. Becoming an employee is a trap, theyre just looking to screw you. Admittedly, Im kind of surprised that somebodys buying 100 silencers a month. In early 2016, Donald Trump unexpectedly decapitated the Republican Party, and GOP power brokers were forced to choose sides. 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. Cerberus set out to create it. Its not as hard as it sounds, Reichert told me. At court, it came out that the only person on Remingtons side who could sign the employment agreements and make them valid never did. Net Worth in 2021. Ruger and Smith & Wesson, Freedom Groups publicly traded competitors, saw their stock prices surge. Dont mean that as a demeaning response, just that I think youre underestimating the issues that can arise when keeping in compliance. ADVANCED ARMAMENT 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. In fact, a free market cannot exist in the absence of equitable rule of law. Feinberg actually did live in New York, but he didnt waver either. Investors fled Cerberus. Shall not be infringed seems pretty straight forward from a pro-2a standpoint. This will cost money. The big companies who are buying you have scads of lawyers on their staff. It sparked a war of words that quickly got personal. So Kevin could have admitted they were his. Theyre great for urban encroachment, said the companys founder, Kevin Brittingham. Now. Under Review. In 2015, Walmart announced it would no longer carry assault rifles. It was also the first time since 2010 that the average net worth of a billionaire dropped - it is now $3.6. Their collective expertise will further enhance the company's existing state-of-the-art special weapons development . In the Name of the Father - Forbes Salary in 2021. I disagree with your assertion that bullshit free marketers want no laws. Via iRealHousewives. The smaller the niche a small company operates in (in this case, silencers), the more reason to remain small and independent. In practice they often buy people out of these even when its an early ejection for egregious behavior. 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 a linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this. Freedom Groups customers were buying, often at a premium, field-tested military gear. Investment managers werent likely to view the company favorably until the companys product-quality concerns were addressed. Guys screwing over each other for peanuts. Some pretty flagrant violations of contract there Kinda puts me off of getting anything from Remington or any FGI owned company for that matter. Marketed to civilians as the ultimate combat weapons system, many of Bushmasters gun builds were modeled after the weapons used by Americas Special Forces. 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. The move offered nearly $40 million in state tax incentives, but Freedom Group still struggled. Ive seen countless contracts that are all performance based, requiring quotas. Those who advocate for markets generally want fewer, but strongly enforced laws. I also thought through various replacement options . As far as maintaining a list of serial #s, descriptions, and ownership there shouldnt be any difference. I hope Remington and Marlin excuse themselves from the toxic environment of FGI, and Im glad that Kevin is free. As 2012 came to a close, Cerberuss gun play was nearly seven years old ripe enough for an exit. Just read your analysis and also read the decision. Profits or not, other private-equity firms, having witnessed an unprecedented revolt from investors, wont touch it. For Americas wage laborers, a 32-hour workweek is less of a beautiful dream than an oppressive reality. For the sake of argument (and the edification of someone who has neither sold computers nor wrangled an FFL), whats the difference?. 2024 Polls Show DeSantis Cant Easily Knock Out Trump. Reichert had earned the Bronze Star for valor that day; two months later, he had a hole ripped in his cheek by an IED. To make the deal work, Remington would purchase AACs gear lock, stock, and barrel and transfer it to a new Remington-owned entity. Check out the CMP where guys have HUNDREDS of PERSONAL M1s etc and they know every SN, part and the freaking throat erosion number. 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. 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? Disabling a security camera is NOT shady compared to a major corporation trying to cheat you out of $10,000,000!!!! The sale landed Juan and Robert on The Forbes 400 as a family entry with a combined net worth of about half a billion dollars. I think we are at the juncture to discuss whether we want to make a leadership change for the long term at AAC if we believe that KB is not up to the task. Remingtonand in particular Shaublegot caught, Schauble because he got greedy and wanted to own AAC, notwithstanding the deal he had cut with kevin. Kevin wanted silencers to be mainstream, and getting Remington to start marketing silencers would be a major step forward. I think it says that Jason wanted AAC to be a separate P&L and the President of Remington wanted it to be another plant. Wow, lot of work went into this one. I own some. 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). . Which is just like saying that cheating is ok as long as you dont get caught. Especially if they were MY guns. 