Keep and Bear Arms

MMM Fraud Followup!
Gun Control Inauthenticity Runs Even Deeper

Research assistance by Nadja Adolf, too many others to list.
Editing and web formatting by Angel Shamaya , KeepAndBearArms.com

April 16, 2001

Table of Contents

Background & Results of Last Report
About the Examiner's Report
A Brief History of McGuire's Gun Control Orgs:

1 - The First SF Area Professional Gun Control Lobbyist: Andres Soto
2 - Andrew McGuire Hires A Lobbyist
3 - McGuire's Lobbyist In Action, Continued�
4 - Trauma Foundation Helps Create A Blueprint For Local Gun Control
5 - More Lobbying By Soto, And Some Amazing Stupidity
6 - Wait�WHO Does Soto Work For, And WHERE!?
7 - Soto Supports McGuire's Latest: The Bell Campaign
8 - "Oh What Tangled Webs We Weave" - More Mixed Stories
9 - SOTO! The Ultimate In Bone-Deep STUPID!
10 - Soto's Successor Is More Of The Same�
11 - Gorovitz Gives An Electoral Workshop At A Church, Under The MMM Label!
12 - McGuire Lies To The Examiner, And Probably The City

Conclusion

Background & Results of Last Report

First, the reader should be at least moderately familiar with the first KeepAndBearArms.com MMM report at:
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1953

Since then, the San Francisco Examiner did a report on 4/12/01 that covers the MMM's being ousted from their taxpayer-funded gun control war room. (Their story can be found here: http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.mom.0412w.) This article was "triggered" by my handing them the first KeepAndBearArms.com article on the subject, plus a copy of Dave Workman's article in Gun Week.

The Examiner article in turn made the Wall Street Journal's "Best Of The Web" under the wonderful title "Million Mom Eviction": http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=90000428 .

About the Examiner's Report

Let's go over the important bits from the Examiner report. First thing, they misreported Andrew McGuire's name as "James McGuire", no big deal. Other than that and the fairly weak title ("Million Mom March leaving its office space", about as tame as it could be, all things considered), the report is quite good and contains some important new research. It didn't dig deep enough, but at least it was an honest try at real journalism.

We'll start with the legal implications of the first KeepAndBearArms.com report. Quoting the Examiner:

"On Wednesday, some supervisors said they were concerned the groups may have become too cozy with city property.

"Any property that the city and county owns, that we then lease to someone, should not be subleased," said Supervisor Leland Yee, who has questioned the hospital's financial practices in the past.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a member of the city's finance committee, raised questions about the lack of lease for either group. He noted that the city administrative code requires all leases worth more than $500,000 in a five-year period be revisited."

At $3/sq ft, the 7,450 sq ft of space was worth $1,341,000 over five years! Urban medical office space on a hospital grounds is worth at least that, especially in the city of San Francisco where quality office space is at a premium. So we have a legal violation on the hospital administration's part.

More from the Examiner:

"McGuire said the group is an offshoot of the Trauma Foundation, a nonprofit injury prevention group that has rights to the space. That group, which McGuire also founded, was given the space for free in 1981 through an arrangement with Donald Trunkey, then the director of the hospital's burn center. McGuire said all political activities of the Million Mom March are carried out at another office, meaning that taxpayers aren't unwittingly supporting a political organization."

(NOTE: Per the reporter, McGuire actually told him that the MMM political office was on Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, the same street city hall is on. While the final Examiner article doesn't contain this tidbit, it's likely McGuire gave the same story to SF officials, something I intend to investigate.)

The reporter quotes me in reply:

"Gun activist James March dismissed that explanation, saying McGuire is involved in several gun-control groups, some of which are used as a cover for others.

"They can't keep their story straight," March said. "All roads lead back to (McGuire)."

What I actually said was, "All roads lead back to Trauma Foundation and Andrew McGuire" - the reporter shortened it up a bit, but no harm done or meaning significantly altered.

So let's prove McGuire a flat-out liar, shall we?

A Brief History of McGuire's Gun Control Orgs

Section 1: The First SF Area Professional Gun Control Lobbyist: Andres Soto

The first real player in San Francisco Bay Area gun control lobbying was Andres Soto. Soto started out working on social programs for the city of Richmond, in Contra Costa County California, where I live and am suing my Sheriff over CCW abuse. (See: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw.) Sometime around 1994, Contra Costa County received a FEDERAL "violence prevention grant" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which they used to hire Andres Soto to lobby local governments for gun control.

No, I'm not kidding. See also this Federal website: http://testwww.omhrc.gov/ctg/ctg-viol.htm which contains this section:

PACT Project Shapes Policy

What better way to convince cities to adopt gun dealer regulation ordinances than to show them why such a move is crucial to saving lives.

That's the line of reasoning that led the PACT Violence Prevention Project to collect data that identified a high number of minority kids as the victims of firearm-related violence. The project also conducted a study that revealed widespread noncompliance with state gun dealer laws, stating:

"We then generated a map showing how close these gun dealers are to schools, and the reaction was usually shock," said Andr�s Soto, manager of the project. As a result, five cities so far in California--Antioch, Lafayette, Pinole, Richmond, and San Pablo--have adopted the ordinances, and the project has garnered national recognition.

"...such a move is crucial to saving lives."

The PACT Violence Prevention Project, which targets African Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Latinos, is funded by the Office of Minority Health and administered by the Contra Costa County Health Services Department in Pleasant Hill, California. The project is a member of the PACT Coalition, a group of nine agencies that use a multi-ethnic approach to combat violence. Other members of PACT, which stands for Policy, Action, Collaboration, and Training, include Familias Unidas and the Lao Family Community Development.

For more information about the PACT Violence Prevention Project, call (510) 646-6511

The ordinances in question outlawed home FFLs. "Familias Unidas" was the Richmond city-run social program that hired Soto before he got involved with the Federally-funded PACT program.

Section 2: Andrew McGuire Hires A Lobbyist

When the PACT gig ended, Soto went to work for Trauma Foundation and Andrew McGuire.

