deknow, you seem to be good at finding things on snopes. Can you find this one? I have tried, but cannot find it.
OUTDOOR CHANNEL PULLS PRODUCTION FROM COLORADO DUE TO CO SENATE
BETRAYING 2ND RIGHTS!
From: Michael Bane
Date: Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 4:09 PM
Subject: OUTDOOR CHANNEL Pulls Productions from Colorado
To: Senator Steve King
Dear Senator King;
I met you yesterday after the so-called "public hearings" on the
anti-gun bills; as I mentioned, I am an Executive Producer for OUTDOOR
CHANNEL. I currently have four series in production, including GUN
STORIES, the top show on OC, with several additional series in
development. My series focus on guns, hunting, shooting and the
outdoors.
This morning I met with my three Producers, and we made the decision
that if these anti-gun bills become law, we will be moving all of our
production OUT of Colorado. We have already canceled a scheduled filming
session for late this month. Obviously, part of this is due to our own
commitment to the right to keep and bear arms, but it also reflects 3
lawyers' opinions that these laws are so poorly drafted and so designed
to trap otherwise legal citizens into a crime (one of our attorneys
referred to them as "flypaper laws") that it is simply too dangerous for
us to film here.
I can give you chapter and verse on the legal implications if you need,
but suffice to say that the first legal opinion was so scary we went out
and got two others. Al three attorneys agreed.
We are relatively small potatoes in television, but our relocation of
production will cost Colorado a little less than a million dollars in
2013.
Secondly, we have proudly promoted Colorado in our productions (and have
been moving more and more production into the state); now we will do
exactly the opposite. What does this mean for Colorado? The community of
television producers is a small one. Last week I had lunch with a major
network producer who was looking to locate his new reality series in
Colorado. That producer is also a shooter, and the new reality series
will now be based out of Phoenix. That lunch cost Colorado over a
million in economic impact.
Thirdly, according to numbers I received from the National Shooting
Sports Foundation (for whom I used to work) yesterday, hunting had an
almost $800,000,000 impact on Colorado in 2012, driving as many as 8330
jobs. Next month I will be in Texas meeting with most of the top
outdoor/hunting producers, and the Number One agenda item will be
Colorado. Already, hunting organizations and statewide hunting clubs
around the country are pulling out of Colorado, and we expect this trend
to accelerate rapidly.
The message we will take to our viewers and listeners is that these
proposed laws are so dangerous to hunters and any other person, be she a
fisherman or a skier who brings a handgun into the state for
self-defense, that we cannot recommend hunting, fishing or visiting
Colorado.. We reach millions of people, and, quite frankly, we have a
credibility that Colorado government officials can no longer match.
Colorado Division of Wildlife is already running ads trying to bring
more out-of-state hunters to Colorado...in light of the flood of
negative publicity about these proposed laws, I can assure you those ads
will fail.
We estimate that as many as one-quarter to one-third of out-of-state
hunters will desert Colorado in the next 18-24 months, which will quite
frankly be a disaster for the hunting industry in Colorado and have a
devastating effect on our western and northern communities (certainly
cities like Grand Junction).
This is not a "boycott" in the traditional sense of a centralized,
organized operation; rather, it is more of a grassroots decision on
where shooters, hunters and other sportsmen are willing to spend their
money. Look at the collapse of the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in
February. That venerable multimillion dollar trade show chose to ban
modern sporting rifles and standard capacity magazines, and within three
weeks it collapsed as all vendors and sponsors pulled out.
Colorado is going to pay a huge price for laws that will do nothing.
Thank you, sir, for your support.
Best.
Michael Bane
OUTDOOR CHANNEL
mbane@outdoorchannel.com