The Coalition Cult to Stop Gun Violence Ownership has many state level affiliates. They are, in the words of Dr. Brian Anse Patrick,

The group here in North Carolina is North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (NCGV) and they fit Dr. Patrick’s description to a T. They were so bad that they didn’t even have a Director. NCGV ran out of money and she bailed, leaving their office assistant Gail Neely to attempt to fill her place.

Well it looks like Mike Bloomberg has purchased NCGV and has pushed the office assistant over the side as well. Via email…

Starting August 4, 2014, NCGV will welcome a new Executive Director!

Becky Ceartas comes to NCGV with 13 years of experience in public policy, grassroots organizing, lobbying, advocacy, media, leadership development, and event planning. She has run successful campaigns on the local, state and federal levels. She moved to North Carolina 9 years ago for her job with the Rural Advancement Foundational International – USA, a sustainable agriculture non-profit in Pittsboro, NC. She is married, has a 2-year-old son, and likes to spend time outside. Becky came to this issue after the Sandy Hook Tragedy. She cares deeply about it as a mom and has since become the Advocacy Lead statewide for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She looks forward to the two groups collaborating on many projects. I will leave NCGV with an incredible sense of pride in the movement we have built and the good we have accomplished during my nine years at NCGV. As positive momentum in favor of sensible gun laws continues to build across the nation, region, and state, I am confident in the future of this organization, and remain grateful for the tireless efforts of our board, staff, and supporters to never stop fighting for a safer North Carolina. Gail Neely NCGV

http://www.ncgv.org/

So the statewide advocacy lead (who I’ve never actually heard of) from Moms Demand Illegal Mayors for Everytown, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg, Inc. has taken over as Executive Director of the only actual anti gun group in the state, in the process throwing the previous chair warmer over the side. In business this would be called a “hostile takeover.”

So let’s find out a bit about our new friend Becky Ceartas.

Facebook

LinkedIn – Currently Looking For Part Time or Contract Work at Nonprofits – Previous work, Greenpeace. (Now deleted)

Quit Coal – So she’s the NC anti-coal campaign organizer.

Google+ – Plenty of info on her previous work history. It’s the story of a True Believer. It’s Left wing all up and down. (Also deleted)

She’s married to Devin Ceartas. Who is Devin Ceartas? Well, he’s not saying.

Devin Ceartas once lived in the Midwest. Having cheated on his fiancé, a career as an Organic Chemist, with the young Student Environmental Action Coalition for years, he finally left his Ph.D. program on the eve of the wedding and ran off to the woods. He was a founding member of Missouri Heartwood and worked as Network Support Coordinator for Heartwood, serving the Forest full-time for the better part of a decade. Devin then up and changed his name, got married and followed his love’s career path to a god-forsaken little town in Orange Co. NY. Absent any other options, Devin turned his long-time fascination with his younger sibling, the Internet, into a career programming websites. Devin is now a Unix grey-beard business owner in Chapel Hill, NC, building database, web and iOS tools for Forest Protection, Sustainable Agriculture, and Fair Trade organizations (and a smattering of small businesses). (The web developers at Heartwood have decided to redirect anyone who clicks this link. The page still exists. Copy this URL and past to another open tab to read it) https://www.heartwood.org/council#Ceartas

So we have no idea what his name really is. Or was. Ceartas means “Justice” in Gaelic. We don’t know that his name change was innocent or if he was running from something. Something aside from the fiancé he abandoned.

Here’s his LinkedIn page. He owns NacreData. Nacre is the stuff we call Mother of Pearl.

So if Mike Bloomberg is buying State affiliate of CSGV and installing his own true believers, is he also buying the parent group? One hopes that he’s not stupid enough to give Ladd Everett a paycheck, but you never know. On the other hand, if he tosses Ladd out and forces him to get a real job, I approve.

The lesson here is that there are no Anti-Gun “Groups.” There is only one group. They are all the same people. No matter what name they have in their electronic letterhead, it’s the same very few people.