Cerberus agreed but was a less generous manager. Kevin wanted silencers to be mainstream, and getting Remington to start marketing silencers would be a major step forward. Im not arguing that. That is a huge amount of paperwork and possible violation bate. Theres no systemic cure for that. It was exciting too as it was the first gun that we had in stock when we released it. I havent read through the full decision (though I will), but this was an Interesting read. He interviews some pretty major players in the industry. During this time, as court documents showed, Kevin had succeeded in pissing off Freedom Group to the extent that they were actively looking for a reason to fire him. OK, Im plowing through the decision. At Trumps fund-raising dinner at Le Cirque in June, he made the largest political contribution of his life: more than $678,800, split between him and his wife. While the guns were being sorted, a hand written list of which guns were under whose ownership was compiled. It doesnt surprise me that our government would put in place rules/regulations that stifle design and innovation, they do that all the time. 5 years ago, I would have said Do you really think so?. This will cost money. If we terminate [Brittingham] at our discretion before the end of his year, we might lose Lynsey [manager at AAC and co-plaintiff in the suit]and we might lose Robert [Silvers, R&D genius and 300 BLK designer], and we might get sued, but we will keep a lot of other people and Ill personally go down there and put people in place that will endure in the longer term and continue to grow this business. 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. Oh, and one more thingy. 17.5k Followers, 1,349 Following, 3,347 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Kevin Brittingham (@kevinbrittingham) Sloppy in his paperwork. 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. Just read your analysis and also read the decision. Remington is corporatist. Theres a very good readable breakdown in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Short-Doomsday-Machine/dp/0393338827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390243182. What the ATF requires can be handled in a separate file. I probably would have been better off going to a state school, he said. He was replaced by another Cerberus insider, George Kollitides, who oversaw a plan to relocate most of Freedom Groups manufacturing to a disused Chrysler facility in Huntsville, Alabama. Internally, business conditions are improving, as Marcotulis cost-cutting fixes have returned the company to profitability. Not only is it a complete and total smackdown against Remington, but it was so entertaining that I found myself chuckling at times. I would have looked at how to replace my personal weapons with new weapons for prototyping. For the sake of argument (and the edification of someone who has neither sold computers nor wrangled an FFL), whats the difference?. Yet it may not be a loss for the left. Can you name a bullshit free marketer who opposes the sanctity of private contracts? [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". Needless to say, if they try pulling that crap when she leaves Im not allowing them to get away with it. Its a shame really, I was thinking of doing a 700 build on the shiny new MDT LSS chassis, and the versamax looks very cool. When the five-year agreement to keep the original Bushmaster factory open expired in 2011, the plant was shut down almost immediately. [1/20/2014 10:38 AM: This post was updated thanks to an interview with Kevin Brittingham. The lawsuit over the faulty Remington trigger mechanism had forced the company to offer another recall, this time for more than 7.5 million units, and the firm ended up losing more than $135 million in a single year, for a net profit margin of minus 17 percent. I can absolutely see why their compliance was a mess. Ten years later, he was running his own firm. . Private equity is not a business for the patient, and once a new business is acquired, it is not unusual for Feinberg to cycle through two or three managers in search of the right leadership. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Especially if they were MY guns. Its part of campaign to smoke out and then attack unpopular Republican cuts. Within days, Dyke, the companys founder, came out of semi-retirement at the age of 77, reopening his old factory under the new name Windham Weaponry and hiring back nearly all of the original employees. This might well save you lots of money later. They saw through the Ponzi scheme. Cerberus issued a statement, promising it would move to sell Freedom Group immediately. Prosecutors would grab them in possession of non stamped weapons and then build the rest of their caseor that was the theory anyway. Good read though. Indeed, it seems the more powerful the system, the more coverage and leeway for jerks. So we called them military enthusiasts., Reichert saw Feinberg again sooner than expected. The judge thinks that Kevin might have been after some personal firearms as well, but Kevin says he just wanted to grab his personal effects when he was suspended previously, Remington didnt even let him grab his kids backpack before being thrown out of the building. This meant transferring all existing equipment to Remingtons possession, along with all of their silencers and R&D guns. The one exception Ive seen is acquisitions in hot areas of IT / Software. Ya aint gonna run across Billy Graham in these small companies. Period. 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 [6][7] The suppressor eliminates 98 percent of muzzle flash, 60 percent of recoil, and reduces sound by 32 decibels. DeSantis Promises Florida Will Control Disney Content. The full test is available for download here, but for those who dont want to wade through all 117 pages of brilliantly written legal analysis Ill try to summarize . Salary in 2022. Students are such easy targets. Problem is, its state law where we live that this practice is 100% illegal, and the AG even sent letters out to remind companies of this. As it should be, but it gets complicated when control changes or theres nebulous IP or physical property rights. It makes no sense. I really wanted some stuff from AAC. Jason wanted AAC to be treated like another plant, like Remington or Marlin or Bushmaster, with Remington HQ as the head of operations. She explains the press to the president, preaches Twitter-is-not-real-life, and keeps the West Wing from leaking. 