DG, as a lawyer who represented both small and huge companies in mergers and acquisitions, all I can say is: you nailed it. #123456abc Scary Black Rifle Industries. 17.5k Followers, 1,349 Following, 3,347 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Kevin Brittingham (@kevinbrittingham) Others, some on TTAG, have written more comprehensive and eloquent summaries than this. In reality the $200 stamp was a near defacto ban on new ownership. The guns in AACs vaults became a tangled mess, and there was no end in sight to the compliance nightmare. Even after AAC had moved to the new Lawrenceville location and sold the old business, they continued operating as if the old FFL from that old building was valid. A persistent rumor, circulated by email in 2011, alleged that Freedom Group was actually controlled by George Soros: One of the most evil men on this planet who wants to restrict or ban all civilian guns. The rumor was only debunked after the NRA released a statement to its members: NRA has had contact with officials [of] Cerberus and Freedom Group for some time. On a separate floor is the private-equity group. I disagree with your assertion that bullshit free marketers want no laws. During the training, Feinberg was struck by the inferior quality of the camps range and facilities. A comprehensive new government study concludes that the illness probably wasnt caused by foreign adversaries. We'll give him,. Youre dumb, because Im not talking about Remington and I indicated it was a tangent for a reason Anthony DEsposito has a bill to keep Santos, a fellow Republican, from profiting off his lies. Now add to this the fact that the company is manufacturing NFA items for two different FFLs and were talking about epic amounts of paperworkhundreds of NFA items being made each month, not including what was being done in R&D. always recommend folks watch Glengarry Glen Ross written by David Mament. Kevin had gotten his start in the gun world by buying and selling machine guns back when the market was starting to take off, and as a result he had amassed an impressive collection of modern and antique guns. The payout was small just $62,500 per victim but the potentially unlimited liabilities from gun-injury lawsuits, accompanied by the political and public-relations hazards, had historically scared away capital and discouraged conglomeration. Before he went into the gun business, before he started buying assault-rifle manufacturers, before he expanded into scopes and silencers, before he rolled up 18 of Americas most lethal companies into a single conglomerate, before he funded a private military base, before the massacre, before the investor revolt, before the recalls and the product defects and the bad press and the lawsuits before any of that could happen Stephen Feinberg, the billionaire financier, had to perfect his shooting technique. Feinbergs hunting expeditions were taking him deep into the bush, outside the range of GPS, and he needed instruction in military land navigation. Plays Incompetent Willy Wonka at CPAC. On November 16th 2011, Jason Schauble was plotting Kevins final demise. Im kinda leery of both of them know. They even went so far as to give silencers to people who had an AAC logo tattooed on their bodies, a marketing campaign that was so successful that they sunk a quarter million dollars into it before it ended. He likes guns. However, Kevin was a gun guy. Parents and patients are now refuting her key claims. Behind all of this is Feinberg. This is a whole boatload of fail and a passel of never mind. My read of the decision is that Jason was the only person who wanted Kevin fired and it was due to unprofessional behavior and insubordination. The gun cultures objection to conglomeration was reminiscent of objections Id once heard from conscious consumers when Unilever had purchased Ben & Jerrys. Theyre great for urban encroachment, said the companys founder, Kevin Brittingham. Wow, AACs operations sound like a Cluster. Pay attention next time cock a doodle doo. They dont know what theyre talking about, and the only thing theyre interested in is making money for themselves. [1/20/2014 10:38 AM: This post was updated thanks to an interview with Kevin Brittingham. He failed, but the political blowback was such that another law was passed, this time banning civilian ownership of any full auto weapons produced after 1983 or so. I know all the guys involved, he said. Since the announced closure of the North Haven factory, the quality of Marlin lever-actions has gone completely to hell, wrote one gun blogger. But revenue remains soft in a market still saturated by the assault-rifle-buying frenzy of 2013, and Remington, in a tacit acknowledgment of its critics, has abandoned the kind of combat-oriented marketing imagery that so excited its customers. However, even if they came out with a longer barreled version to make it Canada compliant I would not buy it now knowing what FGI has done. That is, if it hasnt already. His name is Kevin Brittingham, the "people's CEO." Brittingham is a name