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. On November 16th 2011, Jason Schauble was plotting Kevins final demise. Kevin never signed the new agreement, and Freedom Group should have known better than to consider the word flounder as Kevins official signature on an important document. Anthony DEsposito has a bill to keep Santos, a fellow Republican, from profiting off his lies. A comprehensive new government study concludes that the illness probably wasnt caused by foreign adversaries. . There, the acquiring company often has a retention payment for key players to keep them around through the integration. [1/20/2014 10:38 AM: This post was updated thanks to an interview with Kevin Brittingham. Of course, it had wanted to do that all along. Its all about not looking soft on crime. Really. Do I support AAC or not give my $ to Remington. Very much not. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2014/01/17/more-amusing-antilibertarian-humor-n1780470/page/full. I havent shot a gun in 30 years, but Ive bumped up against them for years in family/school settings. Freedom also benefited from broad growth in the American gun market. . As part of the Cerberus sale, the original Bushmaster factory would remain open for at least five years. I probably would have been better off going to a state school, he said. Theyre akin to blood diamonds. My what a tangled web we weave. Also, thismove will get Bob on board and de-risk this business. Florida Republican Wants to Cancel Democrats Over Slavery. Terms of Service apply. 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. That same year, Remingtons annual sales fell almost 35 percent from its post-Newtown peak, even as Remingtons public competitors outperformed. As such, their word is worthless. Later that month the compliance officer finally arrived, and noticed that some of the guns from the shoot were still present. Q Sugar Weasel - A Q&A with Kevin Brittingham - AR Build Junkie Its also interesting how so much common sense gun (health care, education, environmental, media & communications, food, drug & finance) legislation creates arcane processes that play out later, and are subject to working the ref. So, lobbyist and activists advocate to throw gun (& etc.) Got a quote from Remingtons web site or one of their executives? So, too, did every other gun-industry executive I spoke with. 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. 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. During the shoot a number of guns were used which Freedom Group claims were Kevins personal firearms, but Kevin denies this claim. This meant transferring all existing equipment to Remingtons possession, along with all of their silencers and R&D guns. A year later, Cerberus bought Bushmaster for $76 million from Richard Dyke, the companys founder. In reality, there had never been any cause for termination. Pending. During the training, Feinberg was struck by the inferior quality of the camps range and facilities. Hope he will go on to do great things in the silencer arena. OK, Im plowing through the decision. Vish Burra, the congressmans director of operations, met me on Staten Island to explain the plan to make Santos president? If you've known Brittingham for any length of time, these names will come as no surprise. 9 comments. The second-largest retail pharmacy chain wont buck Republican attorneys general. 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. Im just guessing here, but it sounds like FG was looking for a reason to fire KB and used an alleged improper transfer/possession of a maxim suppressor to justify termination. He alienated many of Freedoms top managers and accelerated a program of manufacturing consolidation that centralized production in Remingtons main facility in Ilion, New York. A Whistleblowers Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire. TAPCO I guess we ll have to agree to disagree LOL. 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. . Precisely this. It is only as good or benevolent as the people in it. They didnt get the three hints, unequivocal in the balance sheet: You dont have a going business, or youd be making money & getting things done. George Santoss Nasty Twitter Battle With Fellow New York Republicans. Jason wanted AAC to be treated like another plant, like Remington or Marlin or Bushmaster, with Remington HQ as the head of operations. He had used these as tools to test new silencer designs, and since he owned the company he never saw the need to officially transfer the guns to AAC or buy replacements. Internally, business conditions are improving, as Marcotulis cost-cutting fixes have returned the company to profitability. 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. Each month, he paid an equal share of Bushmasters gross profits to every employee, from the CEO to the guy who cleaned the toilets. In 2008, it introduced its new Remington-branded assault rifle, the R-15. You either have two or you have 20. 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. The issue is that what constitutes infringement has been warped and watered down for decades. The final court decision has been issued in the case of Kevin Brittinghams lawsuit against Freedom Group and Remington over his sudden firing a couple years back, and its a way better read than I expected. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. But if I lived in New York City in a building with a hundred people, and I saw a guy with an assault weapon in his hand in the hallway, I think Id go back in my apartment.. 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 havent read through the full decision (though I will), but this was an Interesting read. 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. 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. Wed get after-action reports from the front lines, saying these tactics saved us, or this medical training saved us, with details, Reichert said. Despite these connections, Feinberg regarded himself as a regular guy. 17.5k Followers, 1,349 Following, 3,347 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Kevin Brittingham (@kevinbrittingham) This demographic was key to Cerberuss success. What youd have instead are forced monopolies and whatnot. 