Soto proceeded to conduct extensive political lobbying in California, especially in his home turf of Contra Costa County. Minutes of a Walnut Creek city council meeting dated November 18^th 1997 lists the people speaking in favor of a "Saturday Night Special" ban - one entry consists of "Andres Soto, 2420 Lowell Ave., Richmond, Ceasefire Contra Costa and Trauma Foundation". "Ceasefire Contra Costa" was another short-lived Andrew McGuire gun control org. (See also: http://walnut-creek.org/council%20minutes/cc.11.18.97.html .)

Section 3: McGuire's Lobbyist In Action, Continued�

On February 5^th, 1999, at the 5th HELP Network National Conference titled "Reducing Firearm Injuries: Health Providers and Survivors Working Together", Andres Soto conducted a lecture titled "Using Community Mapping to Guide Advocacy: the California Experience" - he was listed as a representative of "The Trauma Foundation". (See also: http://www.helpnetwork.org/frames/conferences_sf.html .)

"HELP" stands for "Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan". 'Nuff said.

Section 4: Trauma Foundation Helps Create A Blueprint For Local Gun Control

In 1998, the "Legal Community Against Violence" wrote a legal guide to gun control ordinances; in their acknowledgements page (http://www.lcav.org/ack98.html) they say the following:

Finally, LCAV would like to acknowledge the outstanding work and leadership of Andres Soto, Policy Director of the Trauma Foundation, and Charlie and Mary Leigh Blek, founders of Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence. The dedication and tireless efforts of these individuals have been critical to the success of the violence-prevention movement in California.

Section 5: More Lobbying By Soto, And Some Amazing Stupidity

In 1997, the city council of Livermore, California put a "junk gun ban" up for a city vote; Soto was a major part of the campaign: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/05/27/MN1908.DTL

Up in Arms Over Gun Debate - Livermore to vote on cheap-pistol ban
Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Chronicle East Bay Bureau
Tuesday, May 27, 1997

"When Livermore Mayor Cathie Brown moved to ban the cheap handguns known as 'Saturday night specials,' it fast became clear that the fight would be fiercer than in other Bay Area cities that have outlawed the weapons' sale."

I'm gonna snip most of this. We eventually get to:

"'This is the first time anywhere in California that voters will be able to express themselves since 1982,' when voters rejected a statewide gun ban measure, said Andres Soto, policy director of the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, which is following the Livermore vote closely.

"The research center is a physician-supported nonprofit group that seeks ways to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths."

"Physician supported"? I guess that's one way of putting it, but "physicians defrauded" is more accurate.

"Soto says that even though many gun control advocates are watching the outcome of the Livermore vote, it may not be a true test of popular opinion.

"'It's an election with no elected offices to decide, so the side that can most effectively mobilize its supporters will probably win the election,' he said ."

Well he'd know, he was the one doing the mobilizing! Now, from this same article, one of the other grabbers says something so abysmally stupid, we're going to have to pay special note just for the humor value:

"Shaver also believes that Towner and his opposition group are aligned with militias.

"'If you look at their Web site, you know they're militia,' Shaver said. 'They have an eagle on the top of their Web page, a patriot on one side and an American flag on the other.'"

AAAAhahahhahahhahha! Excuse me while I roll around laughing!

Section 6: Wait�WHO Does Soto Work For, And WHERE!?

Another "McGuire front group" operating out of SF General Hospital was the "Pacific Center for Violence Prevention" - at various times, Soto is referenced at working for them.

A UC Berkeley student journalist fluff piece about Soto places his offices right inside the hospital, and has him working for PCVP:

On the Front Lines:
A Profile of Andres Soto
By Christina Dyrness
http://www.journalism.berkeley.edu/resources/juvenile/structure/soto.html

Andres Soto is a warrior and a soldier.

But rather than making his point with guns or his fists, he pitches his battle against violence.

He didn't always see things this way.

"There was a time in my life that I thought that an armed insurrection against the organized government was inevitable," said the 42-year-old from his cluttered office at San Francisco General Hospital, where he works as director of policy for the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention. "I had the same belief in the Second Amendment that the NRA does, but from the leftist perspective." [emphasis added]

They just love that government-office credibility, don't they? Especially when it's free.

And "leftist perspective"? Gee, why am I not surprised. And there's something else of interest in that report:

A federal grant-funded program for violence prevention in Contra Costa County hired Soto to coordinate its efforts on the ground level. Working with community groups, Soto decided that prevention would work best by going to the source. He went after gun dealers.

"I got a printout from the county and realized there were 35 gun dealers in Richmond," he said. "There were only two entries in the phone book, but here was a list with names that I recognized. There was even someone dealing guns who lived on my street."

In response to the program's campaign, Contra Costa County voters passed laws in 1995 calling for a ban on residential gun dealers and tighter restrictions on other gun merchants. The violence prevention program attracted local, statewide and even national attention.

"We were the only game in town as far as gun control," Soto said.

Yep - outright lobbying. This would have been right about when McGuire hired him, or a bit before�except no McGuire org of that period had any business doing lobbying, especially not running such out of SF General.

Meanwhile, the Woodlands hills-based Wellness Foundation awarded a $1.3 million grant to create the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, a youth violence think tank in San Francisco. Soto worked closely with the director of the program, Andrew McGuire, on gun legislation efforts. In May, 1996, he joined their staff as director of policy. Succinctly, the Pacific Center has a short-term goal to get Sacramento to adopt a statewide ban on junk guns like the infamous Saturday Night Special, a long-term goal to transfer the focus of the juvenile justice system's resources from incarceration to prevention, and an overall goal to involve as many young people as possible in all of these policy discussions.

Now we see why the multiple cutout organizations. Wellness Foundation gave $1.3million to found PCVP -- who then paid Soto's salary, plus gave him a secretary -- and because it all looks "medical related" and 501(c)(3)ish, Soto was given office space at San Francisco General Hospital. But when he went out and did blatant political lobbying (and believe me, there are many more examples than what's in this document) he operated under the names "Trauma Foundation" or "Ceasefire Contra Costa" and God knows how many others, with the exception of the Livermore situation. And even then, while speaking to reporters wearing the PCAV hat, he tried to sound like he wasn't in the fight up to his neck. Makes sense because they probably used front-people who lived in Livermore as the main "public face" of the program.