you should know. That is, if it hasnt already. The conclusion of the decision is pretty awesome to read, and I recommend you do it in full. The target was Bushmaster, one of the leading makers of black guns: highly configurable assault rifles patterned after the military-issue AR-15. These dimensions allow the 300 AAC Blackout to be used in existing magazines designed for M16 or AR-15 rifles. They didnt care about any of that.. In Defense of the Talkative Trump Grand Juror. Then he went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot his way into the school, killing six adults and 20 schoolchildren, all with the Bushmaster, in less than ten minutes. Juan and his family collected $270 million before taxes. He wanted Freedom Group money to expand but he wanted to lose none of his control of the business. From 2006 to 2013, that number doubled from 10 million checks to over 21 million. 2. The smaller the niche a small company operates in (in this case, silencers), the more reason to remain small and independent. Despite his success with Freedom Group, 2008 was a bad year for Feinberg. I think you have it backwards. He is said to be Cerberus Capitals largest investor and reinvests most of his earnings back into his funds. Also, thismove will get Bob on board and de-risk this business. No insult intended to Brittingham, but I suspect he would have preferred to have done things differently and avoided all of this in hindsight. I wonder why he couldnt just hire someone to fix their paper work and compliance issues. Who was buying them? The second nail in the coffin was hammered down in the early 80s after an assassin took a shot at the president. His goals this time aren't acquisition as the measure of success. REMINGTON PMPD I can absolutely see why their compliance was a mess. It has owned a school-bus manufacturer, a chain of bowling alleys, and a Japanese bank. In 2002, it was the weapon of choice for John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway snipers. Nevertheless, even before it could be determined whether this was Kevins personal silencer or if it was for R&D at the company, Kevin was suspended. Your above incontinence misses the main point of this post: Private contracts between two parties were treated as toilet paper by one party. The industry was fragmented, consisting of numerous small, private manufacturers like Bushmaster scattered across the American Northeast. Customers, employees, et al can go screw themselves, as theyre completely expendable. They are not. All this intrigue sounds like a bunch of bitchy college girls. Feinberg actually did live in New York, but he didnt waver either. But this R&D is related to our RKBA, so why is it ok to do this? Oh, and one more thingy. Feinberg was trim, balding, blond, and wore a bristly mustache but no beard. . I think you [Scott Blackstone, Freedom Group] and I should seriously consider a Plan B for this business. That same year, Remingtons annual sales fell almost 35 percent from its post-Newtown peak, even as Remingtons public competitors outperformed. Theres nothing wrong with some post-closing inventive payments, so long as Seller is ok with the fact that he might not see a dime of it (i.e. He interviews some pretty major players in the industry. Kollitides needed a fix, quickly. They certainly didnt. That made him happy., While Feinberg generally stayed out of Freedom Groups day-to-day affairs, he took a personal interest in Remington Defense, the companys military-supply wing, appointing Jason Schauble, a former Marine Corps captain, to run it. The audio could use some work, but it's pretty good. When youre transferring a fairly large amount of machine guns from three seperate FFLs dependent on set dates of the sale, some of which are private owned and on site at times and not at other times, every time it changes possession every move that needs to be recorded, but theres photoshoots, testing, etc often. Wherever Kevin ends up, I will buy as many of his products as I can afford. I still cannot decide if I should buy a 300 Blackout Handi-Rifle or not. 5. Model 321. Tier 1s biggest customer was the United States Special Operations Command. [21], AAC has been instrumental in forming the American Silencer Association (ASA), a nonprofit trade association "to further the pursuit of education, public relations, legislation, hunting applications and military applications for the silencer industry". But if all people were basically good, why would we, increasingly, pass more and more elaborate laws? They told him that he had been fired for cause and that he could return if and only if he signed a document saying that he admitted fault, agreed to a lower pay (previously $250,000/year), and was on probation for a year during which they could fire him without notice. Mr. Bittingham is not blameless in this episode. The issue is that under the original employment agreement, Kevin needed to be issued a written warning and be given an opportunity to fix the problem (over a period of 30 days). Indeed, it seems the more powerful the