"The NRA Pissed Off the Wrong Nerd Genius"

[applegrove]

The NRA Pissed Off the Wrong Nerd Genius

by Cliff Shecter at the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/26/the-nra-pissed-off-the-wrong-nerd-genius.html

"SNIP..............................

Somewhere in a large glass tower in Northern Virginia, there’s a guy who runs guns with a French name having a bad day. With good reason.

It was reported Monday that Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and incredibly wealthy guy, and with his wife, Melinda, have given $1 million to Initiative 594 in Washington state. The ballot initiative, if passed by voters on November 4 (and it currently enjoys overwhelming support), will require universal background checks for all firearm purchases in the state.

Gates is only the latest Washington billionaire to give to the effort, with original Amazon investor Nick Hanauer providing crucial early funding, and more recently upping his overall donation to $1.4 million. Additionally, Gates’s Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, has provided $500,000 for the cause.

But Gates’s fame brings more attention and further legitimizes the initiative in a way that almost nobody else could. Once the Gates Foundation made it a priority to combat malaria around the world in 2000, it brought down deaths due to the insect-borne disease by 20 percent in 11 years, saving the lives of 1 million African children in the process.


.................................SNIP"

[flamin lib]

1. The NRA/Gun Lobby money advantage is slipping away. nt

[BrotherIvan]

2. While I hope the law passes,

very much, in fact, I won't applaud billionaires as this puff piece is trying to do. Gates is a very shady character and his malaria project was rife with abuse. He's also trying to destroy public education, so there's that. These masters of the universe types should not hold the keys to our democracy. Money OUT of politics.