Bloomberg Businessweek ran a front-page attack on the NRA [1] for its March 18-25 edition. Much of the story was spent interviewing the owners of the Mossberg gun factory from New Haven, Conn., who find the NRA’s position “ill timed and graceless.”
According to the article, not all gun makers take as strong of a position on gun control regulation as the NRA does, but those who disagree are afraid of speaking up. Businessweek claims that fear of NRA instigated consumer boycotts and the prospect of sales from those concerned about stricter gun control laws keep gun manufacturers in line.
“Who’s afraid of the NRA? Gun makers, that’s who,” the Businessweek article, written by Assistant Managing Editor and Senior Writer Paul M. Barrett, declared. The cover reads “DON’T TREAD ON THE NRA” with pictures of bullet holes tearing through it.
“The companies that make and market firearms might prefer a softer tone, but they rarely complain about NRA fear mongering because it’s so good for business,” Barrett argued.
The article said that NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was “driven by an ambition impressive even by Washington standards,” comparing him to Elmer Gantry, a fictional fast-talking, con man preacher. Barrett said that LaPierre had joined the NRA staff “after a brutal putsch by Second Amendment firebrands ousted the cadre of more reticent sportsmen who had traditionally dominated the group.” The term “putsch” is usually reserved for 1930s Germany. Barrett also pointed to the NRA tendency to ally with “conservative evangelicals” and “anti-abortion activists” as if such connections brand the group as radical.
The article painted a picture of gun manufacturers cowering in fear of the NRA, afraid to voice their support for President Obama’s proposed gun-control measures. The NRA should have “waited longer and tried to be more respectful of people who disagree with them” Joseph Bartozzi, a senior VP at O.F Mossberg & Sons, a shotgun and rifle manufacturer based in New Haven, Connecticut, told Businessweek.
This isn’t the first time that Barrett has written a left-wing agenda piece as a story for Businessweek. On Nov. 1, he wrote a cover story with the title “It’s Global Warming, Stupid [2]” hovering ominously in black and red over a picture of a flood caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Mossberg & Sons may have to close its plant in Connecticut, and move all operations to Texas, depending on what regulations on gun manufacturing are enacting in the state, according to the article.