system, the more coverage and leeway for jerks. As part of the Cerberus sale, the original Bushmaster factory would remain open for at least five years. The dual-band career is the reason why Eric Brittingham is one of the wealthiest guitarists with a net worth of $6 million. The business deal would have worked fine, and theyd have all lived happily ever after. SIG SAUER welcomes Kevin Brittingham to lead its new SIG-SD Silencer business unit, as well as other special programs within its Military/Law Enforcement development activities. I hope Remington and Marlin excuse themselves from the toxic environment of FGI, and Im glad that Kevin is free. Feinberg shunned the press; Trump sought publicity wherever it was to be found. Cerberus continued without him. If my girlfriend was fired tomorrow, she gets all her vacation time because its earned wages, and the company withholding them is essentially theft. Kevin Brittingham founded Advanced Armament Corp, which became one of the biggest silencer manufacturers in the world. None of them wavered in the slightest, not even when I brought up the Newtown massacre, or the Pulse-nightclub shooting, or the San Bernardino attacks, or the shooting of the Dallas police officers, or the certainty of other massacres to come. Remington and Freedom Group manage products for the masses.completely out of line fundamentally with AACs products. So after this, who still wants a Remington R51? I could teach anyone how to do this with a properly sighted gun in five minutes. Gravity was a constant, and one could consult a table to calculate the trajectory. Kevin had standing orders that any Maxim silencer his employees found should immediately be purchased for his collection, but he also used them as models for designing new silencers by examining their construction. This round has the same overall length and width as the popular 5.5645mm NATO round, except it fires a 30 caliber bullet allowing for better barrier penetration and external ballistics from short barrels. A fool and his company are soon parted. After Bushmaster, Freedom purchased Marlin, a manufacturer of lever-action hunting rifles; Parker, a manufacturer of ornate, collectible shotguns; DPMS, another assault-rifle manufacturer; and the big one, Remington, Americas oldest continuously operated gunmaker, whose .22 caliber hunting rifle had, for generations, served as the young firearms initiates first gun. Remingtons CEO, Tommy Millner, was selected to run the entire group. His net worth is a matter of debate. I can paint the outline in broad strokes though. Briefly, I worked for the company that most of the Freedom Group management came from and if Kevin had talked to anyone from that company he never would have entered into the agreement he did with them. By focusing on the military market, and especially special ops, you can translate that to the commercial market, Brittingham said. As it should be, but it gets complicated when control changes or theres nebulous IP or physical property rights. The only good news was that Kevin was untouchable unless he committed a felony, or broke company policy. Selling a gun that was an original Bushmaster in all but name, the new company grew to $65 million in sales in less than five years. Most of these fees could be collected only once the investment had been closed meaning that even before he entered a business, Feinberg was thinking about how to exit. George Santoss Nasty Twitter Battle With Fellow New York Republicans. Internally, business conditions are improving, as Marcotulis cost-cutting fixes have returned the company to profitability. Kevin Brittingham doesn't mess around, announcing a 1 March launch of his new brand. Not something id want my career dependent on. Remington, etc. [20], The .300 AAC Blackout cartridge was developed by Advanced Armament Corporation in cooperation with Remington Defense, under the direction of Kevin Brittingham. He confirmed via text message that the silencer in question was indeed a Maxim, but he maintains that it was sent by Freedom Group to set him up. My personal thought is that the longer a law stays on the books, the more paperwork gets dropped on the issue, the more government gets vested in the idea, the harder it is to get rid of this sort of thing. On December 19th, Schauble got his response. The taxed portion goes into my pocket, the rest is paid to various funds and accounts that cover health, dental, retirement, etc. a stiff corporation has no conscience.. Since then it has become accepted by MSM and government that the purpose is to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of citizens who supposedly have no justifiable reason to own said items. It would be like the IRS pulling a kingpin in for tax evasion and then pumping him based on his drug trafficking activities now a days. You post as if free market and equitable rule of law are opposites. Agreed. Kevin Brittingham was quoted as saying he hoped FG jacked him around until the money went to his grandkids, because they are required to pay 9% interest on it. That