Did He or Didn’t He?

This report is from the Shooting Wire:

Did He or Didn’t He?

 

Internet chat rooms and discussion boards are boiling over after a report by Ken Dilanian of USA Today said Dan Cooper, “chief executive of Cooper Arms, a small Montana company that makes hunting rifles” was a supporter and donor to- the Obama for President campaign. According to the USA Today story, Cooper donated $3,300 to Senator Obama’s current campaign and had donated to his 2004 Senate campaign after he was “dazzled by Obama’s speech at that year’s Democratic National Convention.” As you can imagine, this hasn’t gone down well with gun owners.

But is the report true? This statement posted on the Cooper Firearms website would seem to indicate otherwise:

“Regarding the USA Today Article. Cooper Firearms of Montana, Inc. did not contribute and does not support in any fashion the campaign of Senator Obama. Nine months ago Dan Cooper (personally) made an online donation to the campaign in an effort to help defeat Hillary Clinton and in protest of American plant closures and the shipping of jobs overseas. Three months ago he made yet another donation to the McCain campaign and the RNC totaling over twice that given to Obama campaign. There is no doubt that the article in USA Today has caused a considerable response. To this end we are encouraged and stand with our fellow NRA members and supporters of the Second Amendment and against those who oppose it.”

The end of this story is far from written, but were Cooper’s actions were not inaccurately reported in order to fit inside the “More executives sold on Obama” headline, Mr. Cooper is only beginning to feel the ire of already angry gun owners. When your name is on the sign, there is precious little discrimination between your personal actions and those of your company. We’ll keep you posted.