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SilencerCo – Iowa Legalizes Suppressors

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

Iowa Legalizes Suppressors

House File 2279 Becomes Law, Makes Iowa 42nd State to Legalize Suppressors for Civilians.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – April 1, 2016 – Iowa has become the 42nd state to legalize suppressors. House File 2279, a bill introduced by Rep. Matt Windschitl and Rep. Terry Baxter, recently passed the Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee on March 2, 2016 by a wide margin of 11-2. The bill moved through the Iowa Senate without issue, and has now been signed by Governor Terry Branstad.

After three years of efforts by the American Suppressor Association, the National Rifle Association, and the Iowa Firearms Coalition to educate lawmakers on the benefits and realities of suppressors, HF 2279 was met with positive response.

This victory in Iowa is bringing hope to the eight other states where suppressors are still illegal for civilians to own. As part of their “No State Left Behind” campaign, the American Suppressor Association will now turn its attention to those states, including California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.

“SilencerCo has been a strong supporter of the American Suppressor Association since its inception. We’re proud of the hard work they have put behind HF 2279 along with the help of the NRA and the Iowa Firearms Coalition. Because of the determination and educational push by these groups, Iowans can now enjoy the same rights as are held by law-abiding citizens in 41 other states,” says Joshua Waldron, CEO of SilencerCo.

SilencerCo is also working to remove suppressors from the list of NFA items all together through the introduction of the Hearing Protection Act. To learn more and add your voice to the cause, visit www.fightthenoise.org/take-action.

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Posted in Industry | 5 Comments »

Fireclean LLC Sues George Fennell And Steel Shield Technologies In Federal Court Alleging False Advertising

Friday, April 1st, 2016

Fireclean is on a tear. Yesterday, we told you that they have sued Andrew Tuohy and Everett Baker for Defamation. We also told you there would be more, and here it is, the next one.

It seems George Fennell owns a company named Steel Shield Technologies which makes a firearms lubricant called Weapon Shield. According to the suit, George Fennell is a competitor of Fireclean and relies heavily on Facebook to promote his brand.

Fireclean alleges defamation by Fennell and his company. They also say Fennell referred to their product as “Pam”, “Wesson Oil”, “Criso” and other oils in videos and social media posts they claim were meant to discredit their lubricant. In another instance Fireclean offers, Fennell claimed that “My problem is it will cost someone their life someday.”

Specifically, Fireclean claims that Fennell violated the Lanham Act. They are citing the misrepresentation clause (USC §1125a (1)(B)) and not the trademark portion of the law.

15 U.S.C. § 1125 – False designations of origin, false descriptions, and dilution forbidden

(a) Civil action

(1) Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which—

(A) is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person, or
(B) in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person’s goods, services, or commercial activities,

shall be liable in a civil action by any person who believes that he or she is or is likely to be damaged by such act.

By now you are asking yourself how this suit might be related to the blogger suit we discussed yesterday. Remember we said that Fennell is quite active on Facebook? Well, on January 14th, 2016, Fennell posted this message to Facebook. The “he” Fennell is initially referring to is Andrew Tuohy, which becomes clear in context later in the post.

Interesting enough, although that post was available yesterday (the same day Fennell was served by the court for this suit), it is now missing.

Feel free to read the entire complaint here: Fireclean LLC v Fennell Like the other suit, it is quite extensive and technical in nature as Fireclean makes its case that it is not any of the materials they claim Fennell says they are.

Once again, Fireclean lays out why the case should be tried in Federal Court of Eastern Virginia. They also demand a jury trial as well as compensatory damages, presumed damages for defamation, punitive damages in addition to court costs and attorney’s fees.

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Posted in Industry | 78 Comments »

FirstSpear Friday Focus – FirstSpear To Attend TTPOA 2016

Friday, April 1st, 2016

TTPOA2016_0012

FirstSpear will be attending one of their biggest law enforcement shows in the US at the 2016 TTPOA SWAT Conference in San Marcos, TX April 6th-10th. All attendees will receive an official FS/TTPOA draw string bag at sign in, while supplies last.

