When I first started reading this article at CNN, I thought it was a joke; a sort of a tongue in cheek call to Bloomberg to put his money and reputation where his mouth is. But no, this is a serious article suggesting that Bloomberg and all the other billionaires (who have their own armed security) for gun control buy up The Freedom Group and essentially neuter their product line and make it politically correct.
This is honestly how naive these people are. Seriously, I really wish more journalists would at least make a half hearted effort to truly understand the gun culture before pontificating about it. This would result in the utter destruction of the Freedom Group, because, as one of my fellow bloggers mentioned last week during the Cheaper than Dirt blow-up, gun nerds love to knife a traitor more than most other pastimes. This is truth. Any journalist who doubts that can ask Smith & Wesson’s former owners, or even Cooper Arms, whose CEO I attacked back in 2008 when he decided no one had anything to worry about when it came to Obama and guns, and offered his endorsement (How’s that working out now, Dan?). As the link to TFB mentions, they were bought by Wilson back in 2009.
Many think that the Freedom Group is doing a fine job destroying itself without any outside help – nobody seems to think that quality of a particular brand got better after it was purchased by Freedom. Firsthand, I received a post-Freedom Group 336 and the fit and finish is nowhere near as good as the one I bought just three years ago.
Why is it news that Cerberus wants to unload Freedom Group? I thought they’d been shopping that property around for a while. As it is, Cerberus is going to take an even bigger bath on it.
(Yes, I have heard abotu the CALPERS threat); that doesn’t make it news, per se, other than the existence of that threat.
“gun nerds love to knife a traitor more than most other pastimes.”
Yep. Sadly, aside from collecting a bit of tin for each other in difficult times, the only thing we are really any good at is savaging traitors. Ammo is too expensive to shoot much, but knifing traitors is free and fun.
Why do those idiots think that only big manufacturers can build weapons? My buddy builds high end ARs out of his garage.
I don’t buy it; all these big names are still in business, including Ruger, and they and S&W are very healthy, right? If this was really true the brand name would be seriously tarnished.
On the other hand, showing how out of touch they are, doing this to Remington might wake up a lot of Fudds.
“On the other hand, showing how out of touch they are, doing this to Remington might wake up a lot of Fudds.”
That would be deliciously ironic.
S&W had to do a lot of work to untarnish their image, including getting new owners.
I believe Ruger was the same.
I’d actually be excited by these anti-gun billionaires purchasing Freedom Group. What’s that old saying about never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake?
Instead to me, the far more sinister plot going on here is the article itself and the unsubstantiated claim that the gun industry acts unethically.
I’m convinced the free market would deal with Bloomberg’s hypothetical investment in a favorable way, but it’s this insidious guilt by association that is the snake in the grass which will get us.
part and parcel of the progressive mindset – someone else should lead and everyone will follow!
That’s how Bloomie got to be a billionaire, you know: Buying successful companies with huge profit margins for a quarter billion dollars, and then shutting them down a year later.
And that’s why it will never happen. These guys may talk a good game when playing politics, but their not goings to blow their fortune on a stupid investment that won’t succeed.
I found it ironic that they wanted to fill the board with “massacre victims, veterans, trauma surgeons, and others who are familiar with the carnage guns can cause.” Over at Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Correlia pointed out that the gun industry is filled with former law enforcement types, to the point that civilians involved with the industry tended to be the exception, rather than the rule.