John
02-17-2016, 12:08 AM
I feel that there are some dishonest, unethical, and downright shady things happening with AZguns in Chandler so I want to take a moment to get the truth out there for everyone. Beginning on February 4th, 2016 I was contacted by Brandon Johnson, the owner of AZguns in Chandler. In my opinion, the stunts he is trying to pull are dishonest, unethical, and downright dirty.
To fully understand the situation at hand, I feel it is important to establish a timeline of events. What I am writing here will explain the timeline with specific dates and details of each incident. Attached to this statement is documented proof to back up what I claim.
In early 2013 I started a Facebook group by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade. The purpose of this group was to provide a community where both private sellers and dealers could list firearms and related accessories. The link to this group was Log into Facebook | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/azgunbuy)
The community turned out to be a great success. In early 2014 I created a page on Facebook by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade located at Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/azgunbuy) This page is still up and active as of the time I’m writing this. On April 23rd of 2014 I uploaded the cover photos to this page. The large image is an AR15 with the text “Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade” and the smaller image is the Arizona state flag. You can visit the page now and look at the upload dates on the photos and go through the post history that dates back to early 2014. About the same time I created the group Arizona Gun Talk at Log into Facebook | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/azguntalk) to supplement Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and provide a place where the community could have general discussions.
Lets jump forward in time a little. In February of 2015 Brandon Johnson created his business AZguns in Chandler. On March 9th, 2015 he filed a registered trade name for “AZ GUNS”. The owner of this trade name is his other LLC called “Moneyshot LLC”. On March 12th, 2015 he registered the trade name “Arizona Guns”, also owned by his company “Moneyshot LLC”. My research indicated that Moneyshot LLC was created in July of 2015.
Information including names, dates, addresses, and phone numbers about the trade names can be found on the Arizona Secretary of State (http://www.azsos.gov) with the following links : (I am also attaching screenshots of the records)
AZ GUNS - Tradename and Trademark Department (http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=616386&NME_CODE=NME)
ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=618126&NME_CODE=NME
AZ GUNS/ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=614025&NME_CODE=NME
In February of 2015 he also created a Facebook page for AZguns located at http://www.facebook.com/arizonaguns On February 10th, 2015 he uploaded the profile picture for the page. The profile picture was an Arizona flag picture very similar to what I had uploaded to the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade page nearly a year prior. His picture that he uploaded says “AZ GUNS” in white print on the bottom and has a silhouette of a rifle sight in the center of the flat instead of a star.
Almost immediately after Brandon created his AZguns business he began advertising in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. His ads always included a link to his AZguns Facebook page and he made it clear that it was a business classified ad. His very first post in my group Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was on March 28th, 2015. His post did not comply with the set group rules so I deleted it and contacted him via private message on Facebook. I explained to him that his ad in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade did not comply with the groups rules and advised him how to create a new ad that did comply with the rules. The following day on March 29th, 2015 he returned my message acknowledging what I had said and saying he would fix any ads he posted in the future.
For about the next 10 months both him and his employees advertised in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade on a regular basis and never once complained about any issues with the name my group was using.
Fast forwarding to Friday January 29th, 2015. Facebook released a statement to major news outlets that it would no longer allow the sale of private firearms on Facebook. I immediately acted to preserve the community that I had worked for 3 years to build. I purchased the domain http://www.azgunbuy.com and built a website on it where my community could move to and continue to have a place to place classified ads and browse classified ads. I built the webpage and launched it about 24 hours later on Saturday January 30th, 2015.
Over the weekend I advertised the link for http://www.azgunbuy.com in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group as well as about 20 other local gun groups. On Monday February 1st, 2016 Facebook began removing groups where gun classified ads were listed. Most groups were deleted by Facebook, including my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. At the time my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was removed by Facebook, there were 11,117 members.
A few days later Brandon sent me a private message on Facebook. He claimed that he had recently become aware that I was operating under a name that was too similar to his gun shops name. He also stated that someone on the West side of town had been operating using his name. After doing a little research I found that Shannon Galloway, one of the founders of the group Gun Traders of Arizona had filed a trade name for “AZ GUNS/ARIZONAGUNS’ on January 13th, 2015.
I explained to Brandon that I had been using the names Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and Arizona Gun Talk since early 2013, a full two years before his business existed. I explained that I did not intend to change the names I was using. I offered to come up with something to make it known that there is no association between the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group and the AZguns retail store.
This was not good enough for Brandon. Brandon and I exchanged multiple messages over the next 3 days. In those messages were several passive aggressive legal threats. I eventually told him to just leave me alone on February 7th, 2015.
The evening of February 7th, 2015 Brandons Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages for AZguns had a new post. This post read as follows.
“Well, we've had a couple folks do some shady stuff in the last year. (Like trying to trademark our company name... Thankfully unsuccessfully). We had a run in with a known Facebook character...But we want to make it clear that we are not associated with any of the known shady characters running private sale forums and advertising them on Facebook (despite having a name very similar to our business and using the Arizona flag as his logo). We want to let our pricing and business ethics speak for themselves. The good news: we've contacted our web guys and will be throwing up a forum that won't be shady for folks to sell their used wares given facebook's current position on gun sales. If you're interested in moderating it please comment on this post. Stay safe out there!“
continued on next post
To fully understand the situation at hand, I feel it is important to establish a timeline of events. What I am writing here will explain the timeline with specific dates and details of each incident. Attached to this statement is documented proof to back up what I claim.
