Category: Action Alert

Update: FedEx decided to end shipping price discounts for NRA members effective November 4, 2018! According to FedEx, “The NRA just didn’t bring in enough business to merit its own deal. ” John Foley of Reuters observed, “It suggests the NRA no longer has the economic clout to inspire fear in the corporate world.” Thanks to everyone who took this action and helped achieve this result!

For many years, FedEx has given discounts to National Rifle Association members for its mail/shipping services. Since the Parkland school shooting, however, FeEx has come under intense pressure from Americans to end their business relationship with the NRA.

Yesterday, FedEx issued a defiant statement indicating they will not be severing their benefits package with the NRA. “FedEx views assault rifles and large capacity magazines as an inherent potential danger to schools, workplaces, and communities when such weapons are misused,” the company acknowledged. “We therefore support restricting them to the military.” But, the company stated, “FedEx has never set or changed rates for any of our millions of customers around the world in response to their politics, beliefs or positions on issues.”

Please contact FedEx CEO Frederick Smith through one of the channels below and give him the following message (personalized to your liking):

I am furious about the statement you put out indicating that you will be continuing your business relationship with the NRA even though you acknowledge the tremendous threat posed by weak gun laws and assault weapons in this country. This is absolute cowardice and unacceptable. Your executive leadership knows full well that the NRA is a treasonous (Putin ties), violent, white supremacist organization that cares not a lick about the men, women and children dying and suffering because of their lobbying. Would you give discounts to KKK members? I can assure you of one thing. Until you break ties with the NRA permanently, you have lost my business altogether. Hello UPS & DHL!

From May 3-6, 2018, the National Rifle Association will hold its annual meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. The Omni Dallas Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Dallas are providing rooms for meeting attendees.

They are doing this against the wishes of Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who told the press, “It is a tough call when you ask the NRA to reconsider coming to Dallas, but it is putting our citizens first. Who needs an AR-15 to go hunting? Who needs an AR-15 to protect their house? … At the end of the day, we need to connect the dots.”

With companies nationwide dropping the NRA like a hot potato because it is a violent, white supremacist organization that values personal greed over human lives in all cases, it is time for these facilities to do so as well.

Please contact the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center, the Omni Dallas Hotel, and the Hyatt Regency Dallas through one of the channels below and give them the following message (personalized to your liking):

I was deeply disappointed to hear that you are working with the National Rifle Association to host their upcoming annual meeting from May 3-6. I am contacting you today to ask you to end this business arrangement immediately. No reputable business should be associating with the NRA. They are a white supremacist organization that encourages violence against their fellow Americans and cares not a lick about the bloodshed caused by the weak gun laws they have lobbied for, because their leaders have become personally enriched. If you want to continue to have my business, I urge you to terminate your relationship with the NRA regarding the May 3-6 meeting. I will be watching your actions closely and sharing information with family and friends who live in, and travel to, Dallas.

Just days after the horrific mass shooting that claimed 17 lives (15 others were injured by the gunman) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, teachers and faculty there are calling on concerned citizens to support surviving students with GoFund Me donations and expressions of love.

Please take one of the following actions today to support the Parkland students:

1) Donate at the GoFundMe page for Stoneman Douglas survivors:

https://www.gofundme.com/stonemandouglasvictimsfund

2) Mail a laminated banner with your well wishes to the following address to be displayed on the Stoneman Douglas campus for staff, students and community:

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
5901 Pine Island Road
Parkland, FL 33076

Once you have taken one of the above actions, click the orange banner below to report doing so!

Tremendous controversy has erupted over an AR-15 raffle organized by the coach of a traveling little league baseball team in Neosho, Missouri. Coach Levi Patterson organized the team, and has the 7-9 year-olds on it selling raffle tickets in the community. Patterson’s original Facebook post about the raffle used the Neosho School District Wildcat logo, even though his team is not affiliated with the school district.

The raffle prize is a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, Spec 15, manufactured by Black Rain Ordnance in Neosho (retail: approximately $1,000). The Spec-15 comes in different calibers: .300 Blackout, .223/5.56, and .458 Socom. Black Rain also sells “NY Compliant” and “CA Compliant” versions of the rifle to help customers evade assault weapon ban laws in those states.

