Guys,
I spotted the following on another web site. It was very recently published in the recent edition of the American Firearm Industry magazine. I thought it might interest some of you, especially the professional gunsmiths or gun business retailers.
Wayne
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GOVERNMENT CLASSIFIES GUN INDUSTRY AS A HOBBY… NOT A BUSINESS INDUSTRY
Sportsmen Cry for Help as the Gun Industry Continues to Wallow In Self-Satisfied Delusions
By Andrew Molchan
This is the story of Mr. Scott Drummond. When Scott was growing up, his father ran a hunting lodge in western Kentucky. Scott went on to school and has two degrees in engineering. He started doing work for some of America's major corporations. Because of this background, the corporate executives started using him as their hunting guide. Scott said, "Executives of major corporations don't want to live in a tent.They want to hunt their way. I decided to open a hunting lodge and cater to upper income hunters."
In 1997 he opened a 14,000 square foot luxury hunting lodge in Arkansas next to the Ouachita National Forest. He had taken out a loan with the local bank, staffed by people who were very co-operative, and things were going great. His annual billing was approaching a million dollars. The average customer stay was $5,000, and the lodge was 100% full during season. Then the ice storm hit during the 2000-2001 hunting season. That was a setback. Furthermore, in September 2001, right at the start of hunting season, 9/11 happened. All air traffic was grounded for a week, and it took two months to return to normal. The 2001-2002 hunting season was seriously effected. His local bank, with a pro-hunting staff, said, "No problem, the SPA and FEMA will pay for much of the loss. We'll give you a $600,000 line of credit that will hold you over until the government pays you."
Mr. Drummond stated, "So I went to all the government organizations and applied for help. To make a long and sad story short, they all said that hunting, and hunting lodges, and everyone employed in hunting, and charter fishing boats, and everything in this field is classified as a hobby, and not an industry. As a hobby, they could not pay anything because they don't pay for hobby interruptions, only business interruptions. So, in disbelief I checked out the NAICS codes, and in fact everything connected to hunting is lumped into a giant category with 105 other classifications. Hunting and everyone employed in hunting do not have an NAICS code and are if fact, officially, a hobby."
Mr. Drummond went on to say, "I personally know of 25 hunting lodges that went out of business because of 9/11, and not being able to get any government help. A few years latter when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, over a hundred sport fishing charter boats went bankrupt and out of business because they were classified as hobbies and could not get any government help. In my case, I had spent a good part of my bank's credit line. My bank was also shocked that hunting had no NAICS classification. I had to declare chapter 13 bankruptcy, and let all of my employees go. The lodge has been sitting empty for the last three years. On the other hand, there was a liquor store a few blocks away, where we purchased liquor for lodge, and our quests would order their liquor. Liquor stores have a NAICS classification and are considered a business. The liquor store received $300,000 from the government."
Mr. Drummond continued, "Hunting lodges, dog trainers, guides, sports fishing charter boats, and everything connected to hunting and fishing desperately need an NAICS classification as an industry. There will be other natural disasters and terrorist incidents, and we will not be able to collect anything from the government because officially we're not an industry. Naturally, I looked around for some help. I started by going to Doug Painter of the NSSF Basically, he and the NSSF staff just blew me off. I don't think there's one serious hunter in 20 who even knows the NSSF exists. I went to the NRA, and perhaps with some justification they said that industry classifications is an industry issue, and not for the NRA that's mainly an organization for individual firearms rights."
Mr. Drummond showed his aggravation by saying, "I went to Washington DC to see what I personally could do. There are a lot of big numbers about hunting and fishing thrown around. What I found was that the anti-hunting Congressmen consider the hunting industry numbers to be mainly fraudulent. They told me that there's no way to verify the numbers. It's a catch-22, without industry NAICS classifications you're not real. Banks use NAICS information for loans. It's used for disaster relief, employee benefits, tax breaks and tax credits, government grants to industries, all kinds of things. Without a classification as an industry that employees people and pays taxes, we're just a collection of individuals who kill little ducks and Bambi."
Our industry has to assume that the Clintons will be Presidents of the U.S. starting in January 2009.The Clintons have a score to settle with the firearms industry, and with hunters. We should assume that they are going to attack our industry at our weakest points. Our industry has to prepare now. Once the Clintons are in office, and they have the initiative, they will attack at the time and place of their choosing. It could be very bad. We have to assume that the Clintons learned a lot from their first attack against the industry, and won't do the same things in the same way. As a reminder, some of the lawsuits from the Clinton's first attack are still in court, and still bleeding our industry.
Mr. Drummond was blunt, "The manufacturers may be happy, but I can tell you that a lot of hunters are very unhappy. The hunters and shooters are the customers, and they have a feeling that a big storm is coming and the manufacturers are not doing anything. The manufacturers should stop talking to only those who are inside of their small closed circles, and start talking and listening to the people who are buying and using their products. I see things like the Congressional Sportsman Association, but it's only people who were already pro-firearms, and without pressure from the big boys in our industry they're not going to do anything. When I was talking to the NSSF they said that we can't ask for too much because that only draws attention to our industry. With the Clinton's controlling the justice Department, isn't it a little naive to believe they'll leave us alone? Personally, I'm a concerned hunter. I'm not in the hunting guide or lodge business anymore. I've gone back to being an engineer and I'm making a very good living as an engineer. However, I am very concerned about the sportsmen of America, and the people who are still in the hunting industry, and the future of hunting in America."
Mr. Drummond has organized a meeting of like minded people with the objective of getting NAICS classifications for hunting lodges, hunting guides, sport fishing charter boats and others. The meeting will open its doors at 8:00 AM, July 30th (a Monday) in Washington DC, in the Whittem Building, room 107A. The meeting is a "Discovery Meeting," by the Department of Agriculture (DOA), with Dr. Richard Reynolds from the DOA as chairman. It is by invitation only, so call Mr. Drummond. This will probably be the one and only chance for "Discovery" and possibly some NAICS classifications before the Clintons come into power. This could be a "do or die" meeting with the DOA. Mr. Drummond's email is ScottDrummond@mac.com, and his cell phone is 660-815-4936. If you cannot immediately get Mr. Drummond, you might try Mr. Ron Blesser of the Sugar Grove, Ohio, hunting club. His phone number is 740-746-8568.