In early 2013 I started a Facebook group by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade. The purpose of this group was to provide a community where both private sellers and dealers could list firearms and related accessories. The link to this group was Log into Facebook | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/azgunbuy)
The community turned out to be a great success. In early 2014 I created a page on Facebook by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade located at Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/azgunbuy) This page is still up and active as of the time I’m writing this. On April 23rd of 2014 I uploaded the cover photos to this page. The large image is an AR15 with the text “Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade” and the smaller image is the Arizona state flag. You can visit the page now and look at the upload dates on the photos and go through the post history that dates back to early 2014. About the same time I created the group Arizona Gun Talk at Log into Facebook | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/azguntalk) to supplement Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and provide a place where the community could have general discussions.
Lets jump forward in time a little. In February of 2015 Brandon Johnson created his business AZguns in Chandler. On March 9th, 2015 he filed a registered trade name for “AZ GUNS”. The owner of this trade name is his other LLC called “Moneyshot LLC”. On March 12th, 2015 he registered the trade name “Arizona Guns”, also owned by his company “Moneyshot LLC”. My research indicated that Moneyshot LLC was created in July of 2015.
Information including names, dates, addresses, and phone numbers about the trade names can be found on the Arizona Secretary of State (http://www.azsos.gov) with the following links : (I am also attaching screenshots of the records)
AZ GUNS - Tradename and Trademark Department (http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=616386&NME_CODE=NME)
ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=618126&NME_CODE=NME
AZ GUNS/ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Search_Engine.dll/ZoomTNT?NME_ID=614025&NME_CODE=NME
In February of 2015 he also created a Facebook page for AZguns located at http://www.facebook.com/arizonaguns On February 10th, 2015 he uploaded the profile picture for the page. The profile picture was an Arizona flag picture very similar to what I had uploaded to the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade page nearly a year prior. His picture that he uploaded says “AZ GUNS” in white print on the bottom and has a silhouette of a rifle sight in the center of the flat instead of a star.
Almost immediately after Brandon created his AZguns business he began advertising in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. His ads always included a link to his AZguns Facebook page and he made it clear that it was a business classified ad. His very first post in my group Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was on March 28th, 2015. His post did not comply with the set group rules so I deleted it and contacted him via private message on Facebook. I explained to him that his ad in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade did not comply with the groups rules and advised him how to create a new ad that did comply with the rules. The following day on March 29th, 2015 he returned my message acknowledging what I had said and saying he would fix any ads he posted in the future.
For about the next 10 months both him and his employees advertised in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade on a regular basis and never once complained about any issues with the name my group was using.
Fast forwarding to Friday January 29th, 2015. Facebook released a statement to major news outlets that it would no longer allow the sale of private firearms on Facebook. I immediately acted to preserve the community that I had worked for 3 years to build. I purchased the domain http://www.azgunbuy.com and built a website on it where my community could move to and continue to have a place to place classified ads and browse classified ads. I built the webpage and launched it about 24 hours later on Saturday January 30th, 2015.
Over the weekend I advertised the link for http://www.azgunbuy.com in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group as well as about 20 other local gun groups. On Monday February 1st, 2016 Facebook began removing groups where gun classified ads were listed. Most groups were deleted by Facebook, including my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. At the time my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was removed by Facebook, there were 11,117 members.
A few days later Brandon sent me a private message on Facebook. He claimed that he had recently become aware that I was operating under a name that was too similar to his gun shops name. He also stated that someone on the West side of town had been operating using his name. After doing a little research I found that Shannon Galloway, one of the founders of the group Gun Traders of Arizona had filed a trade name for “AZ GUNS/ARIZONAGUNS’ on January 13th, 2015.
I explained to Brandon that I had been using the names Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and Arizona Gun Talk since early 2013, a full two years before his business existed. I explained that I did not intend to change the names I was using. I offered to come up with something to make it known that there is no association between the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group and the AZguns retail store.
This was not good enough for Brandon. Brandon and I exchanged multiple messages over the next 3 days. In those messages were several passive aggressive legal threats. I eventually told him to just leave me alone on February 7th, 2015.
The evening of February 7th, 2015 Brandons Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages for AZguns had a new post. This post read as follows.
“Well, we've had a couple folks do some shady stuff in the last year. (Like trying to trademark our company name... Thankfully unsuccessfully). We had a run in with a known Facebook character...But we want to make it clear that we are not associated with any of the known shady characters running private sale forums and advertising them on Facebook (despite having a name very similar to our business and using the Arizona flag as his logo). We want to let our pricing and business ethics speak for themselves. The good news: we've contacted our web guys and will be throwing up a forum that won't be shady for folks to sell their used wares given facebook's current position on gun sales. If you're interested in moderating it please comment on this post. Stay safe out there!“
continued on next post