What do these companies have in common other than being flagship companies in the firearms world? The donate to, and support far leftist groups that have connections to very anti-gun politicians and groups.

All of these companies either sponsor, donate to, or work with a group called Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a supposed "hunting" group out of Missoula, MT. But, this group is anything but for hunting, or your rights. This group
was started and is run by a guy who is the son of a Democrat insider, worked on campaigns for gun grabbers, and has started dark money PACs to get gun grabbers elected. The head of the board, Kimber's head of sales, used to run
a group that did nothing but donate to gun grabbers. Under his leadership they highlighted politicians who mocked gun owners and concealed carriers on video, and ran Bloomberg rallies. This man has literally set up fundraisers for local
politicians that have went against state preemption, and has pro-bono legal support from Bloomberg to fight out state preemption. This group hires employees who have never hunted, and have wrote about not supporting predator hunts. They
have also have members who they work with that have sued states to get hunting seasons closed, and illegally obtain hunters information and dox them, of course they only do this to those on the right.

Before I go more in depth with these accusations, Kimber and Savage both sponsor this group to the point of giving away their products for lifetime memberships. And the rest, including more, donate to this group.

Let me preference this by saying I used to be a member of this group. Volunteered at their events. Been in former employee homes. And some of which I will still call friends. But, this needs to get out there, and I will stick with verifiable sources, rather than personal anecdotes that go much further into their depredation.

Let's start with Land Tawney.

Land is the guy who started Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and is their current President/CEO. Land is the Son of late Phil Tawney, once Executive Director of the Montana Democrat party. Land's accomplishments include being the guy in charge of Sportsman
for Obama, and starting a PAC called Montana Hunters and Anglers Action. The later a dark money PAC that funneled millions of anti-gun dollars to Montana, and Land's group spent the most money in Montana's history in support of Democrat gun grabbers.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/44.9/secretly-funded-montana-sportsmen-dive-into-political-fray
https://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/sportsmen-s-group-has-ties-to-fringe-environmentalists/article_b78d8d73-32e0-59b5-b2c7-163649f03906.html
https://www.activistfacts.com/person/land-tawney/

The next is Ryan Busse.

Ryan is Kimber's Head of Sales in Kalispell, MT. When Ryan is not being the chair of the board of directors of BCHA, Ryan likes to only confront right leaning people, travelling hundreds of miles to do so. Prior to being the chair at BCHA, Ryan was high up or ran a group called Montana Conservation Voters. MTVoters is a far left group that only supports Democrats, most F rated, and has actively worked against hunting interests. Ryan was Vice-Chair in 2013 when their group published the Montana Legislature scorecard. In this scorecard, they specifically praised gun grabbers for doing gun grabbing things, and open communists.

In 2013 they wrote: " The delegation provided leadership (Rep. McCafferty and Sen. Sesso) and innovation. For example, freshman Rep. Amanda Curtis (D–Butte) kept Montanans informed with innovation and honesty, posting regular video blogs describing her daily life in the Legislature. Her regular communication with her constituents and the broader public provided valuable and frank insight into legislative life."

Amanda Curtis is well known for speaking at a Mayros Against Guns rally, and her video log where she openly mocks people that own guns, and carry them. Her comments were specifically mocking a woman who testified that she felt safer carrying a gun.
She wants to punch Republicans, and is an open anarchist socialist. She is also well known in the area in that she bullies local business to put up no gun signs, and even to forbid people from wearing camo during hunting season.

https://youtu.be/X98qmvI6Ntc
https://missoulian.com/news/local/u-s-senate-hopeful-curtis-says-gun-comments-not-a/article_cab310ca-2285-11e4-920c-0019bb2963f4.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/08/19/in-new-montana-nominee-democrats-ditch-red-state-pragmatism-for-a-gun-control-supporting-vlogger/?utm_term=.04dbf9940d11
https://mtstandard.com/news/local/curtis-appeared-at-gun-background-check-rally/article_6deff11c-2278-11e4-b1bf-001a4bcf887a.html

Not only is that who Busse supports, but under his direction, this group supported and ran fundraisers for local politicians who tried to go over state preemption, and illegally got support from out of state lawyers from Mayors Against Guns. Mind you, this politician has done nothing in the sphere of environmental conservation, and his city was being sued by the federal government for violating environmental laws at the time.