Wellness was formed when a charity hospital converted into a wildly profitable HMO called "Healthnet". As part of the deal, they had to divest of a bunch of cash that had to go to public charity purposes - and NOT politics. So other orgs were needed to do the politics PCVP couldn't do, despite PCVP being the "money engine" prior to the $4.3million from Goldman in May of '99 that bootstrapped Bell/MMM.

These people are sick.

The Federal link where the Feds paid for gun control lobbying prior to McGuire showing up (remember the PACT section above?) is simply disgusting. Now you know part of why 74% of the FFLs disappeared in the last 8 years -- the Clinton administration co-opted Health and Human Services into declaring war on them.

Section 7: Soto Supports McGuire's Latest: The Bell Campaign

At the time of the original MMM rally in Washington there were local rallies in various towns. I was at the counter-protest for the Oakland, Calif version, and noted at the time all the professionally-done Bell Campaign posters and banners. The press release for that event is still up at: http://www.commondreams.org/news2000/0508-01.htm. >From that press announcement, the following is excerpted:

Million Mom March in Oakland Welcomes Bay Area to Campaign for Common Sense Gun Laws

OAKLAND - May 8 - News Advisory:

WHAT: The Million Mom March in Oakland welcomes the greater San Francisco Bay Area to Connect, Celebrate and Commit for Common Sense Gun Laws. The Oakland march is one of 57 regional marches in solidarity with the national Million Mom March in Washington, D.C.

WHEN: Sunday, May 14, 12:30-3 P.M.

WHERE: The bandstand at Lake Merritt in Oakland's Lakeside Park (next to Children's Fairyland)

WHO: Everyone -- mothers and others who want sensible gun laws and safer communities -- is encouraged to participate. The march is organized by the Oakland/East Bay Chapter of The Bell Campaign.

DETAILS: Guns kill 12 young people every day in this country. Nearly 30,000 people die from gun trauma each year. We can do better.

A rally with emcee Belva Davis of KQED will feature a bell ringing ceremony with victims and survivors of gun trauma, the Oakland Jazz Choir, Andres Soto from the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention�

My, this guy gets around. And it was the partisan politics at the MMM rallies nationwide that forced them to create the overt political MMM 501(c)(4) political org, and here's Soto and his SF General office right in the thick of that.

Dear readers, do you think I was kidding when I said it all leads back to McGuire and Trauma Foundation?

Section 8: "Oh What Tangled Webs We Weave" - More Mixed Stories

What about my comment to the Examiner regarding "can't keep their stories straight"?

Well on the Trauma Foundation website, at http://www.tf.org/tf/tfsuppl5.html you'll find their "annual report supplement 1998", which reads in part:

Here are some of the Trauma Foundation voices from the last two years.

-snip part about beer-

"We're on the brink of a major [gun control] movement."

--Eric Gorovitz, Legal Director, commenting on local gun control victories. San Francisco Examiner, June 4, 1998.

"The gun industry in the United States, using the NRA as a front, has convinced a great many people that individuals have a "right to keep and bear arms," thus, gun control is unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly told us otherwise. Let's stop listening to the lies and listen to the children-for the sake of the children."

--Andr�s Soto, Policy Director, in his Letter to the Editor of The West County Times, December 11, 1997.

So who DOES Soto work for? We've got him named here as part of Trauma Foundation, Ceasefire Contra Costa, Pacific Center for Violence Prevention and he speaks at a Bell Campaign rally. And all of this dates to BEFORE Andrew McGuire ever ran an organization named "Million Mom March" formally created May of 2000, and BEFORE any of these orgs declared 501(c)(4) lobbying status.

Less than two weeks ago, Sacramento NRA paid lobbyist Ed Worley spotted Soto testifying before the state legislature, under the Trauma Foundation name. TF has always been based at SF General.

Section 9: SOTO! The Ultimate In Bone-Deep STUPID!

So what kind of person IS this guy Soto, anyways?

Soto achieved "legendary moron status" during a failed attempt at banning gun shows in Contra Costa County in 1997.

He tried to highlight what "horrors" can be bought at gun shows by whipping out a HAND GRENADE.

Here's some reports by people from our side who actually saw this madness firsthand:

Bonnie Duane Darr and me (David Keegan) went to that meeting. Andres pulled the grenade from his purse "bag" during his presentation to the fair ground board. There was a recording of the meeting which Duane tried to get. I don't recall if he was successful as they had never been asked for a copy of the tape before. I called the county, I think Contra Costa County, Sheriff and District Attorney about the incident to complain about being threatened by the grenade. Both said there was nothing illegal about it. Found out that in the future I need to jump up and say, "It's a bomb" run to get away and fall down and "hurt myself". Then I can sue the government and hopefully give the government incentive to give a free holiday to Andres.

I also called the vice mayor of Antioch who was at the meeting and spoke in favor of the show. Expressed my concern about the wacko with the grenade at the meeting and my lack of progress with the sheriff and DA. There was supposed to be discussion of the incident at the following city council meeting which I was not able to attend.

David Keegan

Gawd!

Andres Soto, one of our best allies (Hehehehehehe, tongue firmly in cheek), unknowingly came within a flinch of being tackled by security and police officers when he angrily clanked a bag containing a heavy, metallic object on the lectern. He then proceeded to pull a hand-grenade out of the bag and explain that it was a legal imitation, but that he had bought it and books on how to make it work at the Antioch gun show. He also whined to the chairman to restore order when people were laughing at his antics, including his presentation of a Violence Policy Center report entitled, "Gun Shows: Tupperware Parties For Criminals." I even lost my composure at that one.

-Bruce Johnson
Legislative Officer
Contra Costa County NRA-ILA Members Council (Brentwood)

Some other nice gunnies did up their own sarcastic page on Soto years ago. See also:

http://www.vikingphoenix.com/public/gchof/ca-gchof/a_soto.htm - note the "opposition report" link from there�it turns out Soto spent $425,000 on a report in Contra Costa while being paid out of that Fed grant, on a report blaming violence on home FFLs using truly skewed logic and more flaws in scholarship than you'd believe. It's almost half a million dollars in Fed money directly funding a blatant pack of lies.