Stop by FirstSpear booth B22 and check out some of the most advanced land and maritime based plate carriers available to Law Enforcement agencies.

www.first-spear.com

ttpoa.org

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Hodge Defense Becomes Marisol Defense

Friday, April 1st, 2016

During a recent not-so-hostile takeover, Hodge Defense Systems became Marisol Defense. Already, logo items are starting to show up.  Oddly enough, everyone now wants a ‘Marisol’ as demand for Hodge guns wanes.  

More details soon.

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Posted in Black Rifle, Industry | 15 Comments »

Vuurwaapen Blog Launches GoFundMe Page To Raise Funds For Legal Defense

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

  
Not long after our story on the Fireclean suit against bloggers Andrew Tuohy and Everett Baker, Vuurwaapen blog launched a fundraising page for their legal defense on the GoFundMe platform.  The odd thing about this is that I’ve read the complaint and Fireclean isn’t suing for assault.  

  
Those interested in donating should visit www.gofundme.com/spwt9qss.

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Posted in Industry, Media | 56 Comments »

Fireclean LLC Sues Andrew Tuohy and Everett Baker for Defamation in Federal Court

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

Last September, social media was ablaze with multiple versions of a common theme, “Fireclean lubricant is Crisco”. The source of this buzz was an article on Vuurwapen blog by Andrew Tuohy, entitled “INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF FIRECLEAN AND CRISCO OILS” where he claimed to have had samples of Fireclean tested in order to determine if it was Crisco. At the time of the article, I was publicly critical of Tuohy’s methodology, relying on anonymous sources for lab tests. 

 

The content was so popular it even spawned a second round of articles by Tuohy as well as blogger Everett Baker who claims to have conducted testing of his own that verified Tuohy’s assertions. To double down, Tuohy wrote an article where he claimed that a demonstration video of Fireclean by tactical trainer Larry Vickers was fraudulent. Interestingly, Tuohy initially published this article as “WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S LIAR” but later changed it to “SEVERE PROBLEMS WITH VICKERS TACTICAL FIRECLEAN VIDEO”.

At the time, lots of people were quite entertained by the shenanigans. But not everyone was laughing. While most have moved on from the incident, Fireclean has not. In fact, last week they filed the first, in what we understand will be series of federal lawsuits, against Andrew Tuohy and Everett Baker. Suits against others are said to follow. According to this suit, Fireclean has suffered losses of $25,000 per month in sales since the round of articles. Seeing how they are in Northern Virginia, Fireclean has turned to Federal Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the original ‘Rocket Docket’, for relief. Andrew Tuohy hails from Arizona and Everett Baker is from New Hampshire, according to his blog but Fireclean makes their case early on in the suit for a Virginia venue.

At the heart of this issue is whether the bloggers’ posts are protected by the First Amendment or if their actions were intentionally misleading. Fireclean alleges multiple counts of defamation against Tuohy and a single count against Baker as well as violation of the Virginia Business Conspiracy Act and Common Law Conspiracy. They are demanding a jury trial and compensatory damages, presumed damages for defamation, punitive damages in addition to court costs and attorney’s fees.

You can read the entire, 209 page suit here: Fireclean LLC v Tuohy and Baker. It’s quite extensive and in the document you can see that Fireclean does exactly what Tuohy and Baker didn’t, which was use a well known laboratory to analyze the product. Rather than rely on anonymous testing or tests performed by a college student, Fireclean obtained the services of Petro-Lubricant Testing Laboratories. Their testing is part of the suit, in exhibit R.

Whichever way this suit goes, it is one to watch because it is not only an attempt to hold firearms bloggers responsible for their content, but that it could have far reaching effects for blogging writ large as well as other social media content.