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. The donation made him one of the top contributors to the Trump Victory fund and earned him a spot as one of the 13 business leaders on the Trump Economic Advisory Council. I think you [Scott Blackstone, Freedom Group] and I should seriously consider a Plan B for this business. BARNES BULLETS This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. I dont disagree on any particular point. But here are the cliff notes: Due to these decisions, the judge ruled that Kevin had been terminated without cause and was due every cent of the damages that he demanded: somewhere around $14 million plus lawyer fees and interest. Matter of fact most of the gun industry is pretty much Tonys Car Repair stuff. Scummy business practices that too many companies engage in these days, and why I cant side with the bullshit free marketeers who want places like that to have no laws or regulations controlling their bullshit. The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution. David Mamet. Remington makes good products. The companies it was buying were small and inefficient, with unjustifiable overhead. This kind of organizational nonsense will come out in the products eventually. Its a great compact rifle, especially shooting suppressed! free markets cannot operate without the law of contract. His commitment to military contracting seemed to go beyond money. Behind all of this is Feinberg. The compliance officer told Kevin verbally to remove any personal firearms from the premises, and Kevin set to work doing exactly that. Black AR-15 style .223/5.56 Rifle with shoulder thingy that goes up. By the end of the year, Remington Outdoors annual sales had finally passed its billion-dollar target. In a rare interview in early 2008, he pitched himself as a blue-collar billionaire and distanced himself from his Ivy League pedigree. If I were the judge, Id have been tempted to issue a ruling that called into question the legality of these rules. If you've known Brittingham for any length of time, these names will come as no surprise. 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. Will others follow? 3. This has led to far wider adoption than the .300 Whisper, which is proprietary to SSK. That is, if it hasnt already. The state has a near-total abortion ban, and now activists and GOP officials are fighting an exemption for physician-defined medical emergencies. Essentially just a Bushmaster painted green, the gun was re-termed a modern sporting rifle and marketed to hunters. The military-proven guns offered the buyer vicarious status as an operator, although Cerberus understood well that few of its customers actually had combat experience. . And in return, Remington would provide support with ATF compliance, record keeping, and give them access to Remingtons extensive distribution network. 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. On a separate floor is the private-equity group. Remington could have gotten exactly what they wanted if they had just been patient. The strategy is to try to be useful & learn all you can about how they can (probably) make the business work when you cannot. Dyke, who remained on Bushmasters board, sensed he was in unusual territory. 9 comments. I dont think so, but its your sandbox, so your call.). Or where a random suppressor may or may not have showed up not-so-randomly on company property for KBs personal use. She has also appeared on shows like 'Celebrity Page' and 'Below Deck Mediterranean'. Sounds like the best course of action for him would have been to hire a couple of adults to run the business office and leave him free to do his design work. The first was the absolute wreckage they made of Marlin and the damage done to Marlins employees and above all quality control. In 2009, Brittingham sold the company to Remington Arms. By 2009, both companies were in financial peril. To make the deal work, Remington would purchase AACs gear lock, stock, and barrel and transfer it to a new Remington-owned entity. [19], In 2016 the BlastOut gives users the ability to redirect muzzle blast forward when shooting unsuppressed. This push for efficiency meant laying off skilled workers, introducing manufacturing defects into Freedom Group products. Kevin thought that he was canned, but Remington offered him an option. There is no way in hell Remingtons culture could vocally support classically liberal economics and a strong rule of law. He wanted Freedom Group money to expand but he wanted to lose none of his control of the business. Because the rim of the cartridge is identical, the same bolt and carrier can be used for both cartridges. Model 321. 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. Running a company from inside a jail cell is tough. People really need to understand that if you dont get paid up front, free and clear, without strings attached, then you are getting ripped off. Kevin and the AAC guys saw what was happening and were understandably concerned. 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). Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Brittingham and others you may know. Big promises were made, but without a real requirement to pay as they go all the various governments and corporations simply did not pay. He joined him on one of his elk-hunting jaunts and described the billionaire as an ordinary, down-to-earth American. Feinberg even offered to fly Reichert to California for a consultation with a leading plastic surgeon regarding his still-disfigured face. With the help of some decent legal counsel, hell continue to be an innovator, and he won his case against corporate big wig a$$holes. Despite these connections, Feinberg regarded himself as a regular guy. He was picked up by the NRA in 2013 and is thier "most prominent black commentator," per Wikipedia. Instead, it's long-term commitment. Not something id want my career dependent on. Kevin and his buddies and his wife who built AA are good guys. Their scarcity has driven a level of cultural acceptance of their restriction. The exception was Richard Dyke, who conceded a single point. Everything gets ridiculously complicated ridiculously fast. Of course it didnt stay that way. 