What Does It Say When Even Hi-Point Drops You As A Customer?

Today's Shooting Wire contained a release from MKS Supply, LLC saying they would no longer do business with Dick's Sporting Goods and its Field and Stream subsidiary. MKS Supply is the exclusive distributor for Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing.

In recent months, Dick's Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, have shown themselves, in our opinion, to be no friend of Americans' Second Amendment. We believe that refusing to sell long guns to adults under age 21, while many young adults in our military are not similarly restricted, is wrong. We believe that villainizing modern sporting rifles in response to pressure from uninformed, anti-gun voices is wrong. We believe that hiring lobbyists to oppose American citizens' freedoms secured by the Second Amendment is wrong. Dick's Sporting Goods and Field & Stream, in purportedly doing all of these things, have demonstrated that they do not share our values.

MKS Supply, Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing are standing by the American people by refusing any further sales to Dick's Sporting Goods & Field & Stream. We are proud of our products, we are proud of our customers, and we are especially proud of the freedoms secured by our great U.S. Constitution. We are committed to all three.

As I reported last week, Springfield Armory severed their ties with Dick's and the NSSF had expelled them from membership.

This afternoon it was announced that Mossberg was refusing any future orders and evaluating their current contractual agreements with Dick's and Field and Stream.

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., a leading American firearms manufacturer, announced today its decision to discontinue selling products to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring of gun control lobbyists in April 2018.

Effective immediately, O.F. Mossberg & Sons will not accept any future orders from Dick’s Sporting Goods or Field & Stream, and is in the process of evaluating current contractual agreements.

“It has come to our attention that Dick’s Sporting Goods recently hired lobbyists on Capitol Hill to promote additional gun control.” said Iver Mossberg, Chief Executive Officer of O.F. Mossberg & Sons. “Make no mistake, Mossberg is a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution and our Second Amendment rights, and we fully disagree with Dick’s Sporting Goods’ recent anti-Second Amendment actions.”

Consumers are urged to visit one of the thousands of pro-Second Amendment firearm retailers to make their purchases of Mossberg and Maverick® firearms. Firearm retailers can be found through the Mossberg Dealer Locator by visiting http://www.mossberg.com/dealers/.

Dick's might not be hurt by this but Field and Stream is going to miss both Springfield and Mossberg. The average Field and Stream store devotes about one-third of its overall space to hunting and shooting. A few more of these announcements and they can kiss the hunting and shooting business goodbye.

Finally, when even a low-end producer like Hi-Point wants nothing to do with you, it says you suck and big time.

Making Amends?

The other controversy that seemed to hang over the NRA Annual Meeting was the report that the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association had gone neutral on an anti-gun bill in the Illinois General Assembly. The bill would add state oversight and licensing to gun dealers and manufacturers in addition to Federal oversight from BATFE. In exchange for going neutral on the bill, manufacturers were dropped from the bill which then passed the Illinois Senate. The vote there was 30-21 on the day before the Annual Meeting got started.

According to press releases sent out on Monday, there were unaware of what their lobbyist was doing. It got worse when it was reported that IFMA had made contributions to anti-gun politicians who used that money to defeat pro-gun candidates.

Both Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms evidently recognized the PR nightmare was getting worse and announced their resignations from IFMA. They obviously were determined not to be the next Smith & Wesson circa Year 2000.

Last night I received multiple emails from Springfield Armory asking people to contact their Illinois state representative to vote against SB 1657. I see this as an excellent move on Springfield Armory's part. They are finally taking a pro-active stand. In case the link didn't come through below, it is here.

Dear John, The 2nd Amendment urgently needs your help in Illinois! The Illinois House of Representatives may consider Senate Bill 1657, legislation that could put state gun dealers out of business, at any time! It is imperative you share this with friends and family living in Illinois and strongly urge them to OPPOSE SB 1657!     SB 1657 would create onerous mandatory regulations, fees potentially in the thousands of dollars and excessive amounts of red tape that would almost assuredly force the closure of many firearm dealers, and prevent prospective owners from opening new ones.  The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) already licenses and closely monitors all federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs) and strictly enforces any violation of federal law. SB 1657 goes far beyond federal law and is designed to shut down as many FFLs as possible. Again, please click the “Take Action” button above to contact your state Representative and urge them to strongly oppose SB 1657!  Stay tuned to www.nraila.org for further updates on this bill.

Springfield Armory   420 West Main Street    Geneseo  IL   61254   USA You received this email because you are subscribed to Marketing Information from Springfield Armory .