This article was published by the Charlotte, NC Observer newspaper. The scope of the article focused on gun manufacturer's worries as knee jerk gun control bills are proposed in the wake of the Newtown, CT tragedy.
In the article, one "manufacturer" was interviewed and a little regurgitation of the news about Cerberus unloading Freedom Group ensued.
The interview with the "family-owned company near Charlotte is a specialty manufacturer of AR-15’s" was conducted with a Ken Rinkor who is Vice-President of Tactical Arms Manufacturer (the company).
Mr Rinkor voiced concerns about the company's sole business (AR15 rifles) being outlawed and just happened to mention that he saw "no need" for anyone to have 20-30 round magazines, "even for personal protection." That statement set the antenna twitching of one "Sensei" at M4Carbine.net. It's exceedingly odd (and a bit bad for business) when an avowed AR15 manufacturer is personally against "hi capacity" magazines. Of course, the article claims that they sell "mainly to law enforcement personnel." WHO? WHICH DEPARTMENTS?
Anyway, "Sensei" posted this thread and it was on. In roughly 24 hours, we (myself included) using freely available sources (Google.com) determined a few interesting facts about Mr. Rinkor and his company Tactical Arms Manufacturing that "sells mainly to law enforcement personnel."
- the company's web site is jarringly poorly done but at least they link to and presumably sell lNC Star's fine line of optics (screenshot)
- the phone number on the web site is a Florida number whereas the fax number is a Massachusetts number
- Better Business Bureau lists the company as a Florida company
- the ATF lists the company as being located in two locations in Orange Park, Florida
- public WHOIS information lists this web site as being registered to Ken Rinkor of Florida, using the same addresses the ATF has on file
- LinkedIn.com lists Ken Rinkor as the IT Director at this company with no military, firearms, nor law enforcement experience
- And......one of the addresses on file is a UPS store . Interesting how the address of a federal firearms dealer is a UPS store.
If you have handled one of these fine rifles from this company, contact me. If you know of an actual law enforcement professional using one of these rifles, contact me. If you're a reporter, writing an article; do some research next time and Google Edward R Murrow. Don't do such a poor job that you get called out by folks using Google.
As for this "company," I don't think it's a real company with real products. The website and the research above screams FAKE to me (and others). They do have a Facebook page but aren't accepting comments and deleted negative ones that were made. A retraction of sorts saying that the company officially does not support bans of high capacity magazines was made and then something along the lines of "if you're really a good shot, you don't need 30 rounds."
Good job, mi compadres at M4Carbine.net! Newspapers, lemme know when you want to hire someone that can do research and speak knowledgeably about firearms.
I have reason to believe that Ken Rinkor was in a Nebraska prison in the late 1970's or early 1980's. FYI.
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