THIS is what we're up against, people. These fools are not the monumental unbeatable threat we've always figured.

Section 10: Soto's Successor Is More Of The Same�

Let's switch gears a sec to Eric Gorovitz. Gorovitz is the person that SF General named as their "official Trauma Foundation contact person" in the second PRAR response. (See First and Second PRAR responses here: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1953#prars.)

Archived at http://commondreams.org/headlines/041900-02.htm, we excerpt another little tidbit re: Gorovitz:

Gun-Control Movement Split by Ambition to Ban Handguns
by Eric Lichtblau and Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times - Wednesday, April 19, 2000

The gun-control movement has achieved only sporadic legislative victories in the last year. Yet the mere mention of a much more ambitious agenda--a handgun ban--has expanded the national debate and generated both enthusiasm and division within a gun-control community that is enjoying unprecedented visibility and financial backing in the year since Columbine.

"Historically, if you talked about banning handguns, it was political suicide. I don't think that's true anymore," said Eric Gorovitz, policy coordinator in San Francisco for the Bell Campaign, a new victims-rights group that has taken no position on a handgun ban.

"There's a split in the gun-control movement about it," Gorovitz said. "There's some resistance to even talking about bans because it's been taboo for so long. But [backers] sense that there's momentum now that wasn't there even a couple of years ago, and they want to take advantage of that."

So the Hospital knows he's right there on their grounds, he works for at least three different McGuire front groups, and he's advocating the most radical position in gun control today: a total ban on handguns.

At this time, Bell was deep into the ramp-up for the march on DC and the local rallies such as at Oakland. They had 501(c)(3) status yet did obvious partisan politics at the DC rally and elsewhere, and had filed the Federal form 5768 allowing limited politics under 501(c)(3) status.

Gorovitz's office was in San Francisco General Hospital, doing massive levels of politics.

Section 11: Gorovitz Gives An Electoral Workshop At A Church, Under The MMM Label!

In October of 2000, a San Francisco Catholic Church ran a series of "Election 2000" workshops: http://www.stignatiussf.org/election_2000.htm . This tax exempt church directly promoted Gorovitz's MMM activities:

Gun Violence - Wednesday, October 4 7:00-8:30pm

How can communities pursue sensible gun laws while protecting individual rights of citizens? This workshop explores the nature, history and cultural context of the gun control movement and current gun legislation.

Eric Gorovitz is Director of Policy for Million Mom March, a grass-roots advocacy organization seeking to prevent gun death and injury. Eric has a law degree from Georgetown University and a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Megin Scully-Minuth, MD is a parishioner at St. Ignatius Church, a mother of two daughters and a practicing physician. Megin has been involved in the gun control movement since the tragic death of her brother John, killed in the 1993 shooting at 101 California Street.

BIG oops, on a lot of levels. Gorovitz's office has ALWAYS been at SF General. By Oct. 2000, the main MMM was an overt political 501(c)(4) organization that has no business being anywhere near a tax-exempt church - that's as bad as operating on government property. SF General thought he was a Trauma Foundation employee, this church thinks he's a "mommie" (I don't even want to think about that, this IS San Francisco after all). I told that Examiner reporter "they couldn't keep their stories straight".

We also see how Gorovitz jumped from Bell to MMM, yet SF General still thought he was Trauma Foundation on 2/22/01. (See also 2^nd PRAR response.)

It's all one big organization.

Section 12: McGuire Lies To The Examiner, And Probably The City

But what about the "Van Ness Political Office" mentioned by McGuire to the Examiner reporter?

It didn't exist.

On 4/13/01, the MMM did a press release hyping their state capitol rallies coming up this year. It can be seen here in it's CURRENT form: http://www.jointogether.org/gv/wire/press_releases/reader.jtml?Object_ID=267139

It currently lists a contact address of:

Contact Information:
Virginia Anagnos
Million Mom March
West Regional Office
25255 Cabot Road, Suite 102
Laguna Hills, CA 92653

BUT when the page first went up on early Friday, the contact address read:

Contact Information:
Virginia Anagnos
Million Mom March
San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco, CA 94110

See what happened? The press release was overtly political (regarding the 501(c)(4) MMM holding political rallies). On or shortly before 4/12/01, McGuire told the Examiner that such politics aren't being run out of SF General. So when him or his minions read the press release from their NY publicity agent, they realized their own press release confirmed a lie to the Examiner and probably others, and altered the site muy pronto!

The Laguna Hills address shows up on MMM literature displayed at St. Sebastian's Catholic Church in nearby Marin county, where McGuire gave a speech, on 4/10/01. (More on that in the next edition of this saga.) The Laguna Hills office was described as the new "western regional office" of the MMM. It's on the southern end of Orange County, south of Los Angeles, over 450 miles from San Francisco.

IF MCGUIRE HAD AN OFFICE ON VAN NESS STREET IN SF, WHY THE HECK WOULD HE RELOCATE THE CORE OF HIS OPERATION TO THE OTHER END OF A BIG STATE!?

(One theory: so he could be closer to the Mexican border when John Ashcroft's people come knocking for back taxes, penalties, etc?)

The Laguna Hills building seems to house a large number of private businesses and miscellaneous other entities. At least it's not a government office of some sort, so it appears to be legitimate. If anybody nearby wants to go pay a visit, drop me a line; you're going to need some private advice first. It's possible the office is actually being rented by a charitable foundation, church, God only knows�worth checking, with the track record these lawbreakers have racked up.

Sidenote: Virginia Anagnos's phone contact (in both versions) is (212) 576-2700 - that leads to a New York PR firm:

GOODMAN MEDIA INTERNATIONAL
386 Park Avenue S
New York, NY 10016-0880

I wonder who paid the bills for that?

CONCLUSION, But There's A Lot More Coming!

OK, I'm gonna give y'all a break, and follow this up with at least one more update. No, we ain't done yet, not by a longshot.

NEXT UP IN THIS SERIES: McGuire is building a grassroots gun control org across California and other states, using tax-exempt churches for financial and organizational support. That needs to end, pronto. We'll also look at fraud elsewhere in the nation as local MMM chapters defraud other charities, churches and government offices in patterns that appear to be "copycats" of what McGuire has been pulling here in California.

