By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
A Vermont firearms dealer was contemplating legal action against Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group for what allegedly was the use of images of firearms he advertised online illustrating a report about “unlicensed” sellers who sell guns without background checks.
Bobby Richards, who operates Crossfire Arms, LLC at his home in Mt. Holly, told TGM that the images contained his watermark logo. Thus, he feels he is the victim of a “fraudulent report,” according to a press release issued by his attorney, Rachel Baird, of Connecticut.
Baird told TGM in a telephone interview that the report, “Hiding in Plain Sight,” got her client’s quick attention when he spotted the images.
Richards’ story spread quickly across the Internet in late January. When he complained and threatened legal action, Everytown issued a correction that appeared in The Blaze and other online news organs.
“A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that we identified 1,106 ads posted by unlicensed Vermont sellers offering firearms for sale,” the group said. “We inadvertently included 49 ads posted by licensed dealers in Vermont in this total. This version of the report reflects data based on the updated total of 1,058 gun ads posted by unlicensed sellers, which yields an estimate of 2,926 unlicensed gun sales annually on just three websites in Vermont, including 121 gun sales to felons and domestic abusers.”
The Richards press release promised “swift and immediate legal action.”
Richards and Baird said it appeared that the images were “misappropriated” by Everytown for its report.
“I recognized six photos,” he said.
Among them were images of firearms in his inventory, and a couple of guns he was apparently selling on consignment. Anyone purchasing any of those firearms would have had to go through a background check, both Richards and Baird said. The images had been posted on Armslist.com, Richards confirmed.
The report, according to The Blaze, alleged that investigators found more than 1,000 online gun sale advertisements from unlicensed sellers, suggesting that no background checks would be performed on the buyers. Included in that list were 49 advertisements posted by legally licensed firearms retailers, including Crossfire Arms, LLC in Mt. Holly.
“Everytown misappropriated Crossfire Arms’ logo and defamed its owner…by characterizing both as vehicles for the unlicensed sale of firearms to felons, fugitives from justice, domestic violence abusers, and other unspecified criminals,” the Richards press release said.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said in a press release that this isn’t the first time a Bloomberg-funded group has gotten into hot water by playing “fast and loose with facts.” He recalled that Everytown and Moms Demand Action “have been challenged for falsely inflating the number of school shootings since Sandy Hook, and who can forget the gun control bus tour funded by Bloomberg that included the names of criminals and a suspected terrorist as victims of gun violence?”
Last year, during the height of the Bloomberg-backed campaign to pass Initiative 594 – an 18-page gun control measure in Washington State – Everytown released a similar report titled “Online and Off The Record.” That report was also questioned.
Richards has been operating Crossfire Arms for just over a year. He started the business in late 2013. He typically posts images of firearms he has for sale online, and always with the watermark logo on the image.
The Crossfire Arms statement noted, “For the record, Richards and Crossfire Arms observe and comply with all federal and state laws pertaining to firearms. As a licensed dealer Crossfire Arms completes all transactions in person and performs a background check for every transaction involving a firearm.”
Baird, who has previously been involved in firearms-related issues in Connecticut, was considering several options about the threatened legal action.
