Sounds like a good replacement for SGT. Starnes whom I found to be both knowledgable and helpful.
that's kinda what I was getting at - perhaps I could have phrased it differently, like couldn't they use some help in staffing/funding at least temporarily.
Having talked to Mark about this myself, I can say that, actually, it apparently was mostly a lawyer problem. He had to change lawyers after Katrina, as his original lawyer ran into some trouble of his own in the aftermath in New Orleans (that story is in Gordon Hutchinson's book, BTW); and the second lawyer essentially told Mark that settling was the only solution he would take the case for. If you've ever read any of Mark's pre-settlement posts about his case, you know that he wanted more than a simple solution as punishment for the GPD; so a symbolic award was out of the question. That's as close an understanding as I can gather from what little Mark can publicly say about the case as the settlement contained a non-disclosure clause.
And as for the rest of the OCDO folks only doing it for attention, that's not entirely fair. Founders Mike Stollenwerk and John Pierce have grown into published gun rights writers who are often quoted in the media. There's a public education component to OCing for sure (and in many other states OCDO members have dramatically improved the public image of ALL gun owners - see Michigan and Wisconsin for some recent examples); but I do appreciate your kind words that OC is sometimes a necessity for various valid reasons. We certainly do NOT want to rile up people against right to carry (which is why we always check with the proprietor of whatever restraunt we would like to hold our meet-up first, out of courtesy); but in every group (even BS.com) there are always a few who are, shall we say, somewhat embarrassing to the group.