Jim March
[email protected] - Comments and info welcome!

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Written By:	Jim March
	MMM Fraud Followup! Gun Control Inauthenticity Runs Even Deeper By Jim March [email protected] Research assistance by Nadja Adolf, too many others to list. Editing and web formatting by Angel Shamaya , KeepAndBearArms.com April 16, 2001 Table of Contents Background & Results of Last Report About the Examiner's Report A Brief History of McGuire's Gun Control Orgs: 1 - The First SF Area Professional Gun Control Lobbyist: Andres Soto 2 - Andrew McGuire Hires A Lobbyist 3 - McGuire's Lobbyist In Action, Continued� 4 - Trauma Foundation Helps Create A Blueprint For Local Gun Control 5 - More Lobbying By Soto, And Some Amazing Stupidity 6 - Wait�WHO Does Soto Work For, And WHERE!? 7 - Soto Supports McGuire's Latest: The Bell Campaign 8 - "Oh What Tangled Webs We Weave" - More Mixed Stories 9 - SOTO! The Ultimate In Bone-Deep STUPID! 10 - Soto's Successor Is More Of The Same� 11 - Gorovitz Gives An Electoral Workshop At A Church, Under The MMM Label! 12 - McGuire Lies To The Examiner, And Probably The City Conclusion Background & Results of Last Report First, the reader should be at least moderately familiar with the first KeepAndBearArms.com MMM report at: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1953 Since then, the San Francisco Examiner did a report on 4/12/01 that covers the MMM's being ousted from their taxpayer-funded gun control war room. (Their story can be found here: http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.mom.0412w.) This article was "triggered" by my handing them the first KeepAndBearArms.com article on the subject, plus a copy of Dave Workman's article in Gun Week. The Examiner article in turn made the Wall Street Journal's "Best Of The Web" under the wonderful title "Million Mom Eviction": http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=90000428 . About the Examiner's Report Let's go over the important bits from the Examiner report. First thing, they misreported Andrew McGuire's name as "James McGuire", no big deal. Other than that and the fairly weak title ("Million Mom March leaving its office space", about as tame as it could be, all things considered), the report is quite good and contains some important new research. It didn't dig deep enough, but at least it was an honest try at real journalism. We'll start with the legal implications of the first KeepAndBearArms.com report. Quoting the Examiner: "On Wednesday, some supervisors said they were concerned the groups may have become too cozy with city property. "Any property that the city and county owns, that we then lease to someone, should not be subleased," said Supervisor Leland Yee, who has questioned the hospital's financial practices in the past. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a member of the city's finance committee, raised questions about the lack of lease for either group. He noted that the city administrative code requires all leases worth more than $500,000 in a five-year period be revisited." At $3/sq ft, the 7,450 sq ft of space was worth $1,341,000 over five years! Urban medical office space on a hospital grounds is worth at least that, especially in the city of San Francisco where quality office space is at a premium. So we have a legal violation on the hospital administration's part. More from the Examiner: "McGuire said the group is an offshoot of the Trauma Foundation, a nonprofit injury prevention group that has rights to the space. That group, which McGuire also founded, was given the space for free in 1981 through an arrangement with Donald Trunkey, then the director of the hospital's burn center. McGuire said all political activities of the Million Mom March are carried out at another office, meaning that taxpayers aren't unwittingly supporting a political organization." (NOTE: Per the reporter, McGuire actually told him that the MMM political office was on Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, the same street city hall is on. While the final Examiner article doesn't contain this tidbit, it's likely McGuire gave the same story to SF officials, something I intend to investigate.) The reporter quotes me in reply: "Gun activist James March dismissed that explanation, saying McGuire is involved in several gun-control groups, some of which are used as a cover for others. "They can't keep their story straight," March said. "All roads lead back to (McGuire)." What I actually said was, "All roads lead back to Trauma Foundation and Andrew McGuire" - the reporter shortened it up a bit, but no harm done or meaning significantly altered. So let's prove McGuire a flat-out liar, shall we? A Brief History of McGuire's Gun Control Orgs Section 1: The First SF Area Professional Gun Control Lobbyist: Andres Soto The first real player in San Francisco Bay Area gun control lobbying was Andres Soto. Soto started out working on social programs for the city of Richmond, in Contra Costa County California, where I live and am suing my Sheriff over CCW abuse. (See: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw.) Sometime around 1994, Contra Costa County received a FEDERAL "violence prevention grant" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which they used to hire Andres Soto to lobby local governments for gun control. No, I'm not kidding. See also this Federal website: http://testwww.omhrc.gov/ctg/ctg-viol.htm which contains this section: PACT Project Shapes Policy What better way to convince cities to adopt gun dealer regulation ordinances than to show them why such a move is crucial to saving lives. That's the line of reasoning that led the PACT Violence Prevention Project to collect data that identified a high number of minority kids as the victims of firearm-related violence. The project also conducted a study that revealed widespread noncompliance with state gun dealer laws, stating: "We then generated a map showing how close these gun dealers are to schools, and the reaction was usually shock," said Andr�s Soto, manager of the project. As a result, five cities so far in California--Antioch, Lafayette, Pinole, Richmond, and San Pablo--have adopted the ordinances, and the project has garnered national recognition. "...such a move is crucial to saving lives." The PACT Violence Prevention Project, which targets African Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Latinos, is funded by the Office of Minority Health and administered by the Contra Costa County Health Services Department in Pleasant Hill, California. The project is a member of the PACT Coalition, a group of nine agencies that use a multi-ethnic approach to combat violence. Other members of PACT, which stands for Policy, Action, Collaboration, and Training, include Familias Unidas and the Lao Family Community Development. For more information about the PACT Violence Prevention Project, call (510) 646-6511 The ordinances in question outlawed home FFLs. "Familias Unidas" was the Richmond city-run social program that hired Soto before he got involved with the Federally-funded PACT program. Section 2: Andrew McGuire Hires A Lobbyist When the PACT gig ended, Soto went to work for Trauma Foundation and Andrew McGuire. Soto proceeded to conduct extensive political lobbying in California, especially in his home turf of Contra Costa County. Minutes of a Walnut Creek city council meeting dated November 18^th 1997 lists the people speaking in favor of a "Saturday Night Special" ban - one entry consists of "Andres Soto, 2420 Lowell Ave., Richmond, Ceasefire Contra Costa and Trauma Foundation". "Ceasefire Contra Costa" was another short-lived Andrew McGuire gun control org. (See also: http://walnut-creek.org/council%20minutes/cc.11.18.97.html .) Section 3: McGuire's Lobbyist In Action, Continued� On February 5^th, 1999, at the 5th HELP Network National Conference titled "Reducing Firearm Injuries: Health Providers and Survivors Working Together", Andres Soto conducted a lecture titled "Using Community Mapping to Guide Advocacy: the California Experience" - he was listed as a representative of "The Trauma Foundation". (See also: http://www.helpnetwork.org/frames/conferences_sf.html .) "HELP" stands for "Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan". 