I got all excited over a 3D anatomical model of a snail, a pair of Buddha cufflinks, the apple red retro kitchen timer, these cool little wind-up robot bugs and then, in the midst of my design inspired delight, I spied...
"Oh," I first thought. "Another stupid gun-related accessory, designed for non-gun people to shock and impress their friends...whatever."
I was about to continue on but I paused long enough to look at the page again and noticed this as the item's description...
"Kikkerland donates 5% of proceeds of each bag to the Brady Campaign to end gun violence (www.bradycampaign.org)"
Right. Well then, they just lost a potential customer. And really, it's not as if I couldn't find the same items somewhere else with a little extra effort on Google - librarian skills do come in handy sometimes.
Imagine what would happen if we gun owners refused to spend our money on items or services sold by companies that supported the Brady Campaign or had "no guns allowed" signs in their windows and then told the owners why. There are millions of us and money talks - someone might start to get the message.
35 comments:
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=15
I shun people too.
There are paces that HAVE gotten the message and taken down their signs. But there are others who defianty leave the signs up, and take the loss in revenue.
Just thought I offer a useful new tool for just this sort of thing.
Friendorfoe.us is a user driven 'rating' system for any brick-n-mortar business in the US.
It's new, so it's kind of slim pickings, but the more people who participate, the more effective it should become!
anyone who starts something about my lawful carry, concealed or open, me and my lawyer will finish it.
Anyone who supports Brady.org, I'll cheerfully hunt them down and put them out of business...
America! Love it or Leave it.
and they can bally well leave the US Constitution alone.
the last 4 words are SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!
G'Day, Breda. Have I failed the initiative test? Try as I might, I cannot make the image in this post resemble a firearm, or even part of a firearm in a bag, in any shape or form. Anyone else having this problem?
Duh. The PURPLE area is the bag. Just saw it. What I THOUGHT was part of the bag was just some form of chain.
Please save my blushes, and delete my silly post!
I just shot off an email, Play on words intended, telling kikkergardshop.com that I couldn't patronize their shop for the same reason a jew can't get into national socialism......
Maybe a little tacky, but they asked for it.
I thought the boycott of GFW businesses was a kind of unwritten rule amongst us gunnies.
MCRGO.org has a list of Michigan businesses that have posted no gins signs so that we can avoid them, I have a link to that on my page. I also boycott Pizza Hut after they fired that driver.
Things like this are annoying as hell. They think they are being ironic when they are actually giving a nod to the sheer design appeal of handguns. Hypocrites.
I'm curious, what if the gun companies are vocal opponents of other issues you support, such as gay marriage? Will you boycott a gun company if they believe in denying my right to equality?
This is strange, you asking me this considering who you voted for in the last election...a candidate who is not only anti-gun, but also anti-gay marriage. Do you not care about any of your own rights?
But anyway, to answer the question - yes, I might. There are LOTS of gun companies to buy guns from and I'm sure many of them are aware that gay people like to shoot too. They're probably really reluctant to lose potential customers, if nothing else. That said, I have never even heard of a gun company that was openly anti-gay.
I do care about my rights, which is why I voted for the person that I felt was more likely to at least listen to the argument, instead of "tolerate" me. Please don't question if I care about my rights, as you have all of yours, I don't yet.
Lydia,
That's odd I can't find a reference to ANYONE having a RIGHT to marriage. There is a rite of marriage, but that is dependent on religion and culture, and it is vastly different from a right, even though they are homonyms.
You have all of the same rights that I do. The one thing that some states are not recognizing is a government recognized civil union. OTOH, since our current president, aided and abetted by our alleged representatives in congress, has pretty much invalidated contracts, why do you care? Marriage was not originally a government thing, and should not be dependent on government rules or restrictions. Yes, I oppose bans on any form of marriage. If someone wants to be in a polygynous relationship, or a monogamous relationship, hetero or homo, I really couldn't care less. (Yes, polygynous is correct as polygyny encompasses both polygamy and polyandry.) Are you ok with polygynous relationships, or do you support laws against bigamy?
Marriage is and should be a philosophical thing between the participants in the marriage.
As for the rights thing, actually no we do not have all of our rights. The rights delineated in the Bill of Rights have been under siege since 1789 and are non-existent for all intents and purposes. We have "free speech zones", "gun free zones", checkpoints for drugs, dui, immigration (miles inside the border) ATVs etc...
Basically the only one of the first 10 that has not been trampled on is the 3rd as we don't have soldiers being quartered in our homes.
Agree! As others have said, there are links to those businesses we boycott.
Well said, Gregg.
I find the NRA list most helpful. I've been boycotting Levis [much as I used to love them] and Sara Lee products for years.
I agree wholeheartedly with Gregg, who commented above. The government has no place in marriage. And you know, technically, if you look at their records, Sarah Palin has actually done more, by abiding by the laws of her state, for gay rights than Obama ever has. All Obama has ever done is make empty promises to get votes.
Why should you care how people "feel" about you, as long as you're getting the results you want?
For the life of me, I _still_ can't figure out what the hell that pink thing is.
I agree with Greg, Stephen, and Breda. Government has no busness in anyones bedroom.
I already boycott businesses that support the Brady Bunch...it simply makes sense not to give my money to people who gain satisfaction with trimming the corners off the Constitution.
Money is a powerful motivator, as is the lack of it.
