FAIRFAX, VA: “If you are a federally licensed dealer in firearms, you may recently have received a survey questionnaire from gun control supporter Dr. Garen Wintemute, of the University of California, Davis,” a June 29 National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action alert warns.
“The survey asks dealers questions about their business, their reasons for being in the business, their support for gun control, and their customers,” it explains.
NRA is recommending against dealers responding to the survey because “Over the years, [Wintemute] has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from anti-gun organizations to conduct ‘studies’ designed to promote gun control. Several of these so-called ‘studies’ have tried to blame legal firearms dealers for the illegal use of guns, and proposed further restrictions on dealers' ability to conduct business.”
“[M]any of the questions in the survey are written so that Dr. Wintemute will be able to claim that at least some dealers support one or another form of gun control, or that they report the occurrence of situations that, Dr. Wintemute will likely claim, prove the need for restrictions on dealers and their customers,” NRA warns.
“[P]articipating in the survey in any way would give Dr. Wintemute credibility in the eyes of the anti-gun organizations that fund his efforts, which would only increase his chance of obtaining more money for more anti-gun research,” they add.
Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman has reported on Wintemute studies being used to push an anti-gun agenda, as has St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner Kurt Hofmann in his exposé. And The War on Guns blog documented how Wintemute would go sneaking around gun shows with a cell phone camera/voice mail setup—with the stated intention of training others to follow suit, and in spite of the fact that no (unauthorized) cameras is a common rule at most gun shows to protect attendees, dealers and promoters.
UPDATE: I am advised NSSF/Soldier of Fortune Magazine weighed in on this. Read the SOF article here.
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