'Nuff said. Section 4: Trauma Foundation Helps Create A Blueprint For Local Gun Control In 1998, the "Legal Community Against Violence" wrote a legal guide to gun control ordinances; in their acknowledgements page (http://www.lcav.org/ack98.html) they say the following: Finally, LCAV would like to acknowledge the outstanding work and leadership of Andres Soto, Policy Director of the Trauma Foundation, and Charlie and Mary Leigh Blek, founders of Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence. The dedication and tireless efforts of these individuals have been critical to the success of the violence-prevention movement in California. Section 5: More Lobbying By Soto, And Some Amazing Stupidity In 1997, the city council of Livermore, California put a "junk gun ban" up for a city vote; Soto was a major part of the campaign: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/05/27/MN1908.DTL Up in Arms Over Gun Debate - Livermore to vote on cheap-pistol ban Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Chronicle East Bay Bureau Tuesday, May 27, 1997 "When Livermore Mayor Cathie Brown moved to ban the cheap handguns known as 'Saturday night specials,' it fast became clear that the fight would be fiercer than in other Bay Area cities that have outlawed the weapons' sale." I'm gonna snip most of this. We eventually get to: "'This is the first time anywhere in California that voters will be able to express themselves since 1982,' when voters rejected a statewide gun ban measure, said Andres Soto, policy director of the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, which is following the Livermore vote closely. "The research center is a physician-supported nonprofit group that seeks ways to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths." "Physician supported"? I guess that's one way of putting it, but "physicians defrauded" is more accurate. "Soto says that even though many gun control advocates are watching the outcome of the Livermore vote, it may not be a true test of popular opinion. "'It's an election with no elected offices to decide, so the side that can most effectively mobilize its supporters will probably win the election,' he said ." Well he'd know, he was the one doing the mobilizing! Now, from this same article, one of the other grabbers says something so abysmally stupid, we're going to have to pay special note just for the humor value: "Shaver also believes that Towner and his opposition group are aligned with militias. "'If you look at their Web site, you know they're militia,' Shaver said. 'They have an eagle on the top of their Web page, a patriot on one side and an American flag on the other.'" AAAAhahahhahahhahha! Excuse me while I roll around laughing! Section 6: Wait�WHO Does Soto Work For, And WHERE!? Another "McGuire front group" operating out of SF General Hospital was the "Pacific Center for Violence Prevention" - at various times, Soto is referenced at working for them. A UC Berkeley student journalist fluff piece about Soto places his offices right inside the hospital, and has him working for PCVP: On the Front Lines: A Profile of Andres Soto By Christina Dyrness http://www.journalism.berkeley.edu/resources/juvenile/structure/soto.html Andres Soto is a warrior and a soldier. But rather than making his point with guns or his fists, he pitches his battle against violence. He didn't always see things this way. "There was a time in my life that I thought that an armed insurrection against the organized government was inevitable," said the 42-year-old from his cluttered office at San Francisco General Hospital, where he works as director of policy for the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention. "I had the same belief in the Second Amendment that the NRA does, but from the leftist perspective." [emphasis added] They just love that government-office credibility, don't they? Especially when it's free. And "leftist perspective"? Gee, why am I not surprised. And there's something else of interest in that report: A federal grant-funded program for violence prevention in Contra Costa County hired Soto to coordinate its efforts on the ground level. Working with community groups, Soto decided that prevention would work best by going to the source. He went after gun dealers. "I got a printout from the county and realized there were 35 gun dealers in Richmond," he said. "There were only two entries in the phone book, but here was a list with names that I recognized. There was even someone dealing guns who lived on my street." In response to the program's campaign, Contra Costa County voters passed laws in 1995 calling for a ban on residential gun dealers and tighter restrictions on other gun merchants. The violence prevention program attracted local, statewide and even national attention. "We were the only game in town as far as gun control," Soto said. Yep - outright lobbying. This would have been right about when McGuire hired him, or a bit before�except no McGuire org of that period had any business doing lobbying, especially not running such out of SF General. Meanwhile, the Woodlands hills-based Wellness Foundation awarded a $1.3 million grant to create the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, a youth violence think tank in San Francisco. Soto worked closely with the director of the program, Andrew McGuire, on gun legislation efforts. In May, 1996, he joined their staff as director of policy. Succinctly, the Pacific Center has a short-term goal to get Sacramento to adopt a statewide ban on junk guns like the infamous Saturday Night Special, a long-term goal to transfer the focus of the juvenile justice system's resources from incarceration to prevention, and an overall goal to involve as many young people as possible in all of these policy discussions. Now we see why the multiple cutout organizations. Wellness Foundation gave $1.3million to found PCVP -- who then paid Soto's salary, plus gave him a secretary -- and because it all looks "medical related" and 501(c)(3)ish, Soto was given office space at San Francisco General Hospital. But when he went out and did blatant political lobbying (and