https://mtvoters.org/newsroom/conservation-candidates-sweep-in-municipal-elections-across-montana/
https://mtvoters.org/endorsements/citymunicipal/
https://www.missoulaevents.net/09/12/2013/fundraiser-for-bryan-von-lossberg-for-city-council/
https://everytown.org/press/everytown-and-montana-moms-applaud-missoula-city-council-for-introducing-ordinance-to-require-life-saving-criminal-background-checks-on-all-gun-sales/
https://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-gun-background-check-sponsors-introduce-amendments-to-proposal/article_90a64e03-5b34-5d97-928e-082a6e9a7b33.html
https://mtstandard.com/news/local/missoula-considers-background-checks-for-all-gun-sales/article_fbf77449-a728-5ed8-bd8a-e172ec9f16af.html
https://mtstandard.com/news/local/missoula-gun-background-check-sponsors-introduce-amendments-to-proposal/article_510b9bca-8ca2-56df-b49e-d6b68d0fa2a2.html
http://newstalkkgvo.com/complaint-filed-against-new-york-city-attorney-for-allegedly-illegally-advising-missoula-city-council-on-gun-registration-ordinance/
https://www.missoulacurrent.com/government/2018/04/missoula-background-checks/

One last one. BCHA works a lot with their members. One of these members they work with is a woman named Kathryn QannaYahu.

Kathryn is a far left feminist activist. She once wrote a book about smashing the patriarchy. She only recently got her hunting license to gain clout in the environmental sphere when working with criminal activists didn't work out. Kathryn likes to dig up
dirt on right wing politicians. Her friends in our Fish and Wildlife department, against our constitutional privacy amendments, give her access to any hunters record she wants. They have illegally also tipped her off to violations of hunting laws by Republicans
before they even know. She is against farming and ranching, her latest tweet 6 hours ago was bitching about how ranchers get cheap grazing fees. In 2015, she sued Montana to stop elk season, as it was unfair to allow private landowners to hunt on their own land.
In that same year, she worked with BCHA to oppose a bill that would force the state to use funds paid for by hunters, to actually use them for hunting purposes. This bill would hire an auditor that would make sure that funds being taken from hunters, would
not restrict land to them. Kathryn has said in her own words that she would ban hunting from public lands to protect animals. I guess that's why she's a volunteer and lists the Buffalo Field Campaign right beside BCHA on her website. This group she volunteers
for and pushes, harass hunters, stalk them, and have released disease infected and quarantined animals into Yellowstone Park.

https://www.emwh.org/
https://twitter.com/qannayahu
https://historicalbaggage.blogspot.com/

These people have only supported left wing gun grabbers. At times literally want to shut down public lands, even if it is to hunt. This group takes hunters money, and lobbies for it to get spent on shutting down land to hunters. In one case, they literally lobbied to keep land closed to hunters for fucking bird watchers, land that our hunting licenses paid for. Not only is this group just masquerading as a hunting group, they are actively working against hunters, and gun owners.  And major gun companies support, and even employ them.

Note that I have specifically left out the name of a site sponsor, as I'll probably get banned. I do still support this company, in that I still buy from them. But, they need to know who they are supporting is not against their, or our interests. I am also not calling to boycott these companies, but would rather people let them know what their money is going towards. Writing a company is not hard, as last year with just notifying one 2A friendly company, they have stopped their support because they didn't know any of this. Even people here on ARFCOM have been members of this group, and had no idea who they what they really were until they were informed.

In before the lock and ban

Go on...

I just renewed my membership the other day too. I wonder if I'll get a refund.

Infiltration and subversion are the largest and most profitable efforts of the Communists, and have been for many decades.

The Soviets used to express amazement over the fact that they were allowed to do what they did in our country.

I don't know why anyone would be surprised when their ideological descendants operate the way they were taught.

Yes, and join date, post count, something, something...

Oh boy

Definitely tagged.

Yes!
In.

in again.

Boycotts and social media pressure works both ways.  Go get ‘em!

In other news ... the world is still spinning..

My cousin says this woman is pure evil.

Nothing exciting here to me.  I've long divorced the "hunting lobby" from the Pro-2nd movement in my mind.

That one is going to sting. Good call out though.
Any company caught as a sponsor on this site hedging their bets to stay afloat and donating to gun grabbers needs to be called out.

This person is even more nutty in person. I have personally seen her when she went up to a local business owner and berated them for allowing a person with an empty holster on his hip, during hunting season, in their business. I do feel relief in that she retired from politics last election, because she felt like she lost against us "morons."

Why is pointing out gun companies donating to antigun politicians a ban worthy offense?

Is this why all the front sights fell off?

Do these companies know what this group really is?   By the name it would be easy trick the companies.

I went to one BHA pint night, a few months ago, and then did some checking up on the group.

I came to similar conclusions.

No. They really come off as being a "hunting conservation group", and gun companies want to look like they're supporting something good, so they do. They had a long time sponsor who extremely supports the 2nd Amendment. I contacted the company, and the owner got on the phone, we talked, he was blown away by the history of the group, and took his support away. I've tried to let a few other companies know, but no customer service cared, or would escalate the call.

