Billionaires should buy Bushmaster and shut it down or something
The company’s existing stockpile of guns — it has some $200 million in inventory according to the latest quarterly report — can be melted down and turned into plowshares, or at least tasteful monuments to the horrors of gun violence, and installed in places such as Newtown, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; Blacksburg, Virginia; Tucson, Arizona; Binghamton, New York; and Fort Hood, Texas…
One problem for the moguls might well be that none of the purchase price could be financed. Not even a sympathetic bank, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., which shies away from financing “sin” companies, would be likely to provide a loan on a company that would be immediately closed down. The $800 million would have to come from their own deep pockets, and from like-minded individuals who share their vision. (I would happily contribute a few shekels to the syndication effort.)
Then there’s the problem of the 3,000 or so people Freedom Group employs. It does seem unfair for them to lose their jobs just because they help to make guns that kill people and animals. (Then again, maybe not.) Perhaps the moguls could also pony up for the cost of retraining these workers for other professions and for the cost of outplacement services.
Blowback
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Yeah, that’ll work. Until the next Venture capital firm or entrepreneur starts a new company or the gazillion other existing companies increase production to fill the need…
Mohonri on December 31, 2012 at 1:53 PM
What a POS this guy is.
Charlemagne on December 31, 2012 at 1:53 PM
Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.“It does seem unfair for them to lose their jobs just because they help to make guns that kill people and animals. (Then again, maybe not.)”
rogerb on December 31, 2012 at 1:53 PM
I prefer S&W’s M&P but I may get me a Bushmaster now because libs hate them so much.
jawkneemusic on December 31, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Is he talking about the same kind of sympathetic billionaires like Warren Buffet….whose holdings STILL owe the government a billion in unpaid taxes?
michaelo on December 31, 2012 at 2:02 PM
Go for it, idiots. It’s not like a new company wouldn’t spring up in it’s place.
Don’t expect to get it for a song, or, for that matter, for what’s it’s worth, since right now it is worth much more than it’s book value.
Dusty on December 31, 2012 at 2:02 PM
What a moron. Another Lib who doesn’t know a thing about weapons or supply and demand for that matter. These guys would probably poop themselves if they were shown the difference between a 5.56mm round and say a 7.62mm or 30-06 let alone shown what a 12 ga at close range does to a body.
major dad on December 31, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Bloomberg.com article. Superb.
CorporatePiggy on December 31, 2012 at 2:04 PM
It just occurred to me that this yo-yo wants something bought with other people’s money. Figures.
Not only that, the people he wants to buy it for him, and do what he wants them to do with it, are people who didn’t get to where they are by doing stupid things like this.
This is Epic Fail, all the way around.
Dusty on December 31, 2012 at 2:08 PM
That’s the attitude of who we are dealing with, ladies and gentlemen.
Fixed it.
JohnTant on December 31, 2012 at 2:08 PM
I have a feeling that most billionaires, like most thinking Americans with resources, are buying up as many weapons as they can get their hands on – because they know that obama is coming after them.
Pork-Chop on December 31, 2012 at 2:08 PM
I’m sure the fine folks at Bushmaster care not what the hell you do with the company after you buy it you “good intentioned” libs.
Because we all know that your “good intentions” have never, EVER had any adverse effect.
If I were the shareholders of Bushmaster, I would be welcoming this buyout – and starting plans to finance their next successful arms manufacturing business with all that fine start-up capital they just acquired.
Defenestratus on December 31, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Weren’t liberals just burning JPMC in effigy over company losses earlier this year? Does buying a gun company in order to dissolve it sound like a sound investment? Didn’t they accuse Romney of this which caused unemployed spouses to die?
The Count on December 31, 2012 at 2:13 PM
How about this instead. We rip some metal out of mommy Gaia and mold hundreds of millions of skulls and create pyramid monuments to remind people of the hundreds of millions butchered by the tyrants of the left over the last century. If we have enough metal left over we can even make fifty million or so more tiny skulls and place those monuments outside of abortion clinics.
