ” Maintain insurance for victims who are entitled to compensation”
“Hello, Farmers Insurance, how may I help you”
“Um, yes. I’d like to buy an insurance policy in case someone gets shot. ”
Click….
Since Sarah Brady died today, will the Brady Center please just go away.
She…THEY…made us STRONGER!
Less than 3 million NRA Members at the time……5MIL and growing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJoj9IqeKg
Now if her sister, Di Fein gets called “home.”
Wow. I had this subliminal urge to smoke a cigar on the ride home today (an EP Carillo – lovely). Now I know why. oh wait, was that mean? It is GOOD Friday.
I don’t know. I had the sudden urge to hire some of Yankee Marshal’s favorite dilettantes and throw a parade.
I have a bundle of seconds I’ve been working my way through. I had one when I got home this afternoon. Little did I know.
Me too, and I don’t smoke cigars. 🙂
Que the lollipop guild.
Welcome my son, welcome to the pity machine…seems adults no longer work their pain through a bottle, cry in a shower, or suffer in silence. Now lose a love one, START a non profit and make others live your pain as well while asking for coin to do “good work”.
Sad
hey – you guys think Fineman has Shannon’s mobile number and would give it to me?
Maybe; but only if you sign the “Brady Center National Gun Dealer Code of Conduct ” so he can say that SOMEONE signed it.
It’s hard to have any sort of meaningful discussion with someone who has such a deeply emotional investment.
+1; well said, robust statement.
Okay, IANAL, but, doesn’t a party need to demonstrate harm, or some other standing, in order to sue another party?
Also, isn’t there a pesky federal law that protects law-abiding firearms manufacturers and dealers from liability for the actions of criminals?
Westforth sports is my preferred gun dealer, there prices are unbeatable and the staff is above and beyond professional. The only reason there on this so called rogue gun dealer list, is because there unfortunately located in the murder capital of the world.
I’ve been to Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons… Once.
I’m not going back. Lousy customer service and a poorly lit, poorly ventilated range are the least of its problems.
Honestly, I’m not surprised to see it on a “naughty list” contrived and specious though that list may be.
Want some irony? I pass Shore every day on my way to work. It’s where I went to get my FOID application. It’s a really crappy gun shop and they pretty much hate selling guns to anyone who isn’t a cop. I tried getting a price on a shotgun and they asked why I would need a gun like that. It took ten minutes of discussion just to get them to give me a price. Needless to say I’ve never bought from them and never will. But I find it ironic that a gun store that pretty much only wants to sell to cops is the one where so many crime guns are traced back to. Kinda makes you think…
I’d love to have a range less than two miles from my house. I can’t wait.
I bought my first handgun at Chucks in Riverdale,Ill. Jesse Jacksons favorite( fadder phlaggggger too) whipping boy. As far as I can tell they are extremely strict and way above board…to the letter. They are located in basically the southside of Chicago extended. Awful neighborhood. Same as Westforth in unincorporated Gary,In. Good folks. Ghetto nearby. I can’t address the other 2 mentioned. But Niles is F###uped.
Is he sharting himself in that picture?
Does look like it hurts, doesn’t it?
Aren’t those “rogue” dealers the *only* gun shops near the City of Chicago? I guess the criminals don’t like making the 45 mile trek out to Cabela’s.
You and your silly logic. That has no place in this “common sense discussion.” And yeah unless you want to head 30+ miles out of the city, those are about the only places to legally buy a gun.
Elliot -thanks! I now know of two more shops to visit and probably spend money at.
Given the demographics of crime in Chicagoland there’s a simple solution:
1) Refuse service to anyone with the slightest whiff of hood rat about them.
2) Enjoy the howls of indignation from the lefties.
What if every gun store and manufacturer sued people like this guy for defamation,like tannerite, I think the number of hit pieces will drop considerably.
Just a thought.
“health issue” – It’s awesome that there’s now a movement afoot in England, led by doctors, to ban the sale of kitchen knives with sharp points because they are too stabby.
Re: the Gun Store Code of Conduct, the business about maintaining insurance seems troublesome, as it implies criminal liability of a store owner selling a lawful product that is then misused by someone else. But would somebody walk me through the objections to the other items? I’m not asking rhetorically; I’m asking seriously. A voluntary code of conduct doesn’t seem at first blush a bad thing, but obviously some people find it objectionable and I’d like to arm myself with the reasoning. Thank you.
Mr. Fineman seems to be incapable of reading. the Act, clearly prohibits the type of actions he threatens over:
(745 ILCS 10/2-104) (from Ch. 85, par. 2-104)
Sec. 2-104. A local public entity is not liable for an injury caused by the issuance, denial, suspension or revocation of, or by the failure or refusal to issue, deny, suspend or revoke, any permit, license, certificate, approval, order or similar authorization where the entity or its employee is authorized by enactment to determine whether or not such authorization should be issued, denied, suspended or revoked.
so if he were indeed to file a suit, the towns lawyers should seek sanctions against the lawyer and Mr. Fineman. We are well past a time where we need to be playing a lot “harder” hard ball when it comes to the court. Illinois Supreme Court reject a suit by the City of Chicago about dealers creating a nusance. And we have the 7th circuit ruling that cities/towns must allow gun stores.
they truely are grasping at straws to try and remain relevent to anything
FFL’s already do the first 5 things on the list. #6 about the insurance is the ringer The Brady Bunch slipped in there.
Comments are closed.