Mike Branson Consulting

Michael P. Branson

14454 E. Colorado Drive #102

Aurora, CO 80012

682-220-2363

mike@mikebransonconsulting.com

 

Summary of Skills: Excellent oral and written communication, organizational, and well-honed analytical skills from years of working as a trial attorney, federally licensed manufacturer of firearms, certified firearms and firearms law instructor.

 

Education

University of Missouri, Columbia School of Law (MU)

Juris Doctor conferred May 2003.

Truman State University

Bachelor of Arts in History conferred May 2000.

 

Relevant Work History- Social Media Marketing

The Firearm Blog

December 2012- Present Day

Article Writer, Photographer

• Currently writing 15 articles each month on breaking industry news, gun and accessory reviews, international firearm and military stories, and human interest/technical stories
• Do all photo manipulation for each article, sometimes including original photography, sometimes including image manipulation through Photoshop.
• Myself and one other writer are the only regular writers for this very popular website– all other writers are guest writers submitting 1 or 2 articles monthly.

 

Cheaper Than Dirt!

June 2011-June 2012

Content Writer, Legal Restrictions Manager, Social Media Content Creator, Customer Service Coordinator, AR15.com representative, Photographer

• Wrote an average of one 1,000 word article every two days for publication at “The Shooters Log” located at www.cheaperthandirt.com/blog. Topics included product reviews, legal analysis, how-to, biographies, book and movie reviews, holidays and historic events, all designed to drive web traffic to the main e-commerce site. 40 of my best articles are available on request as proof of work product.
• Input significant amounts of content to Facebook and Twitter as part of a successful drive to reach 100,000 followers on Facebook. Consistently wrote informative and entertaining tidbits such as “What’s It Wednesday” and “Tech Tip Tuesday”, while answering technical, customer service, and business related questions posted via those programs. All of this successfully engaged CTD’s customer base in online interaction with a real person who shared their interests and concerns.
• Assisted in managing “restrictions” on new inventory for sale. Referencing a master list of which types of items cannot be sold in various states and cities, each new inventory item must be categorized and restrictions applied before it can go up for sale. Technically this involved interfacing MS Excel spreadsheets with CTD’s mainframe inventory management system. Legally, one mistake or error could lead to an illegal sale. I “restricted” hundreds of new inventory items each week.
• Managed the “Cheaperthandirt” account on AR15.com, the world’s largest firearms forum. Answering questions, dealing with customer service issues, and responding to criticism in a forthright way, I helped rehabilitate CTD’s reputation in the eyes of that online community. Net revenue directly attributed to AR15.com ads and promotions exceeded my annual salary every two months, so this was an important “side job” that required daily monitoring.
• Product photography and processing of photos using Photoshop CS4 and CS5 was part and parcel of my blog writing. Most watermarked photos included in my articles were both taken and processed by me, either in my home studio or on location.
• Once a month I was seconded to the print catalog team to write product descriptions. This challenging work demanded precise yet extremely concise wording that had to conform with a rigorous style guide, as space is at a premium in a full color printed catalog.

 

Relevant Work History- Law

Branson Legal Services, LLC

May 2008 – June 2011

General solo practice specializing in felony and misdemeanor criminal defense, divorce and child custody, civil suits, traffic matters, and bankruptcy.

• Special consultant to Dick Heller on ideas and concepts for further litigation following the landmark D.C. v. Heller Supreme Court Decision. See “Legal Team” at www.hellerfoundation.org
• Efficiently organized and managed all aspects of the solo practice without support staff, including business management, advertising, and financial matters.
• Consistently and effectively negotiated important matters in my clients’ cases, including parenting plans, property settlements, and reduced penalties and fines in criminal cases. Also handled case diversion, for example a high pressure negotiation process in a felony unregistered pistol silencer case, resulting in no charges being filed against the client.
• Won serious felony cases and complex domestic cases for my clients, including drug and weapons violations and child custody cases.  Stand-out victories included getting sole legal custody of children awarded to their fathers in contested trial settings.
• Appeared in court in front of judges or juries on average 20 court times each month.
• Practice was focused primarily on Johnson, Cass, andJacksonCounties, but branched out as far asSt. CharlesandBatesCounties.
• January 2010 won a six-figure settlement for my client in a complex Intellectual Property matter as pro hac vice counsel in the Federal Southern District of Georgia.
• Certified mediator/adjudicator since 2004.

 

Municipal Prosecutor, City of Holden

June 2006 – June 2008

City Prosecutor for a small rural town prosecuting all aspects of all municipal offenses.

• Dramatically increased efficiency of the municipal docket by reducing its backlog of dormant cases.
• Quickly reduced the number of cases that were more than a year old by encouraging the court to issue arrest warrants and set cash bonds consistently for individuals who failed to appear or meet their obligations.
• Successfully implemented a policy of high fines for drug and alcohol offenses, and meaningful jail time for assaults and repeat offenders.
• Worked collaboratively with police, city council, local defense attorneys, and the 17th circuit court to protect the community in a reasonable and fair manner.
• Organized and maintained all legal and financial records of the municipal prosecution office.

 

Missouri State Public Defender          

August 2004 – May 2006

Public Defender at KC Juvenile Division, 16th Circuit Family Court, Division 41, working with juvenile cases, from simple status offenses to complex felonies and making court frequent appearances.