This group is really snake in the grass. Last summer I talked to an LGS owner who had a BCHA support sticker on his window. We talked and he had no clue. He just thought they were the hunting lobby group here in Montana.

It's amazing that right here where BCHA is headquartered, I've actually seen someone wear a Molan Labe hat, and a BCHA shirt.

My eyes are bleeding.

Here here!

I was at their rendezvous a few years ago, right after volunteering, I asked one of their employees why they supported a bill that would close off road access into a national forest, effectively leaving 20k acres extremely inaccessible to local hunters that don't have thousands of dollars to hire a packer. They straight up told me "we are mainly a conservation group, not being able to hunt anywhere you want is a good thing." It was then where I said screw this, and started looking into them.

What the hell, I guess I’m in on 1

Am I  missing something? Why are people saying IBTL and Ban?

Don't forget our President. He donated millions of dollars to democrats over the years. Even our buddy Chucky schumer.  
If people can see around that, I am fairly sure people will see around whatever stuff is in the OP.

Burn it down, I suppose.

"Never judge a book by its cover", or an org by its title.

I will stop them!

How many more of these nothingburger "exposes" are we going to have?

For fuck's sake they're only anti-gun if they KNOW they're donating to anti-gun PACs or politicians, not if they were tricked into it, or were donating for other reasons, or if it wasn't the company's owners doing the donating.

Shhhhh...der listen'in

Yes by all means let's continue to be obtuse.

Tagged.....

Outstanding job of digging OP.

There ARE company's within the 2A sphere, that have long held positions on the 2A, that are not in line with OUR 2A position.
Many of them would be making sewing machines, or twitterflut valves if it was as lucrative, and they simply consider the market as any other.

It's crazy, but some of the most popular FUDD Corp's out there, are also the WORST enemies of the 2A.

The can of worms getting opened, by you, and the others, has to be done.
Folks just need to remember that until 10-15 years ago, draconian control was accepted as the norm, and as long as hunters and Gun games weenies were happy, nobody made a stink, and it was common to grease the wheels with $$$ to remain operating, in enemy held states and districts, and still is.

Some here, might need a seat belt and a barf bag, as this ride is fittin' ta get bumpy.

rotten to the core.  They should go into politics

In! I have a feeling this is more pervasive than we know.

Excellent post OP

Shine the light on the subversive rats

Good, fuck these people. Purge anyone who doesn't truly support our cause from their ranks and we'll see how fast shit that used to be dreamed of as impossible, legislatively, gets done.

We need true believers, not milquetoast fence sitters and Machiavellian brown-nosers after the next big contract. Fuck your contracts, you know who keeps you in business when you lose out to XYZ?

Us.

So start greasing our wheels you duplicitous fucks.

See how the left has pushed the country so fucking far in just, what, 10 years? They do it by hitting companies in the wallet, because that's what these greedy bastards understand. They don't give a fuck about our rights or our way of life, but you raise a stink and throw some shit at their sales, then they perk up because now they have to explain to the board why a $2500 donation to a Dem congress critter swamp-thing, cost them 10% in quarterly sales. The awkwardness of having to explain that to an audience in a meeting means more to them than our way of life, think about that.

I personally have lived in MT for over 20 years, for a period of time, I was involved with many of these groups because I did presentations about wildlife safety at many of the same functions as these groups.

Now whether you choose to believe the OP or not, is up to you, but if you are located in MT and you are supporting these politicians and these groups, you are doing so at your own risk, because what he has posted is in fact true.

Many consider us dumb hicks in MT, with a low population number, but from these types of groups we are in fact under fire just as the rest of the states in this country are, they are smart, they name their groups with names that would lead you to believe they are pro gun or pro hunting and do everything they can behind the scenes to circumvent the majority of us that have real pro agendas.

People need to investigate the companies they purchase from and invest with, because now a days, the wrapper may not match the contents.

Lets not pretend we know, because often times we have no idea of who we spend our dollars with.

Dam Son

Wow

Hope to god that companies like Kac, HK, Colt, and a few others never follow suit

It’s almost as if gun companies sell more guns & ammo when the right balance of leftists are in power and start threatening to ban things.

Savage and Federal...both Vista owned.  Seems you’ve left out a bunch of associated brands.

I do want to say that I have contacted, or at least tried to contact all of them, because frankly, I don't think they know what they are actually supporting. In this case, I don't think a lot of people do, especially here in MT. A lot of hunters, and even 2A supporters are members because they are sexy and cool to support, a hip group that is all about hunters! But they have no clue other than that, and having a beer at their pint nights, Rendezvous, slip and slip, and just talking about hunting. Steve Rinella or Ryan Callighan coming to an event is oohhh and awwwwed like some second coming of christ.

I only mentioned Savage and Federal as they are the only 2 brands under the umbrella that I know that directly support this group in name.