Basically the only one of the first 10 that has not been trampled on is the 3rd as we don't have soldiers being quartered in our homes.
I'm not so sure. I read the 3A much more broadly as Government intrusion on private spaces. With CCTV everywhere, I'm not so sure the 3rd hasn't been trampled with the rest.
Government in my home is what 3A goes to and I get the feeling .gov is in my home a lot more than they should be.
Palin does not support gay rights, she even said it herself in the Vice Presidential debates.
http://www.hrc.org/11156.htm
Ok, and? So did your president. What's your point?
http://www.aconservativevoicetoday.com/2009/05/quote-of-day-obama-on-gay-marriage.html
How did this blog post suddenly become a debate on gay rights anyway? Tiresome and off topic.
I merely asked if you would boycott gun companies that didn't support gay rights. I asked this because if you are going to boycott one company because they don't align with your views on guns, I was curious if you would boycott other companies that didn't align with other views you have supported. It seemed to unfold into other topics. I'm sorry that it became "tiresome and off topic".
How do you determine if a company doesn't support gay rights?
Is not supporting gay rights the same as actively opposing gay rights?
The Company Breda suggest boycotting actively opposes gun rights, if you do not have a corresponding example of a firearms manufacturer actively opposing gay rights, this is a meaningless discussion, isn't it?
Here is the letter I sent them:
Dear Sir or Madam:
I was saddened to see that Kikkerland donates 5% of the proceeds from this product to the Brady Campaign:
http://www.kikkerlandshop.com/bb04-p.html
You have delightful products, especially to someone with my geeky tastes, but I cannot support a company that believes in taking away my rights. I don't want my own money being used against me. Why is Kikkerland anti-freedom, anti-Constitution, and anti-self-defense? Why do you believe in nullifying Americans' rights? Do you have the same authoritarian urges against my freedom of speech or freedom of religion?
Guns are an important protection of minorities and the weak. They equalize disparities in numbers and physical strength. Hence the Second Amendment protects women, gays, blacks, Jews, or anyone who happens to unpopular. It defends all the other individual rights enumerated in our Constitution. The right of citizens to keep and bear arms is a check against all bullies, small and large. Why do you want people in our society to be less safe and less secure in their freedoms?
Perhaps you want to violate my rights because you are afraid. I was taught that fear is no excuse for injustice, and those who act otherwise are cowards. But however disreputable this attitude, I admit that fear can influence the best of us. Since fear often comes from ignorance, are you aware that gun control correlates strongly with increased violent crime? Since only law-abiding citizens obey gun laws, it stands to reason that disarming the lawful only abets the lawless. Why does Kikkerland stand on the side of theives and murderers rather than on the side of free, law-abiding men and women?
I hope you will reconsider your position on this issue. In the meantime, I'm afraid I will have to forgo shopping with you.
What svi said.
Also, what phlegmfatale said. I don't get the concept of carrying a gun-shaped purse as a protest against owning/carrying a gun.
Is it because it's pink? If so, I'm insulted.
Holly @ the Literary Assassin.
As a dirtbike rider I started out by boycotting overt eco-wenies, businesses and organizations who were anti-access, anti multuiple-use and anti-off-road. As a gun owner I found that a LOT of those same people/companies were anti-gun, anti self-defense - so it's easy. But like Holly says, there is very good they're massively confused in the head - to re-identify and re-signify carrying a gun-shaped purse as a statement of identification as an "anti" - it's so much academic Derrida rubbish and word-twisting. It really requires a Liberal Arts degree to be that messed-up.
I've been doing it for years. If it's a "gun free zone", or they support anti-gun organizations, I take my business elsewhere and so does everyone else in my family.
All pro-gun, pro-freedom folks might think about doing the same. I'd have to agree with Breda that many businesses would be singing a different tune shortly.
Joe
...there is very good [insert] EVIDENCE [/insert] they are massively confused...
Our State org, GONH, included some nice business cards with the gun free zone logo on one side and an explanation of why the person giving the card would not be spending money in the gun free business on the other side. It was a good way to get the point across articulately.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry also makes the nice business cards for this. Once side has pictures representing "no guns = no money" and a sentence saying that I saw your sign and I will shop somewhere else.
The other side mentions how I went through background checks, and how well do they know their other customers :).
We have our 3 boys trained (4 years, 2 years, and 2 months). If I say a store is broken, they all say "Oh, ok Daddy" (well the 4 year old and the 2 year old anyways).
We have the stores down pretty good now. I will not shop at a store that has a sign in the window, but I will shop in a different location of the same company that doesn't have the sign. I also tell the shop with the sign that I will do that too.
This is along the same lines as why I stopped buying from Cheaper Than Dirt. I went to do an order from them and was including a Tapco stock for my AR15. They wouldn't ship to California. They aren't illegal in CA, but CTD wouldn't ship because they said they have had trouble with CA in the past. They support the NRA, but make it a company policy to ship things to CA that are legal here. I ended up buying from a local dealer, at a higher price. I sent CTD an email telling them why I won't shop with them again.
@Paul
Wonderful words! Your post inspired me to create business-card sized notes to be used to leave at business I decide to avoid.
One side will be a small form I can fill out indicating what I inteneded to buy/spend. The reverse would have text similar to yours (something more generic).
I'd like to quote you, would you care to write something more generic, and suited to this purpose?
I'll publish a PDF of what I create, for others to use.
Thanks
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