Raffle tickets are selling for $5 each or five tickets for $20.00. The drawing is scheduled for March 14, 2018.

Remarkably, the mayor of Neosho, Ben Baker, is supporting the raffle and attacking its critics. “It’s the same Resist folks who go around wearing their female lady part harts in the name of feminism and apparently have nothing else to do but stir up trouble,” he said on talk radio.

Please contact one of more of the four parties listed below and give them the following general message, personalized to your liking:

I am horrified that Coach Patterson’s AR-15 raffle is happening in the wake of 17 students and faculty being shot dead by this weapon in Parkland, Florida. The insensitivity to that grieving community is appalling. Equally disturbing is the message being sent to the 7-9 year-olds being used to sell raffle tickets. They’re seeing a weapon that has been used to murder other children in this country being glorified. Shame on Coach Patterson, Mayor Baker, and anyone else telling children this raffle is “wholesome.” This is fear, idolatry and ignorance masquerading as “culture” and it’s got to stop if we are going to save students from the next Columbine or Stoneman Douglas. The raffle should be canceled immediately and any money received by Coach Patterson should be refunded. 

Coach Levi Patterson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/levi.patterson.37
or https://www.facebook.com/midweststormshelters.net/

Mayor Ben Baker
Email: bbaker@neoshomo.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ben.r.baker

Neosho Little League Baseball president Angie Leach
Phone: (417) 850-6369
Email: neosholittleleague@yahoo.com

Black Rain Ordnance
Phone: (888) 836-2620
Email via webform: https://blackrainordnance.com/pages/contact-us
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackRainOrdnanceInc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blackrainord

Once you have contacted one or more of the four parties listed above, click the orange banner below to report taking action!

Following the gruesome mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, calls for a renewal of America’s federal Assault Weapons Ban (1994-2004) have been reinvigorated and heightened.

The Parkland gunman used a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault rifle and high-capacity ammunition magazines in the attack. With those armaments, he was able to kill 17 students and faculty and wound another 15 in just a matter of minutes.

In this moment, there is more energy than ever to get weapons of war out of our communities for good. We must focus that energy at legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and push them to act without delay.

Please sign the following two online petitions to call for an immediate renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban:

1) MoveOn petition: “Ban Military-Style Assault Weapons and Large Capacity Magazines Now”

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ban-military-style-assault-2

2) CREDO petition: “Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and Prayers are Not Enough”

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/parkland

Once you have signed the petitions, click the orange banner above to report taking action!

Our nation is grieving again today in the immediate wake of another gruesome mass shooting at an American school.  On Valentine’s Day, a heavily-armed 19 year-old white supremacist killed 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen others were wounded.

The weapon was familiar: a semiautomatic AR-15 style assault rifle outfitted with high capacity ammunition magazines. The Parkland gunman was able to buy it legally despite the fact that the FBI had investigated a threat he made (“I am going to be a professional school shooter”) on YouTube.  There were other clear warning signs about his violent behavior. He bragged openly about killing animals.  He threatened students before being kicked out of Douglas High. And he was engaged in paramilitary training with a hate group.

And yet a 19 year-old with that type of history of violence was able to walk into a Florida gun shop and, literally in just a few minutes, walk out with a semiautomatic battlefield rifle and whatever ammo he needs.

That has got to change, NOW.

Please contact your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121 and give them the following message:

I am sick and tired of waking up, day after day, to another mass shooting incident at a school, or a place of worship, or a theater, or virtually any place one might think to congregate in public. I am sick and tired of Representatives and Senators who back the NRA and oppose every single measure across the board to prevent violent individuals from gaining legal access to firearms and military-style accessories. I’m also sick and tired of Representatives and Senators who will only support half-hearted, deeply flawed “reform” vehicles like the Toomey-Manchin bill on background checks. After Parkland, after Las Vegas, after all the countless horrors we have witnessed, after all the death and suffering your inaction has caused, it is time to do something REAL on this issue that would save lives. I demand that you call on your chamber’s leadership to allow an immediate, up-or-down floor vote on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s S. 2095, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2017 (a far stronger, tougher bill than its 1994 predecessor).  I will be watching your actions closely. If you fail to take this action, I will do everything I can (peacefully and democratically) to vote you out of office. Stop putting my children and loved ones under the constant threat of attack by weapons designed for war! Get these AR-15s the hell out of our communities!

