This push for efficiency meant laying off skilled workers, introducing manufacturing defects into Freedom Group products. 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. Especially if they were MY guns. Kary's increased presence on social . So Kevin could have admitted they were his. 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. He seems to be sloppy, lazy, and foolish. 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. Its not clear whether Remington and Freedom Group realized that Kevin hadnt signed the document or if Kevin had tried to dupe them but either way he came back to work, accepted the lower pay, and kept right on trucking. DPMS / Panther Arms By some karmic coincidence, Martin Feinberg, Stephens father, lived in Newtown, in a senior community. Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Brittingham and others you may know. Jason wanted AAC to be treated like another plant, like Remington or Marlin or Bushmaster, with Remington HQ as the head of operations. We will check for: DUIs Traffic Tickets Misdemeanors The company was debt free and making money hand over fist, so Kevin never saw a need to sell. He should name this new company Amalgamated Flounder. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. There's Robby Johnson as overall VP, Ethan Lessard to VP of Engineering . . I think I will avoid both people and their companies and products. Or, perhaps more subtly, for anything that pays out later, you either have enforcement costs, or you better design things so everybody benefits together. These (that I have seen) have a buyout if they let the individual go early. Dont mean to be demeaning. The compliance officer told Kevin verbally to remove any personal firearms from the premises, and Kevin set to work doing exactly that. 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. REMINGTON LE Anyone who has been around small businesses knows that they are hornets nest of incompetence, greed and outright fraud. Kevin Brittingham https://www.mrcolionnoir.com/podcast/I like to call today's guest the Tekashi 69 of the gun world because has an incredible ability to co. On a separate floor is the private-equity group. "The Mini-Fix in .300 Blackout will be the next." I apologize, but Im going off on a tangent here. Of course it didnt stay that way. Each month, he paid an equal share of Bushmasters gross profits to every employee, from the CEO to the guy who cleaned the toilets. That's why we put him on the cover of the April/May 2019 issue of Tactical Life Magazine. By 2009, both companies were in financial peril. That is a huge amount of paperwork and possible violation bate. Reichert would forward these reports of Special Operations daring to Feinberg. 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. But Feinberg was able to overlook these character flaws, and somehow the frothing anti-Semitism of the Trumpist fringe as well. So after this, who still wants a Remington R51? Got a quote from Remingtons web site or one of their executives? He resigned because there was no plan to keep it independent. Now I believe youre right. Theres a reason I dont want to deal with NFA itemsand the big one is that the amount of paperwork just isnt worth it to me. Although the U.S. governments 2009 automotive-industry bailout forced Cerberus to devalue its holdings in the two firms, Cerberus was able to salvage what could have been a total loss. Good luck getting one. At Remington, some of the machinery dated back to World War II. REALLY? In the end, none of them were happy they sold., Reichert remained an outspoken advocate for the broadest possible interpretation of the Second Amendment. 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. Vish Burra, the congressmans director of operations, met me on Staten Island to explain the plan to make Santos president? Jason wanted AAC to be treated like another plant, like Remington or Marlin or Bushmaster, with Remington HQ as the head of operations. Look, I grew up in rural America, he said. Of course, it had wanted to do that all along. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. The big companies who are buying you have scads of lawyers on their staff. Reichert obliged, dragging his pupil into the swamps near the Camp LeJeune base. He envisions a company with 50 people run with real leadership. One of the first things it did was cancel the profit-sharing plan. That part of the case could easily have gone the other way. Depending on how his FFLs were structured, the company might have been considered two different entities from the ATFs perspective. They werent in it for the right reasons. When I suggested to him that Cerberus just wanted profits, he responded with indignation. These were class 2 and 3 items, SBRs and full autos. In Iraq, in 2004, he had shot a man from over a mile away, one of the longest confirmed hits by any American soldier in the war. Their scarcity has driven a level of cultural acceptance of their restriction. Dyke, who remained on Bushmasters board, sensed he was in unusual territory. She explains the press to the president, preaches Twitter-is-not-real-life, and keeps the West Wing from leaking. Kevin Brittingham founded AAC, and his success was due in part to the culture that the company cultivated. Fox News Is Reportedly Shadowbanning Donald Trump. [6][7] The suppressor eliminates 98 percent of muzzle flash, 60 percent of recoil, and reduces sound by 32 decibels. 