STREISAND EFFECT: NY Ammo maker unhappy with our report on their donation to Cuomo

by John Boch

I got a call yesterday from New York state.   It was from a man who identified himself as Andy Wright, asking if I was a point of contact for (stumbling) Guns Saves Lives.  Finally, he got it out:  Guns Save Life dot com.

“Yeah.  What can I do for you, sir?”

He was referring to an article we published August 15th QUISLINGS: Ted Nugent ammo maker donates to Cuomo post-SAFE Act about the New York State ammo manufacturer that donated $10,000 to the Gov. Andrew Cuomo re-election fund.   The same Andrew Cuomo who pushed through New York State’s infamous “SAFE Act” gun control law that banned semi-auto rifles and restricted pistol mags to seven – count ’em – seven rounds.

“What about it?” I asked, still not recalling the post.

He said, paraphrasing, that we wrote that he sent the check to Cuomo’s campaign, when it was the company’s owner who cut the check.  “You wrote some slanderous things,” Mr. Wright said.

He claims he merely runs the operation, as I recall the conversation, and that he doesn’t own the company.

We’re not sure how that squares with a profile piece from Biz Journals announcing the new company.

After years as art director at ad agencies throughout the country, Andy Wright returned to his native Western New York to open Pierce Munitions LLC.

“I’d love to tell you that I knew a lot about guns and ammunition, but I didn’t,” said Wright, who opened the ammunition factory in 2010.

We did pick up on the following from the article upon a second read:

Wright, who grew up in Amherst and whose father was a police officer, figured there was a lot of demand for ammunition and not enough supply. He was right, and eventually the company raised about $6 million from private investors.

Okay, so he’s got a group of investors.  He’s representing that he merely runs the plant as I recall our conversation yesterday.  Okay, that’s parsing it pretty fine.  But whatever.

We stick with the money quote at the end of our original post:  “Sounds like Andy Wright should have kept his career as an ad executive, because once word of his (edit: company’s) penchant for donating to the enemy gets out, business is going to be slow.”

Welcome to the Streisand Effect, Mr. Wright.