By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Twitter reactions to Levi Strauss & Co. asking customers not to bring guns into its stores are being dominated by pro-gun sentiment at this writing, with promises to buy someone else’s jeans overwhelming the handful of supporters who “think” being disarmed makes them safer.
The open letter statement itself, while giving “progressives” a false sense of victory to crow about, is actually pretty tepid. Mindful that a significant number of customers are flyover country/red state gun owners, CEO Chip Bergh took pains to frame it as “a request not a mandate.”
That’s probably smart, although the timing of the move right after seeing the vulnerability of yet another “gun-free zone” at Ohio State wasn’t.
Police are the “only ones” exempted, of course. Everyone knows where that term came from, right? And I trust you’re aware of who is responsible for negligent discharges more often than not when I routinely document the media using the phrase “the gun went off”?
Still, if Bergh is so sure about their request being “with the safety and security of our employees and customers in mind,” he should have no problem issuing a follow-up statement along these lines:
Levi Strauss & Co. agrees that a legally-binding special relationship exists with law-abiding customers on our premises who have disarmed to comply with our request. Because we have asked them to be unarmed, we hereby agree to assume responsibility for their personal safety and protection, and admit and accept liability should we fail in this duty.
They won’t of course. Nor, based on the “respectful request” is Bergh eager for heartland customers to know about his company’s consistent history of anti-gun activism. Fortunately, longtime gun owner rights advocates, along with the Internet Archive/Wayback machine, do not forget.
From a Jan. 2000 Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership alert:
Levi Strauss, the makers of the jeans we are so fond of buying, is taking your money and contributing heavily to PAX. PAX is an organization circulating a petition to broaden the reach of the federal government to disarm America.
And they just had to stick their noses in it again several years later, as I documented in emails from their corporate consumer relations flack:
Levi Strauss & Co. believes deeply in the importance of equality, social justice, community involvement and corporate citizenship … In this time of need, we encourage you to give what you can at www.oxfamamerica.org.
OXFAM? They’re the international citizen disarmament zealots who are conjoined with IANSA to stump for a global gun grab. If they get what they want, they won’t “respectfully request.” And it will be mandatory.
Levi’s whole “Pioneers in Justice” effort smacks of globalist SJW “progressivism.” In that context, “pioneers” becomes reminiscent of another effort at institutionalizing “social change.
The obvious and moral solution for gun owners is to make a rational free market decision: Do you want to continue patronizing a company that works against your interests and your safety, or can you buy jeans from a company that just wants to sell you denims? So naturally, leave it to the rabid “progressives” to headline a “tweet” from one obscure, anonymous racist (therefore one of unknown real loyalties, with 155 followers and who didn’t even join until July 2016) and tar everyone suggesting a boycott with the anti-Semite brush.
It’s what they do to try and intimidate citizens from opposing their agenda. And we know which side Levi Strauss takes.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.