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. In the end, none of them were happy they sold., Reichert remained an outspoken advocate for the broadest possible interpretation of the Second Amendment. They dont know what theyre talking about, and the only thing theyre interested in is making money for themselves. But this R&D is related to our RKBA, so why is it ok to do this? itunes.apple. Salary in 2021. In Defense of the Talkative Trump Grand Juror. The industry was fragmented, consisting of numerous small, private manufacturers like Bushmaster scattered across the American Northeast. The gun business is almost like a fashion business for men. Why would I say that about Somalia? Nowhere is the lab-leak debate more personal than among the experts investigating the origins of COVID. That part of the case could easily have gone the other way. The tax stamp was equivalent to about $2,000 in todays money, easily pricing the average citizen out of such purchases. Ill wait on getting any NFA items until the law is repealed or invalidated. . Successful companies are purchased by larger ones. Ive seen countless contracts that are all performance based, requiring quotas. This guy couldnt keep track of a couple of hundred suppressors and his personal guns? During the flood of grief that followed, an outcry erupted directed at Cerberus, Remington, and Bushmaster. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Theyre akin to blood diamonds. Cerberus set out to create it. The next year was even worse. And this is just one company, the company I work for is even worse at violating laws and regulations. P.S. . That marketing was the focus of the lawsuit brought against Remington by the victims of Sandy Hook. Just out of curiosity, what experience do you have with selling highly regulated products where every little thing has to be done by the books? He remained on good terms with Feinberg and had only positive things to say about his experience with Cerberus, but he conceded that the firearms side of the business had been a disaster. The issue that keeps most people like me out of that market is the paperwork compliance. While the star has a current net worth of $1.5 million, it appears she may not have nearly as much as fans think. One major legal case challenged the NFA, and would have been successful save for a technicality causing the plaintiff to drop/abandoned the action. Unions arent perfect, but as a member of a construction trade union all of my benefits are rolled into one hourly rate that the contractor pays. However, Kevin was a gun guy. But Feinberg was able to overlook these character flaws, and somehow the frothing anti-Semitism of the Trumpist fringe as well. The terms of his contract were that he would be an employee of the new AAC and retain control of that autonomous entity, and if he hit his performance metrics and was still employed come January of 2015 hed be given an extra $4 million over the $10 million purchase price. Brittingham, the founder of Advanced Armament Corporation, currently holds more than 40 patents in the firearms industry. Theyre too busy grabbing ankle for and asking favors from political types with D as the first letter of their party affiliation. So, too, did every other gun-industry executive I spoke with. 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. Youve mostly answered what or how. Its like handbags for women.. Tier 1 Group was profitable, but its sales maxed out at around $15 million annually a fraction of a percent of Cerberuss total business. By the end of his second day, he was consistently hitting targets from a thousand yards away the equivalent of 11 city blocks. He likes guns. The courts didnt buy the argument, and last month, the judge in the case dismissed the lawsuit. Depending on how his FFLs were structured, the company might have been considered two different entities from the ATFs perspective. Or in my prior life work in LE at Customs brokerage? Kary's increased presence on social . 05-24-20, 00:01 #30. At Blackwater, his instructor was Steve Reichert, a Marine Corps infantryman and decorated war hero who was one of the best marksmen on Earth. TAPCO Youre betting that you are at least as good at working the ref as the other guy, and willing to do so. Idiots. 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. But Scott Blackwell at Freedom Group told him in no uncertain terms that AAC would remain a separate entity. 2. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Kevin Brittingham in Milton, DE - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Email & Phone Number | Personal Review | Income & Net Worth My what a tangled web we weave. Which is just like saying that cheating is ok as long as you dont get caught. When Adam Lanza shot his mother, Nancy, in her sleep on the morning of December 14, 2012, he used one of her bolt-action rifles, a Savage Mark II. As for Remington, the last time I had energy to look at its books it was bleeding like a stuck pig. Behave honorably and competently and theyll gladly be customers, partners and advocates when you eventually decide to try again on your own. Extraction pending when some personal attachments clear.). Kevin Brittingham founded AAC, and his success was due in part to the culture that the company cultivated. You have entered an incorrect email address! Fortunately for him, at least there was one thing that always, infallibly, drove gun sales through the ceiling: a mass shooting. Lots of reasonsand someone can probably say this better and with more authority than I can but. All I was saying is, with just them doing it, its understandable their compliance was a mess. These companies tried to screw him over but it didnt work. Its impolite to call your customers wannabes, said the former Cerberus insider. Dont do that. They absolutely should have hired people to keep their ducks in a row. All rights reserved. Careful. Customers, employees, et al can go screw themselves, as theyre completely expendable. I disagree with your assertion that bullshit free marketers want no laws. I also read the entire 117 page judges ruling in the case. No insult intended to Brittingham, but I suspect he would have preferred to have done things differently and avoided all of this in hindsight. Dr. Brittingham currently teaches the elective courses 420.628 Ecology and Management of Wetlands and 420.625 Ecology and Management of Estuarine Systems. Further, the actions of Freedom group are on display for all of the AI to see. PLCAA granted gunmakers broad immunity from lawsuits from victims of gun violence. Concentrated into a smaller demographic were the serial gun purchasers, a hard core of about 3 percent of the U.S. population.