SC governor’s office targets national gun rights group

By Rick Brundrett | The Nerve

The head of a national gun-rights organization says Gov. Nikki Haley’s office last week tried to “bully” his group after hundreds of members contacted her office opposing a touted ethics-reform bill.

Dudley Brown, executive vice-president and CEO of the National Association for Gun Rights, told The Nerve on Friday that Haley’s office directed the State Ethics Commission to contact his organization in response to the grassroots effort.

The Ethics Commission – the state’s ethics-watchdog agency – is not a Haley Cabinet agency, though the governor appoints the nine governing commissioners, with consent of the Legislature.

“Simply by the Ethics Commission calling our office and asking about an existing and pending matter before the Legislature – it was a clear method to intimidate citizens from practicing free speech,” said Brown, who lives in Colorado and also serves as CEO of the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Gun Owners organization.

at The Nerve.