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. His marketing prowess mated with an uncanny sense of innovation alone would get him going in the right direction. Interesting to me, its good strategy to work the system (vs. do the work) if you arent particularly good at doing the work. Realizing that AAC would not be able to function without using Kevins personal guns for R&D, the deal allowed time for those guns to remain on premises while the transfer was taking place. You are trading complete ownership of a pie you cant make work, for a slice of a pie someone else thinks *they can* make work. 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? I can paint the outline in broad strokes though. Ive skipped over a lot of detail. I observed them screw up a lot of companies and put a lot of people out of work, he told me. As a guy, like David Horowitz, who went from the Left to the Right, his insights combined with his ability to write is just down right brilliant. Now Im looking at other options. What worked in the battlefield worked in the forest. 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. Can you name a bullshit free marketer who opposes the sanctity of private contracts?. I see a few things in your writeup that seem incorrect. There, the acquiring company often has a retention payment for key players to keep them around through the integration. Also, thismove will get Bob on board and de-risk this business. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Schauble and the rest of the Remington and Freedom Group board were not aware of any misconduct that would give them a reason to can Kevin. Why would I say that about Somalia? PLCAA granted gunmakers broad immunity from lawsuits from victims of gun violence. The 4-Day Week Is for White-collar Workers. 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. Theyre too busy grabbing ankle for and asking favors from political types with D as the first letter of their party affiliation. Everything gets ridiculously complicated ridiculously fast. Essentially just a Bushmaster painted green, the gun was re-termed a modern sporting rifle and marketed to hunters. I havent read through the full decision (though I will), but this was an Interesting read. Because of the false pretenses, even if Kevin had signed the document it would have been void and the original agreement would have remained in place. On December 19th, Schauble got his response. She purchased a Bushmaster assault rifle in March 2010, part of an expanding arsenal: three pistols, two bolt-action rifles, a shotgun, and three samurai swords. 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. Even though KB owned the company, his employees and the company werent him legally for purposes of the ATF. If thats the only offer you can get, that may be a hint. The deal was structured as a $10 mil+ lump sum up front, and $8 mil in contingent comp, based on whether Kevin was still with AAC in 2015 and met certain goals.. Walgreens Wont Sell Abortion Pills in Red States Even Where Its Legal. Feinberg downplayed his wealth; Trump exaggerated his. To market their shooting platforms, the Freedom Group frequently employed the cultural imagery of the global war on terror. Or carry a 50 million dollar quota? View the profiles of people named Kevin Brittingham. Like concealed carry laws that followed, they were supposedly never intended to be applied to John q publicjust the bad element. After the sale, things went south quickly. What with the general availability of 20-30 cap mags for accurate semiautomatic weapons its debatable whether even the remaining pool is practically more useful than the much larger pool of ar15s, AKs, FALsetc. 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. But instead of ceasing operation until they had everything figured out under their own FFL, they continued using Kevin Brittinghams personal and business FFLs and simply rubber stamping his name on the forms. And a chatbot is not a human. I was going to name Barrack Obama, then I noticed the bullshit free marketer clause and realized he was not appropriate. Marketed to civilians as the ultimate combat weapons system, many of Bushmasters gun builds were modeled after the weapons used by Americas Special Forces. Dr. Brittingham currently teaches the elective courses 420.628 Ecology and Management of Wetlands and 420.625 Ecology and Management of Estuarine Systems. Its play was obvious: roll up small gun companies, centralize management while combining costs and cutting overhead, and then, when the moment was right, sell the conglomerate to the public via an IPO. [1/20/2014 10:38 AM: This post was updated thanks to an interview with Kevin Brittingham. You have entered an incorrect email address! Buyer beware may be the law of the capitalism jungle, but society also understands the need for social contracts that allow individuals and businesses to function with a reasonable expectation that what they pay for is what they get without expending all of their energy on investigation and asset protection. Mike Pences 2024 Strategy Totally Depends on Iowa Evangelicals. The next year was even worse. Dont mean that as a demeaning response, just that I think youre underestimating the issues that can arise when keeping in compliance. A number of customers sued the manufacturer, claiming their guns had gone off without the trigger being pulled, prompting a class-action lawsuit. You gotta say no up front. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. 