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. The target was Bushmaster, one of the leading makers of black guns: highly configurable assault rifles patterned after the military-issue AR-15. Wherever Kevin ends up, I will buy as many of his products as I can afford. If they want you to remain on, work for a set dollar amount per month or year. 2 years later, hes fired from his own company, and she cant understand how. All I was saying is, with just them doing it, its understandable their compliance was a mess. Reminds me of a conversation I had with a young man who is a sophomore at Penn, was basically convinced of the proposition that unless it is illegal, it is fair game. In an email recorded in the final verdict, Jason Schauble outlines his plan. This is a whole boatload of fail and a passel of never mind. But his victims were able to bring a civil lawsuit against Bushmaster, arguing that the company failed to ensure the weapon wouldnt end up in the hands of criminals. Manufacturing was moved to Ilion, and Bushmaster customers soon noticed a drop in product quality. 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 president surprised and angered some Democrats by declining to veto a GOP effort to block a D.C. bill. Rather than selling out to the Freedomless Group he should have hired a couple people to straighten the mess out. BAD MOVE. Feinberg wanted over a billion dollars, but he couldnt find a taker at that price. I cant rattle off specific cases and dates without some research. Because the rim of the cartridge is identical, the same bolt and carrier can be used for both cartridges. 4. Plays Incompetent Willy Wonka at CPAC. According to his LinkedIn, Eduardo is the founder and CEO of a social media app that connects and empowers Latino communities worldwide.However, Kary is providing a lot to the family financially now that she is apart of RHOD and owns her own jewelry line.Thanks to her two incomes, Kary now has an estimated net worth of $1.5 . DG, as a lawyer who represented both small and huge companies in mergers and acquisitions, all I can say is: you nailed it. Students are such easy targets. The tax stamp was equivalent to about $2,000 in todays money, easily pricing the average citizen out of such purchases. Ive worked a couple times in the follow-on to people selling their business and staying on. . It is important to note that neither the compliance officer nor any of the AAC staff assisting with the segregation process knew about the terms of the sale, specifically which guns of Kevins became the property of the new AAC. Privacy Policy and 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. There is no way in hell Remingtons culture could vocally support classically liberal economics and a strong rule of law. Back in October, a pre SHOT Show photo shoot took place at AACs HQ. 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. It is the same company. Ten years later, he was running his own firm. In the comments, shed posed the question: Who is my dad.???????. Feinberg was good at that, Reichert said. You should make the effort to get at least one hot-shot lawyer on your side. My point: Free market proponents expect contracts to be enforced quickly and effectively. They feel free to deride various systems in favor of the ideological flavor of the day, even as they enjoy the benefits of a society that works within a set of rules for the mutual good. 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. I did as much with 15mins of free online tutorials and a couple hours of company time while working in a corporate mailroom years ago. It runs through Iowa following the course set by Huckabee, Santorum, and Cruz. Related: 'Real Housewives of Dallas': Did Bravo Fire Former Housewife, LeeAnne Locken? ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Judge's Ruling Reveals the Truth About Kevin Brittingham and Freedom I expect many of you to do the same. 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. The conclusion of the decision is pretty awesome to read, and I recommend you do it in full. In Tennessee, Even Abortion to Save a Womans Life May Be Illegal. Um, ever heard of Microsoft Windows? All this intrigue sounds like a bunch of bitchy college girls. 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. If you guys aren't aware, Kevin Brittingham from Q has a podcast Think about it. One example is the migration of the Activision guys through Microsoft, then into Smith and Tinker (which eventually didnt work, exactly.). 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. Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Right About Novak Djokovic. He then discarded this gun and prepared for a tactical assault, arming himself with two pistols, a shotgun, and her Bushmaster assault rifle, along with ten 30-round magazines. The next day he was fired, supposedly for still having personal firearms on the premises. Brittinghams mistake, along with cutting a deal with jerks, is orchestrating a sale when he wanted a cash infusion & channel resale relationship. Sales of the R-15 boomed. Early Life And Career Of Eric Brittingham Eric was born on 8th May 1960 in Maryland. Kevin thought that he was canned, but Remington offered him an option. The opposite of rule of law is anarchy. The two were both pseudo-populist billionaires from New York, but otherwise dissimilar. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. 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. Period. [6][7] The suppressor eliminates 98 percent of muzzle flash, 60 percent of recoil, and reduces sound by 32 decibels. 