believe me, there are many more examples than what's in this document) he operated under the names "Trauma Foundation" or "Ceasefire Contra Costa" and God knows how many others, with the exception of the Livermore situation. And even then, while speaking to reporters wearing the PCAV hat, he tried to sound like he wasn't in the fight up to his neck. Makes sense because they probably used front-people who lived in Livermore as the main "public face" of the program. Wellness was formed when a charity hospital converted into a wildly profitable HMO called "Healthnet". As part of the deal, they had to divest of a bunch of cash that had to go to public charity purposes - and NOT politics. So other orgs were needed to do the politics PCVP couldn't do, despite PCVP being the "money engine" prior to the $4.3million from Goldman in May of '99 that bootstrapped Bell/MMM. These people are sick. The Federal link where the Feds paid for gun control lobbying prior to McGuire showing up (remember the PACT section above?) is simply disgusting. Now you know part of why 74% of the FFLs disappeared in the last 8 years -- the Clinton administration co-opted Health and Human Services into declaring war on them. Section 7: Soto Supports McGuire's Latest: The Bell Campaign At the time of the original MMM rally in Washington there were local rallies in various towns. I was at the counter-protest for the Oakland, Calif version, and noted at the time all the professionally-done Bell Campaign posters and banners. The press release for that event is still up at: http://www.commondreams.org/news2000/0508-01.htm. >From that press announcement, the following is excerpted: Million Mom March in Oakland Welcomes Bay Area to Campaign for Common Sense Gun Laws OAKLAND - May 8 - News Advisory: WHAT: The Million Mom March in Oakland welcomes the greater San Francisco Bay Area to Connect, Celebrate and Commit for Common Sense Gun Laws. The Oakland march is one of 57 regional marches in solidarity with the national Million Mom March in Washington, D.C. WHEN: Sunday, May 14, 12:30-3 P.M. WHERE: The bandstand at Lake Merritt in Oakland's Lakeside Park (next to Children's Fairyland) WHO: Everyone -- mothers and others who want sensible gun laws and safer communities -- is encouraged to participate. The march is organized by the Oakland/East Bay Chapter of The Bell Campaign. DETAILS: Guns kill 12 young people every day in this country. Nearly 30,000 people die from gun trauma each year. We can do better. A rally with emcee Belva Davis of KQED will feature a bell ringing ceremony with victims and survivors of gun trauma, the Oakland Jazz Choir, Andres Soto from the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention� My, this guy gets around. And it was the partisan politics at the MMM rallies nationwide that forced them to create the overt political MMM 501(c)(4) political org, and here's Soto and his SF General office right in the thick of that. Dear readers, do you think I was kidding when I said it all leads back to McGuire and Trauma Foundation? Section 8: "Oh What Tangled Webs We Weave" - More Mixed Stories What about my comment to the Examiner regarding "can't keep their stories straight"? Well on the Trauma Foundation website, at http://www.tf.org/tf/tfsuppl5.html you'll find their "annual report supplement 1998", which reads in part: Here are some of the Trauma Foundation voices from the last two years. -snip part about beer- "We're on the brink of a major [gun control] movement." --Eric Gorovitz, Legal Director, commenting on local gun control victories. San Francisco Examiner, June 4, 1998. "The gun industry in the United States, using the NRA as a front, has convinced a great many people that individuals have a "right to keep and bear arms," thus, gun control is unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly told us otherwise. Let's stop listening to the lies and listen to the children-for the sake of the children." --Andr�s Soto, Policy Director, in his Letter to the Editor of The West County Times, December 11, 1997. So who DOES Soto work for? We've got him named here as part of Trauma Foundation, Ceasefire Contra Costa, Pacific Center for Violence Prevention and he speaks at a Bell Campaign rally. And all of this dates to BEFORE Andrew McGuire ever ran an organization named "Million Mom March" formally created May of 2000, and BEFORE any of these orgs declared 501(c)(4) lobbying status. Less than two weeks ago, Sacramento NRA paid lobbyist Ed Worley spotted Soto testifying before the state legislature, under the Trauma Foundation name. TF has always been based at SF General. Section 9: SOTO! The Ultimate In Bone-Deep STUPID! So what kind of person IS this guy Soto, anyways? Soto achieved "legendary moron status" during a failed attempt at banning gun shows in Contra Costa County in 1997. He tried to highlight what "horrors" can be bought at gun shows by whipping out a HAND GRENADE. Here's some reports by people from our side who actually saw this madness firsthand: Bonnie Duane Darr and me (David Keegan) went to that meeting. Andres pulled the grenade from his purse "bag" during his presentation to the fair ground board. There was a recording of the meeting which Duane tried to get. I don't recall if he was successful as they had never been asked for a copy of the tape before. I called the county, I think Contra Costa County, Sheriff and District Attorney about the incident to complain about being threatened by the grenade. Both said there was nothing illegal about it. Found out that in the future I need to jump up and say, "It's a bomb" run to get away and fall down and "hurt myself". Then I can sue the government and hopefully give the government incentive to give a free holiday to Andres. I also called the vice mayor of Antioch who was at the meeting and spoke in favor of the show. Expressed my concern about the wacko with the grenade at the meeting and my lack of progress with the sheriff and DA. There was supposed to be discussion of the incident at the following city council meeting which I was not able to attend. David Keegan Gawd! Andres Soto, one of our best allies (Hehehehehehe, tongue firmly in cheek), unknowingly came within a flinch of being tackled by security and police officers when he angrily clanked a bag containing a heavy, metallic object on the lectern. He then proceeded to pull a hand-grenade out of the bag and explain that it was a legal imitation, but that he had bought it and books on how to make it work at the Antioch gun show. He also whined to the chairman to restore order when people were laughing at his antics, including his presentation of a Violence Policy Center report entitled, "Gun Shows: Tupperware Parties For Criminals." I even lost my composure at that one. -Bruce Johnson Legislative Officer Contra Costa County NRA-ILA Members Council (Brentwood) Some other nice gunnies did up their own sarcastic page on Soto years ago. See also: http://www.vikingphoenix.com/public/gchof/ca-gchof/a_soto.htm - note the "opposition report" link from there�it turns out Soto spent $425,000 on a report in Contra Costa while being paid out of that Fed grant, on a report blaming violence on home FFLs using truly skewed logic and more flaws