• Successfully managed preparation for court appearances, client interviews, and follow-up procedures for nearly 100 court appearances per month including preliminary hearings, and multiple bench trials per week.
• Closed approximately 400 trial files in 2005 without the aid of support staff.
• Defended juvenile offenders on serious felony charges, including complex child sex crime, drug distribution and trafficking, assaults, firearms offenses, and arsons.

 

Relevant Work History- Firearms

Douglas County Firearms

September 2012- Present

Head of Gunsmithing Department, Manager of DCF Guns Store

• Full service gunsmithing shop handling customization, restoration, repairs, and detailed cleaning of all types of firearms.
• Management position with one subordinate who reports directly to me and only me.
• Diagnose and repair customer guns that have malfunctioned at the facility’s indoor shooting range.
• Build AR-15 rifles from parts and customize for individual buyers.
• Trigger jobs and action reliability jobs are a specialty.
• Solely responsible for the cash register balance and all financial transactions for the department, including purchasing needed supplies.

 

Missouri Custom Armament, LLC       

January 2005 – July 2010

Federally licensed manufacturer of all types of small arms excepting “Destructive Devices”. 

• Using a purpose built machine shop located first inHolden,Missouriand then inBlairstown,Missouri, along with four other business partners, constructed hundreds of custom rifles, pistols and shotguns for customers across the nation.
• Custom assault rifle “Kermit the Frog” was photographed and featured in Book of the AK47 Two by Patrick Sweeney.
• Designed, developed and manufactured prototype silencers capable of reducing the blast from an AR15 rifle to a sound level approximating the report of a .22 pistol.
• Built four custom machineguns designed to fire blank ammunition, which were then used to educate Army and Marine ROTC students in realistic field training exercises.
• Provided special orders, repair services, and armory support for local law enforcement agencies “at cost” with no profit to ourselves.

 

Instruction and Certifications

• Certified NRA pistol instructor since 2005
• Since 2006, have instructed hundreds of students through my Missouri Concealed Carry Endorsement Class, an 8 hour class exceeding all state law requirements for graduates to obtain the knowledge and proficiency necessary to safely and legally carry a concealed firearm on their person in the state of Missouri.
• My MO CCW Endorsement class is one of the most highly regarded in the area, and I will occasionally have students who already hold an endorsement pay to attend my class in order to solidify their education and training in the area of legal self protection.
• Have worked with DVC Training and Gun Control International as an instructor teaching NRA certified basic pistol and firearms safety in the home courses.

 

Relevant Work History- Supplemental

Outdoor Freedom Inc. / www.gunsarecool.com

July 2010 – August 2010

Outdoor Freedom Inc. hosts over 50,000 online auctions for firearms, firearm parts and accessories, as well as being the home of www.gunsarecool.com, a retail webpage with secure credit card web portal.  This start up business is set up as a drop ship “middle man” for three distributors with warehouses around the country, and orders are shipped directly to customers from those warehouses after auctions are won and payments are made.

• Responsibilities included creating auctions, filling all orders, handling email correspondence with customers and distributors, answering all technical questions, assisting with the shipping and billing process, and working with the webhosting service to refine, automate and streamline the process as much as possible.
• Left after ensuring that the order process had become automated enough that my job was superfluous and I was no longer needed to process orders manually through the distributors.

 

Useful Skill Set

• Consistently and accurately type over 100 wpm over long stretches of time, and 140 wpm in bursts.
• Extensive knowledge of PC hardware, Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft Office applications.  Basic working knowledge of Mac interfaces.
• Willing and able to drive long distances without a co-driver (a recent trip to Colorado took 12 hours of driving each direction); clean driving record.
• Reading speed, stamina, and retention of knowledge from reading are excellent.  I learn fast from the printed word and can immediately put new knowledge to work.
• Wide general knowledge base allows me to engage people of varying backgrounds and interests in intelligent conversation about issues that matter to them.
• Excellent photographer, with professional equipment and photo processing skills suitable for creating images for advertising or other public awareness projects.

 

 

 

PERSONAL REFERENCES

For Michael Branson

 

 

Andrew Sypien

Manager, Content Department, Cheaper Than Dirt!

2524 N.E.Loop820

Fort Worth,TX76106

800-421-8047 x109

Andrews@cheaperthandirt.com

 

Donna Hornsby

Content and Community Development Coordinator, Cheaper Than Dirt!

2524 N.E.Loop820

Fort Worth,TX76106

800-421-8047 x283

donnah@cheaperthandirt.com

 

Robert Clopton

Content Writer, Cheaper Than Dirt!

2050 Grayson Drive #4212

Grapevine,TX76051

972-415-6545

rclop472@gmail.com

 

Suzanne Wiley

Content Writer, Cheaper Than Dirt!

3217 Greene

Fort Worth,TX76109

214-394-1600

Suzannewiley75@gmail.com

 

Oleg Volk

Professional Photographer

3112 Chambley Court

Hermitage,TN37076

615-3645243

olegvolk@gmail.com

 

Jack R. Klahr Jr., LPC, Esq.

421 S. Dogwood Ave.

Broken Arrow, OK  74012

918-808-5973

jayklahr@hotmail.com

 

Lonnie J. Hermann

Immigration Enforcement Agent with DHS

4823 Quivira Drive Lane

Shawnee,KS66216

913-908-3393

deadaim500@hotmail.com