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. They dont know what theyre talking about, and the only thing theyre interested in is making money for themselves. The Mini-Fix in .300 Blackout will be the next. However, Kevin was a gun guy. It was a moot point, according to the judges decision, because Kevin was present during that photo shoot. Jeff Cooper and others have made strong arguments for the idea that aimed semiautomatic fire is more dangerous and desirable than burst or full auto save very limited situations like suppressing fire. Remington definitely looks worse than he does though. Look, I grew up in rural America, he said. I think you [Scott Blackstone, Freedom Group] and I should seriously consider a Plan B for this business. PLCAA granted gunmakers broad immunity from lawsuits from victims of gun violence. But the social fallout had cost it dearly, affecting its ongoing access to capital in a way it hadnt foreseen. This story reads like everybody hearing what they wanted to hear. We will check for: DUIs Traffic Tickets Misdemeanors The owner was having some cash flow issues, so he sold controlling interest to larger company. . The Key Moments From Alex Murdaughs Testimony and Murder Trial. Several things jump out at me: 1. Keeping yourself legal, when your entire revenue relies off it should be top priority, instead of relying on another company to do hopefully do it. The gun cultures objection to conglomeration was reminiscent of objections Id once heard from conscious consumers when Unilever had purchased Ben & Jerrys. They werent in it for the right reasons. When I suggested to him that Cerberus just wanted profits, he responded with indignation. 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. Youre betting that you are at least as good at working the ref as the other guy, and willing to do so. 1. There's Robby Johnson as overall VP, Ethan Lessard to VP of Engineering . Reichert obliged, dragging his pupil into the swamps near the Camp LeJeune base. I observed them screw up a lot of companies and put a lot of people out of work, he told me. 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. free markets cannot operate without the law of contract. Throughout the years, Cerberus has owned controlling stakes in dozens of businesses. Dont look at it as who gets your money. View the profiles of people named Kevin Brittingham. 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. So one weekend in late 2005, he left behind the Manhattan offices of Cerberus Capital, the private-equity firm he'd founded, and his multistory Upper East Side residence, which he was in the. They saw through the Ponzi scheme. Before being acquired by Cerberus, Bushmasters bare-bones product brochure had all the glamour of a catalogue of plumbing fixtures. The 4-Day Week Is for White-collar Workers. As for Remington, the last time I had energy to look at its books it was bleeding like a stuck pig. but the lack of evidence to support Freedom Groups assertion that the guns were Kevins makes it a moot point.. I apologize, but Im going off on a tangent here. Facebook gives people the. On the stand, Remingtons own ATF expert testified that the practice was indeed illegal. Sure there are downsides to unions (some more than others); but my vacation, pension, retirement, health, etc accounts are all in my name and cannot be touched or withheld by anyone, and are not dependent on the further health and good management of any employer or even the union (with the exception of my pension account, which is only part of my retirement and one which I am not going to rely on having in 30 years). (You can probably guess how I feel about this assumption.) At Blackwater, his instructor was Steve Reichert, a Marine Corps infantryman and decorated war hero who was one of the best marksmen on Earth. Remington and Freedom Group manage products for the masses.completely out of line fundamentally with AACs products. They didnt care about any of that.. Needless to say, if they try pulling that crap when she leaves Im not allowing them to get away with it. 2 years later, hes fired from his own company, and she cant understand how. This has led to far wider adoption than the .300 Whisper, which is proprietary to SSK. We'll give him,. Cerberus held majority equity stakes in Chrysler and in General Motors financing division and had brought in Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, to run Chrysler. So it seems as if there was a lot of confusion and scheming around this issue. Theres nothing intrinsically technically difficult about SBRs, suppressors, etc. 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. Kevin Brittingham founded Advanced Armament Corp, which became one of the biggest silencer manufacturers in the world. After the sale, things went south quickly. 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. . Within weeks, Reichert had a business plan and had assembled a team of military trainers, including a number of special-forces veterans. Simple answer: its not his company anymore, and it wasnt the day he sold ownership and went from employer to employee. The latter excels at the turnaround, acquiring struggling businesses, implementing management fixes, cutting overhead, and flipping them for a profit. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. A catalyst was the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, pushed by NRA lobbyists and passed by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2005. They were driving awfully fast down the road. After a year on the board, he quit. 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. 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. 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.