In closing, I would like to disclose that Vickers Tactical, who is not a party to this suit, but is mentioned, is an advertiser on SSD. While, Larry Vickers has endorsed Fireclean in the past, Fireclean is in no way associated with SSD.

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Posted in Industry | 127 Comments »

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against L3 Communications for EOTech Sight Issues

Thursday, March 24th, 2016

It was just a matter of time before it happened. Apparently, getting a full refund for the purchase price of a EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight, without having to show a receipt wasn’t enough. Clay Pittman individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, have filed a class action lawsuit against L3 Communications and their EOTech business unit.

This class action hopes to represent anyone who purchased an EOTech HWS from 2007 until now because, the suit claims “for nearly a decade, Defendants sold holographic weapons sights to consumers throughout the United States that Defendants knew were materially defective.”

Pittman has not specified a monetary amount for the damages in his suit. Rather, he asks the court to:
-Issue an order finding in favor of Plaintiff and the Class on liability;
-Award damages, including compensatory, statutory, incidental, consequential, actual, and, as applicable, punitive and/or exemplary damages, and statutory penalties to Plaintiff and Class Members in an amount to be determined at trial;
-Grant injunctive and equitable relief to Plaintiff and Class Members including, but not limited to, disgorgement, restitution ;
-Award Plaintiff and Class Members their expenses and costs of the suit, pre-judgment interest, post-judgment interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees;

But, the most important petition to the court is to establish this case as the class action meaning any other cases would have to join this one.  

Plaintiff Pittman is a Texan and is represented by The Miller Lawfirm PC of Rochester, Michigan. This is a different firm than Douglas, Haun & Heidemann PC which we wrote about in the past and uses the website EOTechlawsuit.com.

The plaintiff goes into a great deal of detail in the complaint so it’s definitely worth a read.

EOTech

Click to view .pdf

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Posted in Industry, Optics | 52 Comments »

Magpul Industries Corporation Becomes July 8 Pole Day Sponsor at Kentucky Speedway

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2016

SPARTA, Ky. –Magpul Industries Corp., is expanding its partnership with Kentucky Speedway by becoming the official Pole Day sponsor for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series Friday, July 8.

”Magpul is thrilled to be expanding our third year of partnership at Kentucky Speedway with the Pole Day Sponsorship,” said Magpul director Troy McMullen. “It’s a perfect way to share our love for motorsports, freedom and individual responsibility with the race fans of Kentucky and the surrounding region.”

The Magpul partnership has given the brand numerous signage opportunities throughout the race weekends. In addition, Magpul is a proud sponsor of Kentucky Speedway’s annual Top Cop Challenge program where police officers from regional jurisdictions compete in NASCAR stock cars to identify the fastest officer. This year’s Top Cop Challenge will be held in September.

“The Magpul brand is a perfect fit for Kentucky Speedway, combining quality and innovation with an aggressive growth strategy,” said general manager of Kentucky Speedway, Mark Simendinger. “Magpul’s support of local law enforcement is much appreciated and serves as a model of how a sponsor can benefit the entire community.”

Kentucky Speedway’s 2016 season begins in July with the return of a NASCAR tripleheader weekend anchored by the July 9 Sprint Cup Series Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts. The Camping World Truck Series starts the weekend with the Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 Thursday, July 7 and the XFINITY Series Alsco 300 Friday, July 8.

The General Tire Super Weekend at Kentucky Speedway is highlighted by the return of the XFINITY Series on Saturday, September 24 for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 and the ARCA Racing Series’ 23rd track appearance Friday, September 23 for the Crosley 150.

Fans may purchase season tickets and camping, July weekend packages or individual race tickets now by calling (859) 578-2300, at www.kentuckyspeedway.com, or by visiting the Kentucky Speedway ticket office at 1 Speedway Drive, Sparta, Ky., 41086 just off Interstate 71 Exit 57 and Ky. Hwy. 35 North. Ticket office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Posted in Industry, Press Release | 1 Comment »

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