warning never took place, and no time was given. Yet it may not be a loss for the left. Admittedly, Im kind of surprised that somebodys buying 100 silencers a month. I would have been more comfortable with the people. Thats possible, but the kinds of connections you needed to persuade the Feds to bail out your bad auto-industry bet for $30 billion were more readily available to graduates of Princeton than UC-Irvine. Remington definitely looks worse than he does though. Advanced Armament Corporation (AAC) is an American company that develops and manufactures firearms, firearm suppressors, muzzle devices and related accessories. In 2015, Walmart announced it would no longer carry assault rifles. The end result of the negotiations with Jason Schauble was that AAC would be a separate entity owned by Remington, but completely independent in operation. Within weeks, Reichert had a business plan and had assembled a team of military trainers, including a number of special-forces veterans. Lesson here is, if you own a company and have another, larger company come in an help, you dont own your company anymore. The band formed in 1982 and broke up in 2017 and Brittingham was one of. Look, I grew up in rural America, he said. Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Right About Novak Djokovic. Later that month the compliance officer finally arrived, and noticed that some of the guns from the shoot were still present. Centerfire rifle suppressors include the M4-2000 (used by numerous military units including the Navy SEALs), 762-SDN-6, SR series, and Cyclone (for .30 caliber precision rifles). The only thing he hard from Remington was that he had been fired for cause, which would void his employment agreement and leave him out $4 million. The problem was not anticipating these problems and accounting for them enough. Kevin Brittingham founded AAC, and his success was due in part to the culture that the company cultivated. A catalyst was the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, pushed by NRA lobbyists and passed by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2005. Jason wanted AAC to be treated like another plant, like Remington or Marlin or Bushmaster, with Remington HQ as the head of operations. Its not as hard as it sounds, Reichert told me. #654321cba Pink Fluffy Hunter Firearms. At that distance, he couldnt just aim his weapon at the target; he had to lob the bullet like an artillery shell. Brittingham, the founder of Advanced Armament Corporation, currently holds more than 40 patents in the firearms industry. Many people ask about the amount of money Jack Brittingham makes from Instagram. My point: Free market proponents expect contracts to be enforced quickly and effectively. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2014/01/17/more-amusing-antilibertarian-humor-n1780470/page/full. Back in the early 1900s, 1930 or so I believe, a law was passed creating the class 2 and 3 NFA tax stamp nonsense. This is what has happened all over the country with pensions. Depending on how his FFLs were structured, the company might have been considered two different entities from the ATFs perspective. I want to work on guns, not paperwork, but since theres only 24 hours in a day, if you want to make product, you have to choose where youll spend your time: Making products or filling out paperwork? Inflation and public interest would work to somewhat normalize the stamp issue, but by now the sheer volume of bureaucracy surrounding the process is a barrier in and of itself. Freedom also benefited from broad growth in the American gun market. Before being acquired by Cerberus, Bushmasters bare-bones product brochure had all the glamour of a catalogue of plumbing fixtures. When some buyer of your company says that their back-office IT systems can benefit you, thats a sure sign that theyre going to quash your culture. But theres also heritage, and history. That part of the case could easily have gone the other way. Based in Windham, Maine, Bushmaster had, over the course of 30 years, grown from a tiny gun-parts manufacturer into the preferred firearm of the high-capacity target shooter. Model 123. The next day he was fired, supposedly for still having personal firearms on the premises. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. What this meant was that there was and is a finite pool of class 3 weapons available for civilian ownershipa pool that continues to shrink in quantity and grow in value. [8], In 2011, AAC was awarded a $14,201,731 contract for the muzzle brakes that they produce known as the "Brakeout". I have been working on a few designs and would not even need $50,000 to get a working product. So one weekend in late 2005, he left behind the Manhattan offices of Cerberus Capital, the private-equity firm hed founded, and his multistory Upper East Side residence, which he was in the process of spending $15 million to renovate, and traveled to Moyock, North Carolina, to the tactical-training facilities of Blackwater, the notorious private military contractor, for a