If you do not know who your U.S. Representative is (or need their direct dial), click here:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

If you do not know who your 2 U.S. Senators are (or need their direct dial), click here:

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Once you have contacted one or more of your Members of Congress, click the orange banner below to report taking action!

Update: After spending more than 28 years as a special agent with the ATF, acting deputy director and chief operating officer Ronald Turk quietly “retired” from the agency in February 2018. Thanks to everyone who contacted acting director Thomas Brandon and requested that Turk be removed!

On February 14, 2018, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence revealed that the associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Ronald Turk, had co-authored an infamous agency white paper with Mark Barnes, a lawyer who has lobbied for the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers.

The white paper was originally titled “Guns in America—Options for a New Administration: Secure Second Amendment Rights, Support for the Firearms Industry and the Violent Gun Crime Fight.” In it, Turk and Barnes advocate rolling back a whole litany of federal firearms regulations, including the licensing/registration system for silencers, laws that forbid gun dealers from selling handguns across states lines, and rules requiring gun dealers to maintain accurate inventories and sales records. The final version of the document was dated January 20, 2018—President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence successfully FOIAed emails sent between Turk and Barnes, which showed that Turk sent the draft white paper to the NRA lobbyist for suggestions and edits. “If I am missing the mark on a major issue or disregarding a major discussion point any feedback you have would be appreciated,” Turk told Barnes.

Worse still, Turk was asked by Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) in sworn congressional testimony on April 2017 if he was the sole author of the white paper. He lied in repsonse, giving no indication of the NRA’s role in shaping the document (“That was my paper product,” he told her.)

Please contact ATF director Thomas Brandon through one of the channels below and give him the following message:

I was horrified to learn that ATF associate deputy director Ronald Turk consulted NRA lobbyist Mark Barnes for his suggestions and edits on a white paper, “Options to Reduce or Modify Firearms Regulations,” that was circulated internally at the agency. This is a clear violation of ethics in a country brutalized daily by gun violence. Turk has stained the reputation of the ATF by using it as a platform to “support the gun industry” and promote the NRA’s radical interpretation of the Second Amendment. jAnd for what quid pro quo? That is a question that should be investigated by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General and answered.  I call on ATF deputy director Thomas Brandon to fire Ronald Turk immediately, ahead of his announced retirement date, and send a clear message that the agency still has standards of professionalism and integrity. 

Acting ATF Director Thomas Brandon
Phone: (202) 648-8500 or (202) 648-8520
Email webform: https://www.atf.gov/contact/give-us-your-feedback
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HQATF
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ATFHQ

Once you have contacted ATF director Thomas Brandon, click the orange banner below to report taking action!

Update: The New York Times has not published another op-ed by fraudulent pro-gun “researcher” John R. Lott, Jr. since “Background Checks are Not the Answer to Gun Violence” in February 2018! Thank you to everyone who took this action and made it clear to the NYT that Lott is not a credible voice on gun violence prevention.

On February 12, 2018, the New York Times inexplicably published an op-ed titled “Background Checks are Not the Answer to Gun Violence” by fraudulent pro-gun “researcher” John Lott, Jr. In the piece, Lott argues that federal legislation to improve the accuracy of the nation’s background check system for gun purchases (to deny guns to violent people) is a bad idea, because on some occasions gun buyers are temporarily inconvenienced by denials when their name is the same as a prohibited purchaser in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

If that argument sounds like it makes no sense, you’re right, but that is the record of John Lott, a wannabe criminologist and academic who peddles in pro-gun propaganda.

