Bill Johns, MBA, MPA
Bill Johns is the Founder of the Farragut Gun Club. Bill has been associated with the adventure, outdoors, & preparedness value chains since he was a young adult. A proven visionary and community leader who is one of the very few in the country that holds accredited graduate degrees in both business (MBA) and public (MPA) administration including an undergraduate degree in political science and criminal justice & criminology which also included studying forensic sciences under Dr. Hugh Berryman, an early student of Dr. Bill Bass.
Bill started hunting at the age of 13 with the introduction of the Browning BPS 12 gauge and his Buck 110 lock blade knife. As a CJ student, he road along the streets of Memphis with his fellow classmates and law enforcement friends in search of a rush while hosting the COPS production crews (and other film crews). Bill also gained notoriety for debating Sarah Brady of Handgun Control, Inc. during a University of Memphis speaker series.
While in graduate school, Bill was employed by Ducks Unlimited, Inc. one of the largest and most recognizable wetland conservation not for profits in its membership marketing, branding, and events management departments. Bill especially enjoyed working with DU partners, testing out DU branded products, and meeting some of the world's most notable sportsmen and celebrities of the day.
Bill has kept up his personal and business interest in the adventure, outdoors, & preparedness value chains including founding a company that serves those markets. Likewise, Bill through his consulting company has worked and supported the missions of homeland security organizations such as the NNSA, FBI, and other government, law enforcement, and military organizations. Bill is also is a past member of the National Defense Industry Association (Special Operations), supports the Special Operations Warriors Foundation, and is also known in that "community".
Bill is a frequent contributor to local and national publications and is an emergency preparedness expert.
The April 18th Strategy
The Farragut Press and its editor Dan Barile deserves incredible recognition and credit from the 2nd Amendment and economic development community for publishing the guest column of Bill Johns on April 18, 2013. Within hours of its posting on-line to www.FarragutPress.com and later in the delivery of the paper, it was picked-up by other regional papers, television reporters, and radio personalities. Alderman Markli easy "got it" and supported it.
This story quickly went viral and even got the attention of the US Senate as they later on that day voted down extensive, overreaching, and extremely unnecessary federal legislation pertaining to firearms (the knee-jerk reaction to Newton, CT). By the end of the afternoon, this guest column went international and was picked up by most adventure, outdoors, & preparedness value chain members and media as well. It took a month for Bill Johns to return all the inquires fielded on this topic which also sparked the entrepreneurial creation of a dedicated website.
The real strategic purpose of this initiative was to get the Knoxville - Oak Ridge area on the radar of 2nd Amendment companies who were fleeing New England and Colorado to look at Tennessee. Bill Johns was in communication with the TN ECD Commissioner about these opportunities prior to April 18th and started to send him active leads. Since April 2013, many companies have relocated and brought billions of dollars of taxable income and new jobs. The Governors of both TX and SC benefited by landing these companies.
Bill Johns
Funny Cartoon from April 2013
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Meets Every 2nd Monday at 6:30PM at Gander Mountain in Knoxville, TN
