Mike wrote:
Repeater wrote:
Mike wrote in his new
column:
The term "assault weapon" is a pejorative term for otherwise ordinary rifles and shotguns apparently pushed by Brady Campaign spinmaster Josh Sugarman ...
Josh Sugarman
n (correct spelling) is the Executive Director and founder of the
Violence Policy Center (VPC). He was never "spinmaster" for the Brady Campaign.
I will fix the spelling but Josh is or
was on the Brady Campaign Board of Directors and I think very accurate to say he is one of the brady community's more effective spinmasters.
The Brady Campaign apparently does not make it easy to see who their Directors are.
The NRA is
helpful, though:
[size="-2"]
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (BCPGV)[/size]
[size="-2"]Board of Directors:[/size]
[size="-2"]
David Birenbaum
Carl Bogus
John Corderman
Lee Fisher
Larry Lowenstein
John Phillips
Helen Raiser
Maurice Rosenblatt
Jeanne Shields
Odile Stern
Edward O. Welles[/size]
As you can see, Josh is not listed. He could have been a director in the past.
Further down, though, is this entry for the VPC:
[size="-2"]
The Violence Policy Center (VPC)
[/size][size="-2"]Headquarters: 1300 N Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 783-4071
http://www.vpc.org[/size]
[size="-2"]
Executive Director: Josh Sugarmann
Of Counsel: Kristen Rand[/size]
[size="-2"]
The Violence Policy Center is the new name of the New Right Watch (NRW), a non-profit group that "researched" what it perceived as a new right-wing American political movement. NRW focused its attack on semi-automatic firearms with two releases: "Assault Weapons and Accessories in America" (1988), a joint effort with EFEHV, and "Assault Weapons: Analysis, New Research, and Legislation" (1989). Funding for New Right Watch was received from individual and foundation grants.[/size]
[size="-2"]VPC is a non-profit national "educational" foundation that proposes firearms restrictions, including total handgun prohibition, as measures to reduce violence in America. VPC's Executive Director, Josh Sugarmann, formerly the Executive Director of the New Right Watch and, previously, with the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, authored a book attacking the NRA -- NRA: Money, Firepower, and Fear (1992). In 1997, VPC produced a report attacking NRA's Eddie Eagle program, calling it "Joe Camel with feathers". This attack was so scurrilous that many in the media denounced it. It stands as clear evidence that VPC is more interested in attacking NRA than in finding any rational or effective solutions to violence in America.[/size]