Lott was long ago discredited in the academic world. In 2004, the National Research Council voted 15-1 that the evidence couldn’t support Lott’s claim that permissive carry laws reduce crime. Lott’s “research” is riddled with errors and ethical violations. He has created fake online identities, fabricated a survey on defensive gun use, and claimed that more than 99% of gun purchaser background check denials are false positives when the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reports that denials are accurate in 99.8% of cases!

Please take one of the following actions in response to this publication of Lott:

1) Email a letter to the editor to the the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com, keeping the length to 150-175 words. You can use the template text below for your letter, but please personalize your submission and make it unique. Otherwise, the Times will not print it.

It stains the reputation of the New York Times to publish an opinion piece by discredited pro-gun ideologue John Lott (“Background Checks are Not the Answer to Gun Violence,” Feb. 12). Lott left academia long ago after a string of ethical offenses, including creating fake online identities to praise his book, fabricating an entire national survey on defensive gun use, citing publication in periodicals that rejected his submissions, and claiming that more than 99% of gun purchaser background check denials are false positives when the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reports that denials are accurate in 99.8% of cases! In 2004, the National Research Council voted 15-1 that the evidence couldn’t support Lott’s claim that permissive carry laws reduce crime. You do not owe this man a platform and you’re certainly not doing your paper any favors by presenting him as credible. Please stop publishing John Lott, Jr.

2) Send a message to the NYT on social media:

Message the NYT through their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/

It stains the reputation of the NYT publish an op-ed by discredited pro-gun “researcher” John Lott (“Background Checks are Not the Answer to Gun Violence”). Please stop giving this fraud print space.

Tweet at the NYT:

.@nytimes, why are you publishing discredited pro-gun “researcher” John Lott? This stains your paper’s reputation. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/opinion/politics/background-checks-gun-violence.html

Once you have taken one or more of the above actions, click the orange banner below to report doing so!

Update: On February 27, 2018, 54 year-old Neal Myers was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action for killing Scott Beary and attempting to kill another patron of Show-Me’s Sports Bar & Grill. Myers’ bail was set at $250,000, cash only. In April 2019, Myers reached a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Thanks to everyone who took action and called for charges against this gunman!

On February 7, 2018, 43 year-old Scott Beary was shot and killed at Show-Me’s Sports Bar & Grill in Florissant, Missouri by a 54-year-old man from Bellefontaine Neighbors who provoked an encounter.

Beary, a father of three, stopped by the bar with a friend after getting off work. At some point he exchanged numbers (re: construction services) with the man who would eventually shoot him.

Later on, the gunman’s friend told bar patrons he had a German Shepherd that weighed 290 lbs. Beary expressed doubt, saying he weighed 325 lbs and couldn’t see a dog weighing that much. The gunman’s friend said he could prove it; the dog was outside in his car.  He invited Beary to accompany him and the gunman outside, but Beary got distracted with something and didn’t follow them out.

The gunman returned from the parking lot a few minutes later, agitated. When Beary was leaving, he patted the gunman on the shoulder and said, “No hard feelings.” The gunman responded by calling Beary a “fat f***” as he rounded the corner. When things then escalated to fisticuffs, the gunman drew his weapon and fired 4-5 rounds into Beary, killing him and wounding a bystander.

The shooter was disarmed and detained by bar patrons until police arrived. Police arrested the gunman, but then released him because St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch can’t determine if charges should be brought.

Scott Beary’s wife is now grieving two lost loved ones. She and Scott just buried their daughter, who was born prematurely at 22 weeks.

Please contact St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch through one of the channels below and give him the following message:

I am stunned that you have not yet brought charges against the 54 year-old man who shot and killed Scott Beary. This gunman clearly provoked a fist-fight and then killed Beary unnecessarily (just before they were separated by the bartender) because he felt like it. That’s why patrons at the bar detained the gunman until police arrived! I’m calling on you to prosecute this man for murdering Scott Beary. If the rule of law is to mean anything, we can’t allow people to murder on whim for the most petty of reasons. I will be watching your actions in this case closely and sharing info with my family/friends.

St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch
Phone: (314) 615-2600
Email: pa@stlouisco.com

Once you have contacted Bob McCulloch, click the orange banner below to report taking action!