Dr. Frank Enstine on December 31, 2012 at 2:17 PM
All Bushmaster has to do is rename their rifles “Late term abortion tool” and libs will love them.
The Notorious G.O.P on December 31, 2012 at 2:21 PM
Liberals are miserable people. Living life constantly angry they can’t control their neighbors behavior.
jawkneemusic on December 31, 2012 at 2:22 PM
Yes, because billionaires became billionaires by wanting to lose money.
ButterflyDragon on December 31, 2012 at 2:23 PM
No kidding. The fastest way to shut up and get rage blocked by leftists on twitter is to ask they if shooting the fetus’ would change their mind about abortion.
jawkneemusic on December 31, 2012 at 2:25 PM
The economic illiteracy of the Left is stunning. These people are throwback ignoramuses, at best.
Forward!
visions on December 31, 2012 at 2:26 PM
Can we call the new company “Cheneymaster?”
No? Beaverlord then?
I got a million of ‘em!
Dirt McGirt on December 31, 2012 at 2:26 PM
This should be easy for a bunch of leftists. How hard can it be to find venture capitalists willing to piss away $800 million? /
single stack on December 31, 2012 at 2:33 PM
“Bush” + “master” = Whipped-up libs to a stiff pique.
It’s the Boooshmaster name itself that drives ‘em cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Christien on December 31, 2012 at 2:41 PM
Jill in accounts payable is an accomplice to murder!
theperfecteconomist on December 31, 2012 at 2:46 PM
I guess this guy’s fantasy is no dumber than my fantasy of the Koch Brothers buying MSNBC and shutting it down.
JimLennon on December 31, 2012 at 2:51 PM
What is it about “Bushmaster” that makes libtards wee their underoos?
“Colt” is erotic to them?
“Smith & Wesson” just makes revolve right?
“DPMS” isn’t sexy
“Rock River Arms” isn’t skeery
“Palmetto State Armory” isn’t skeery
“Black Rain Ordinance” is skeery, but no libtard has ever heard of them.
tom daschle concerned on December 31, 2012 at 2:52 PM
What? Takeover a company, then fire it’s workers and liquidize it’s assets?
Sounds like a job for …
WILLARD and his BAIN buddies!
HondaV65 on December 31, 2012 at 2:52 PM
Great article at NRO exposing the Democrat’s shameful hypocrisy re. cops in schools. They were for the idea before they were against it!
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/336637/cops-schools-eliana-johnson#
FYI the author of this NRO piece is Eliana Johnson, daughter of Power Line’s Scott.
Del Dolemonte on December 31, 2012 at 2:53 PM
The leftard version of how Bain operates.
single stack on December 31, 2012 at 2:58 PM
I bought one for us for Christmas. Not really by choice, but because it was the last AR-15 in the gun store, and the price hadn’t been jacked up. It was soon after Newtown, so the dealer made sort of a sad face when he told me what make it was. I told him that was not a problem.
We haven’t used it yet, but it’s pretty cool looking, still lying in its open case next to the Christmas tree.
It does give me a great deal satisfaction to own the brand that’s now up with there with Halliburton and Blackwater as eeeeevil companies. The more they want me to feel guilty for it, the more defiant I become.
juliesa on December 31, 2012 at 2:59 PM
At least get it sighted in and learn the battery of arms!
tom daschle concerned on December 31, 2012 at 3:02 PM
Bushmasters have a little rattlesnake logo on the side, similar to a tea party flag.
I like that.
juliesa on December 31, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Hey Will, you know that “EBITDA” isn’t a word, right? It’s an acronym. You capitalize acronyms in the US.
strictnein on December 31, 2012 at 3:04 PM
Thanks! I don’t know what the battery of arms is, though.
juliesa on December 31, 2012 at 3:06 PM
How to operate the rifle. Loading, unloading, charging it, mag changes, sight adjustments.