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. Since day one, Kevin had used his personal gun collection in the design and development of the companys silencers. [24] AAC also partners with the National Rifle Association in grassroots lobbying efforts to educate voters about firearms legislation. Several people I spoke to said Cerberus had extracted enough cash from Remington during the good years to meet the firms threshold rate of return, and so, in a narrow sense, the investment was a victory. He likes guns. That is not how I read it. I have little sympathy for any of the players. The potential cost savings to be realized by consolidating these operations into a single, modern factory were substantial. Ethically challenged executives and managers are pretty much the standard. I wonder if Kevin Brittingham would be interested in investing in a line of flamethrowers. That is, if it hasnt already. You explained it a lot better than I did on another post up a bit lol. Theres no doubt were taking customers away from the old Bushmaster base, Dyke said. Behave honorably and competently and theyll gladly be customers, partners and advocates when you eventually decide to try again on your own. By 2009, it looked like a recruiting poster for Delta Force. 2 years later, hes fired from his own company, and she cant understand how. 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. Well what experience do you have building and running a tech company? Freedom Group and Remington had been incorrect about their finding of cause for terminating Kevin, had withheld information by never providing him with any documentation about the investigation or even a detailed description of what he did wrong, and issued an ultimatum to sign the new employment agreement or lose out on all his money. Your above incontinence misses the main point of this post: Private contracts between two parties were treated as toilet paper by one party. 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. I wonder why he couldnt just hire someone to fix their paper work and compliance issues. It was easy to imagine these well-armed individuals as doomsday preppers or anti-government fanatics, but the reality, one former Cerberus insider suggested, was mundane. 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. Schauble won a number of military contracts for Remington Defense and helped negotiate the purchase of Advanced Armaments Corporation, a start-up manufacturer of gun silencers. They werent just greedy, they were encouraged. Guess Ill have to look to other manufacturers now. Kevin immediately tried to contact Freedom Group about the reason for his suspension, and he wasnt given any information. Of note, one of AAC's chief suppressor designers is Robert Silvers, creator of the PhotoMosaic. Back in October, a pre SHOT Show photo shoot took place at AACs HQ. The problem was not anticipating these problems and accounting for them enough. 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. #123456abc Scary Black Rifle Industries. The owners and investors involved are strong supporters of the Second Amendment and are avid hunters and shooters. Two years later, three Freedom Group executives gave a million dollars each to the NRA. Kollitides needed a fix, quickly. The thing was doomed because there was perhaps no meeting of minds, but certainly somewhere along the line the understanding of the deal diverged. Not only is it a complete and total smackdown against Remington, but it was so entertaining that I found myself chuckling at times. To compare anything thats done in regards to NFA items, to selling computers is just asinine. See ya! Wherever Kevin ends up, I will buy as many of his products as I can afford. This story reads like everybody hearing what they wanted to hear. 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? Feinberg was saved by Obama. If you guys aren't aware, Kevin Brittingham from Q has a podcast. Libertarian Humor: While some enthusiasts collected guns, Feinberg collected gun companies. Cerberus agreed but was a less generous manager. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. Biden Chooses Crime Messaging Over D.C. Home Rule. Having said that, Freedomless group tried to pull a dirtbag move and they received the punishment they deserved. Who was buying them? 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. One major legal case challenged the NFA, and would have been successful save for a technicality causing the plaintiff to drop/abandoned the action. Hope he will go on to do great things in the silencer arena. Sloppy in his paperwork. Precisely this. That is, if it hasnt already. I live in New York Territories under the administration of Procunsul Cuomo the Younger. Dont buy any Freedom Group Products. 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. And a linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this. At some point, he is no longer considered to be in control of/owning that silencer. He is best known for being a member of the band Cinderella. I hope Kevin starts a new company and blows freedom groups profits out of the water. The Mini-Fix in .300 Blackout will be the next. The Key Moments From Alex Murdaughs Testimony and Murder Trial. It has owned a water park in Texas and a television station in Salt Lake City. Remington could have gotten exactly what they wanted if they had just been patient. Although the PLCAA granted immunity from lawsuits of this type, lawmakers had left an exception: negligent entrustment. This term referred to the rights of victims to sue gun dealers who had sold weapons irresponsibly say, to a customer who was obviously drunk or homicidal.