weekend of long-range-firearms instruction. The original idea, of an IPO, was out of the question: No reputable investment bank would underwrite it, nor even take the M&A fees associated with a private deal. Case in point, the described photo shoot where non-owners of the items had access and moved them around to where other non-owners had access without the knowledge of the supposed owner. But Scott Blackwell at Freedom Group told him in no uncertain terms that AAC would remain a separate entity. If I wanted to do anything with SBRs or cans, Id hire a consulting firm to help walk me through everything, from applying for the FFL and additional licensing, the ITAR crap and then and do compliance audits before the ATF does. His desire for quick results is masked by a constitutional equanimity: Several Cerberus insiders told me Feinberg never raises his voice, even when he is calling for someones head. The Biden administrations policy of blocking unvaccinated people from the country continues to make little sense. Kevin thought that he was canned, but Remington offered him an option. Despite the fact, for example, that the big investment banks are paying out billions of dollars to the feds for their unsavory mortgage practices that lead directly to the last recession, he argued that the mortgage brokers and bankers owed no duty at all to the borrowers not to lie to them, not to mislead them, not to falsify loan documents. At court, it came out that the only person on Remingtons side who could sign the employment agreements and make them valid never did. And in return, Remington would provide support with ATF compliance, record keeping, and give them access to Remingtons extensive distribution network. Feinberg downplayed his wealth; Trump exaggerated his. Not that it matters to me pragmatically. Any contract that calls for payment to the seller on the come provides an incentive for the buyer to jack with the seller. Freedom Group and Remington had conspired to find a way to fire Kevin in order to save $4 to $8 million that he was due as performance incentives and pay.. Normally the ad cost for an Instagram ad post is based on the number of followers on the account. Guys screwing over each other for peanuts. His marketing prowess mated with an uncanny sense of innovation alone would get him going in the right direction. Dont mean to be demeaning. Idiots. Kevin Brittingham founded Advanced Armament Corporation in 1994 to manufacture sound suppressors, having previously been a distributor for GEMTECH, another suppressor manufacturer. It sparked a war of words that quickly got personal. In the meantime, AAC continued to use their pre-sale FFLs to conduct business while Freedom Group obtained a new one for the new AAC, and even after the new FFL was in place the existing stocks of guns and ammo that had been agreed upon as part of the sale remained in the old FFLs bound books. In late 2013, Freedom Group rebranded, changing its name to Remington Outdoor Company. I wonder if Kevin Brittingham would be interested in investing in a line of flamethrowers. The companys corporate culture is Darwinian. I wrote a piece about this some years back titled Chinese Contracts got me a couple nice reviews, for example from The Trusted Advisor. (Apologies to our Dear Overlords if Im over the self-promotion line with this. And this is just one company, the company I work for is even worse at violating laws and regulations. In June of this year, the companys latest CEO, Jim Marcotuli, stated the obvious: Were not for sale.. Repeated emails warning that the guy wasnt qualified went unheeded, and he immediately set to work trying to untangle AACs books. Disabling a security camera to remove disputed items from your place of employment is a shady act. The one exception Ive seen is acquisitions in hot areas of IT / Software. I hope he gets his money but I would be betting he doesnt. In 1999, he had appointed Vice-President Dan Quayle chairman of the global divisions of his firm, despite Quayles confessed lack of business experience. 05-24-20, 00:01 #30. Of course, owning was a questionable term here; by the end of 2015, Remington Outdoor Company was worth less than the debt attached to it, like a house with an underwater mortgage. REMINGTON MILITARY But after a meeting with Jason Schauble (then working for Remington, recently fired from Tracking Point, and now working for SilencerCo), Kevin saw that Remington might be able to help them grow the business beyond what they could do on their own. 2. A number of customers sued the manufacturer, claiming their guns had gone off without the trigger being pulled, prompting a class-action lawsuit. COPYRIGHT 2021, THETRUTHABOUTGUNS.COM. DeSantis Promises Florida Will Control Disney Content. "The Mini-Fix in .300 Blackout will be the next." I havent shot a gun in 30 years, but Ive bumped up against them for years in family/school settings. He resigned because there was no plan to keep it independent. You either have two or you have 20. Expect awesome shit.". I think I can build and test a few for less than 10K but biz stuff will bring the most cost I am sure. I own some. Period. The former VP has an extremely narrow path to viability in 2024. So now youve got tens possibly hundreds of NFA items being transferred between, moved around, and otherwise commingled by the original owner and a company with two different FFLs any one of which may or may not technically be in constructive possession of those item(s) at any given time. The question I have is why? ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Plenty of viable (and more desirable) alternatives to give my hard earned money to. Yep. Youve now structured a deal where it is well within the buyers benefit to get rid of you and the founders of the company being bought out. Kary's increased presence on social . View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Kevin Brittingham in Washington, DC - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Emails & Phone Number | Personal Review | $70 - $79,999 Income & Net Worth [25], Integrally suppressed rimfire firearms (discontinued), Last edited on 16 February 2023, at 06:54, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, "Freedom Group, Inc. Forms Office of the Chief Executive Officer", https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/27092020123649821_1231_20202709124853872.pdf, "Hanna Announces Remington Receives $80 Million Contract", Army's XM2010 sniper rifle gets full fielding, "The Quiet Continues: Suppressed Pistols", "Advanced Armament Corp Awarded Contract for Family of Muzzle Brakes", "300 AAC Blackout, New Caliber, New Mission", "Frank Girardot: It's Time to Get One of Those "I Voted" Stickers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Advanced_Armament_Corporation&oldid=1139661252. Nowhere is the lab-leak debate more personal than among the experts investigating the origins of COVID. Echoing Reichert, Nardelli said that Steve saw this as a huge patriotic opportunity, in addition to a great investment. Nardelli was wrong. There is no way in hell Remingtons culture could vocally support classically liberal economics and a strong rule of law. Regardless, short of repealing the NFA, Ownership, manufacture, maintenance, and transfer of such items is a legal nightmare, especially if you want to do it on a corporate level. I still want a pre-Remington marlin 336, though. This contract was procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce and Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division. But thats the gist. . I live in New York Territories under the administration of Procunsul Cuomo the Younger. On the dotted line of that agreement he signed only the word flounder. According to Kevin that was written in the title box, as Kevin had had his title changed from president to founder, but he doesnt remember writing it. There was no disguising its military heritage, but by stamping a storied brand onto this menacing instrument, Cerberus was able to expand Freedom Groups business in both the traditional gun-store market and the family-friendly sporting retailers. Remington should have know better. PARKER GUNMAKERS In 2009, Brittingham sold the company to Remington Arms. Remington eventually sent a single person to iron out the compliance issues, in the form of a former private investigator with a few days of ATF training and no background in compliance whatsoever. He was summarily fired for guns that either werent actually his or were being legitimately used for R&D purposes being in the shop, and that was a breach of the contract from Freedom Groups end. Technically as soon as the company was sold they needed to start operating under a new FFL, since they had only purchased the assets and not the business itself. Having returned to Camp LeJeune in North Carolina to recuperate, Reichert started moonlighting at the Blackwater range as a shooting instructor. These were class 2 and 3 items, SBRs and full autos. PLCAA granted gunmakers broad immunity from lawsuits from victims of gun violence. Lots of reasonsand someone can probably say this better and with more authority than I can but. So it seems as if there was a lot of confusion and scheming around this issue. But dont think for a minute theyre strong defenders of classical markets. The second-largest retail pharmacy chain wont buck Republican attorneys general. Wow, lot of work went into this one. The intent of the law was to get bad people off the streetsin theory. She explains the press to the president, preaches Twitter-is-not-real-life, and keeps the West Wing from leaking. This page was last edited on 16 February 2023, at 06:54. They absolutely should have hired people to keep their ducks in a row. He had had enough of Kevin, and figured that Kevin didnt deserve the $4 million that was coming to him. Related: 'Real Housewives of Dallas': Did Bravo Fire Former Housewife, LeeAnne Locken? Feinberg was good at that, Reichert said. At trial many of these guns turned out to not be Kevins firearms at all, and the rest were common firearms that were not conclusively Kevins guns.