Plenty of youtube videos showing how to clean and maintain the AR.
tom daschle concerned on December 31, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don’t.
JeffWeimer on December 31, 2012 at 3:09 PM
Got it. Thanks, I’ll do that. We have handguns and shotguns but this AR thing is completely new to us.
juliesa on December 31, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Go for it, plenty of companies make quality AR-15 platforms, one or more of those would take up the slack in a second.
Rebar on December 31, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Congratulations. AR15′s are great sporting rifles and good for home defense despite the lies spewed by FrankenFienstien. They’re accurate and the .223 round isn’t overpowered. If/when the civil society collapses it will serve as a fine weapon to protect your family.
jawkneemusic on December 31, 2012 at 3:25 PM
Seriously though. Every time I think Cohen can’t be any stupider and top his last article. He proves me wrong. I have a special place for him.
Bmore on December 31, 2012 at 3:30 PM
That column was so stupid on so many levels that it’s not even worth a response longer than this.
RadClown on December 31, 2012 at 3:36 PM
So do I. Below and behind the toilet.
Del Dolemonte on December 31, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Irony of ironies, per Gateway Pundit, comes advice to Americans on guns via Pravda.
Dusty on December 31, 2012 at 3:50 PM
“The Women of this Country learned long ago that those without Swords could still die upon them.” Eowyn, Lord of the Rings
“The Women of this Country learned long ago that those without guns could still die from them.”
Juliesa, An American on HotAir
Bulletchaser on December 31, 2012 at 4:50 PM
The 2nd Amendment was put there as protection from Liberals – they seem to either want to Ban or Tax as the solution to everything!
Here is my note to my Reps.
No taxes on rifles, pistols or any other personal firearm. There are many, many reasons why this would be unfair, but probably the biggest is, “I don’t think the Federal or State needs to know who has weapons and who doesn’t.” Everywhere, and I do mean everywhere this has been enacted, the next step was confiscation. We are a Republic, our rules for operation are written in Law, taxation infringes on the right to keep a gun, because then it is not “forever ours!” As soon as we stop paying taxes, you either come get us or the firearm. What part of “Shall not be infringed.” do people in DC have a problem understanding? This is not a sport that you are taxing; it is our basic right to defend ourselves and defend our country from those that may choose to alter it beyond recognition.
rgranger on December 31, 2012 at 4:51 PM
It’s the manual of arms, not battery.
single stack on December 31, 2012 at 4:54 PM
What a great article! Check out these tidbits:
Moscow fell, for example, not from a lack of weapons to defend it, but from the lieing guile of the Reds. Ten thousand Reds took Moscow and were opposed only by some few hundreds of officer cadets and their instructors. Even then the battle was fierce and losses high. However, in the city alone, at that time, lived over 30,000 military officers (both active and retired), all with their own issued weapons and ammunition, plus tens of thousands of other citizens who were armed. The Soviets promised to leave them all alone if they did not intervene. They did not and for that were asked afterwards to come register themselves and their weapons: where they were promptly shot.
For those of us fighting for our traditional rights, the US 2nd Amendment is a rare light in an ever darkening room. Governments will use the excuse of trying to protect the people from maniacs and crime, but are in reality, it is the bureaucrats protecting their power and position. In all cases where guns are banned, gun crime continues and often increases.
There is a lot of desire to bad mouth the Tsar, particularly by the Communists, who claim he was a tyrant, and yet under him we were armed and under the progressives disarmed. Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question. They hate guns in those whom they have slated for a barrel to the back of the ear.”
Wow.
Bulletchaser on December 31, 2012 at 4:59 PM
Thanks. I love hearing that.
Thanks for that too.
juliesa on December 31, 2012 at 5:03 PM
Ha! Do it. Go ahead and waste that $800 million. At least it won’t go to Democrats in donations. Other gun manufacturers are ready, or will be ready, to step in to replace the sales.
cptacek on December 31, 2012 at 5:15 PM