in scholarship than you'd believe. It's almost half a million dollars in Fed money directly funding a blatant pack of lies. THIS is what we're up against, people. These fools are not the monumental unbeatable threat we've always figured. Section 10: Soto's Successor Is More Of The Same� Let's switch gears a sec to Eric Gorovitz. Gorovitz is the person that SF General named as their "official Trauma Foundation contact person" in the second PRAR response. (See First and Second PRAR responses here: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1953#prars.) Archived at http://commondreams.org/headlines/041900-02.htm, we excerpt another little tidbit re: Gorovitz: Gun-Control Movement Split by Ambition to Ban Handguns by Eric Lichtblau and Richard Simon Los Angeles Times - Wednesday, April 19, 2000 The gun-control movement has achieved only sporadic legislative victories in the last year. Yet the mere mention of a much more ambitious agenda--a handgun ban--has expanded the national debate and generated both enthusiasm and division within a gun-control community that is enjoying unprecedented visibility and financial backing in the year since Columbine. "Historically, if you talked about banning handguns, it was political suicide. I don't think that's true anymore," said Eric Gorovitz, policy coordinator in San Francisco for the Bell Campaign, a new victims-rights group that has taken no position on a handgun ban. "There's a split in the gun-control movement about it," Gorovitz said. "There's some resistance to even talking about bans because it's been taboo for so long. But [backers] sense that there's momentum now that wasn't there even a couple of years ago, and they want to take advantage of that." So the Hospital knows he's right there on their grounds, he works for at least three different McGuire front groups, and he's advocating the most radical position in gun control today: a total ban on handguns. At this time, Bell was deep into the ramp-up for the march on DC and the local rallies such as at Oakland. They had 501(c)(3) status yet did obvious partisan politics at the DC rally and elsewhere, and had filed the Federal form 5768 allowing limited politics under 501(c)(3) status. Gorovitz's office was in San Francisco General Hospital, doing massive levels of politics. Section 11: Gorovitz Gives An Electoral Workshop At A Church, Under The MMM Label! In October of 2000, a San Francisco Catholic Church ran a series of "Election 2000" workshops: http://www.stignatiussf.org/election_2000.htm . This tax exempt church directly promoted Gorovitz's MMM activities: Gun Violence - Wednesday, October 4 7:00-8:30pm How can communities pursue sensible gun laws while protecting individual rights of citizens? This workshop explores the nature, history and cultural context of the gun control movement and current gun legislation. Eric Gorovitz is Director of Policy for Million Mom March, a grass-roots advocacy organization seeking to prevent gun death and injury. Eric has a law degree from Georgetown University and a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Megin Scully-Minuth, MD is a parishioner at St. Ignatius Church, a mother of two daughters and a practicing physician. Megin has been involved in the gun control movement since the tragic death of her brother John, killed in the 1993 shooting at 101 California Street. BIG oops, on a lot of levels. Gorovitz's office has ALWAYS been at SF General. By Oct. 2000, the main MMM was an overt political 501(c)(4) organization that has no business being anywhere near a tax-exempt church - that's as bad as operating on government property. SF General thought he was a Trauma Foundation employee, this church thinks he's a "mommie" (I don't even want to think about that, this IS San Francisco after all). I told that Examiner reporter "they couldn't keep their stories straight". We also see how Gorovitz jumped from Bell to MMM, yet SF General still thought he was Trauma Foundation on 2/22/01. (See also 2^nd PRAR response.) It's all one big organization. *Section 12: McGuire Lies To The Examiner, And Probably The City* But what about the "Van Ness Political Office" mentioned by McGuire to the Examiner reporter? It didn't exist. On 4/13/01, the MMM did a press release hyping their state capitol rallies coming up this year. It can be seen here in it's CURRENT form: http://www.jointogether.org/gv/wire/press_releases/reader.jtml?Object_ID=267139 It currently lists a contact address of: Contact Information: Virginia Anagnos Million Mom March West Regional Office 25255 Cabot Road, Suite 102 Laguna Hills, CA 92653 BUT when the page first went up on early Friday, the contact address read: Contact Information: Virginia Anagnos Million Mom March San Francisco General Hospital San Francisco, CA 94110 See what happened? The press release was overtly political (regarding the 501(c)(4) MMM holding political rallies). On or shortly before 4/12/01, McGuire told the Examiner that such politics aren't being run out of SF General. So when him or his minions read the press release from their NY publicity agent, they realized their own press release confirmed a lie to the Examiner and probably others, and altered the site muy pronto! The Laguna Hills address shows up on MMM literature displayed at St. Sebastian's Catholic Church in nearby Marin county, where McGuire gave a speech, on 4/10/01. (More on that in the next edition of this saga.) The Laguna Hills office was described as the new "western regional office" of the MMM. It's on the southern end of Orange County, south of Los Angeles, over 450 miles from San Francisco. IF MCGUIRE HAD AN OFFICE ON VAN NESS STREET IN SF, WHY THE HECK WOULD HE RELOCATE THE CORE OF HIS OPERATION TO THE OTHER END OF A BIG STATE!? (One theory: so he could be closer to the Mexican border when John Ashcroft's people come knocking for back taxes, penalties, etc?) The Laguna Hills building seems to house a large number of private businesses and miscellaneous other entities. At least it's not a government office of some sort, so it appears to be legitimate. If anybody nearby wants to go pay a visit, drop me a line; you're going to need some private advice first. It's possible the office is actually being rented by a charitable foundation, church, God only knows�worth checking, with the track record these lawbreakers have racked up. Sidenote: Virginia Anagnos's phone contact (in both versions) is (212) 576-2700 - that leads to a New York PR firm: GOODMAN MEDIA INTERNATIONAL 386 Park Avenue S New York, NY 10016-0880 I wonder who paid the bills for that? CONCLUSION, But There's A Lot More Coming! OK, I'm gonna give y'all a break, and follow this up with at least one more update. No, we ain't done yet, not by a longshot. NEXT UP IN THIS SERIES: McGuire is building a grassroots gun control org across California and other states, using tax-exempt churches for financial and organizational support. That needs to end, pronto. We'll also look at fraud elsewhere in the nation as local MMM chapters defraud other charities, churches and government offices in patterns that appear to be "copycats" of what McGuire has been pulling here in California. Jim March [email protected] - Comments and info welcome!