Social Engineering...

Following one of the more recent mass shootings, several of our prominent businesses decided to no longer wait for the Federal Government to "do something about gun violence," and decided to do something about it themselves.

Now, those of us blessed with common sense know that people who'd be affected by more rigorous, onerous, even fascist gun ownership and use restrictions are not the folks who are doing these mass shootings.  

No, my friends, it's the disaffected, mentally challenged of all stripe and Islamic jihadist terrorist murderous thugs who are doing all the shooting, and thus would be unaffected by any new and "improved" anti-gun laws we might choose to pass.

I mean, HELLO!  We already have more than 25,000 Federal, state, county, city and township gun control laws on the books and they don't seem to be preventing the mentally challenged or Islamic murderers from wrecking havoc, do they?

Just think of it:  Chicago has the very toughest gun laws in the United States.  It's almost impossible to buy and own and use and keep a gun there legally.    But obviously not illegally.  Last weekend another 41 people were shot there, and 7 of them died.  And they're claiming victory because it's down a tad from last year (!).

(Memo to legislators:  Criminals don't obey laws.  Passing even more anti-gun laws won't mean that criminals will finally, FINALLY start obeying them...)

But that doesn't stop them; no, they're dead-set on removing our ability to acquire, keep, use, store and bear firearms, as has been guaranteed as an individual, human Right by the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, and as reaffirmed by the Supreme Court (Heller v. District of Columbia).

And so while the Democrats in Congress debate whether and/or how much to modify the anti-gun laws currently on the books, some of our largest corporations have decided to weigh in on their own.  You may recall Dick's Sporting Goods announcing its decision last year to stop selling so-called "assault rifles" in all its stores nationwide.  And to up the minimum age to purchase firearms in all their stores to 21, regardless of what each state's laws on the subject might be.  You might be interested to note that Dick's just took a $150 Million charge against earnings for the sales downturn this little bit of social engineering cost them.  

(NOTE:  Once again, "assault rifles," meaning military fully-automatic machine guns have been outlawed in America since 1934.  Rifles currently for sale are semi-automatic, just like your grandpa's shotgun.  

Because the AR-15 is not a military rifle, it is not used by any military anywhere in the world!)

And you may also have heard that Dick's stock value plunged as a result.  It's lost more than 20% of its then-market value so far.  

But no matter to Dick's; it doesn't seem to care as its CEO just announced its intent to double-down and remove ALL firearms and ALL ammo and ALL related products from ALL its stores.  Annnnnd, you'll be interested to know that Dick hired a team of lobbyists to beg Congress to further limit our Constitutional Rights so they'll wind up in the mainstream.

Some companies are run out of business by the competition.  Some by unfavorable market or economic conditions.  But very, very few fail due to suicide...

I guess Dick's Sporting Goods is now just Dick's Goods...

And ALL its hunting and shooting business has moved on to any of the other stores which are happy to sell legal products to legal buyers, legally.  Oh yeah, and good ol' Dick was just sued because refusing to sell firearms to those under 21 is unconstitutional.  It would be karmic if Dick not only lost a bundle in sales and stock but also loses in the Supreme Court.

And then the Bank of America and Citibank chose to get involved.  Both have issued press releases indicating they'll no longer loan money to or do business with, any manufacturer or reseller of any firearms they deem "dangerous."  THEY deem!  No matter that the weapons they have blacklisted are legal.  And no matter that there are more than 15 million of them in circulation.  And no matter that rifles of all types are used in less than 3% of mass shootings!

In other words, they've chosen to use their God-given right to do bizz with whomever they choose.  And to cease doing business with those who offend their tender little Progressive sensibilities.  And their customers are now choosing to reward or punish them for those decisions.

I've been doing business with the Bank of America for 41 years.  I ran my businesses and personal transactions through this Bank for my entire career.  When I learned of this action I wrote Brian Moynihan, the CEO of BofA, expressing my concern over and dissatisfaction with their decision.   

Some weeks later I got an unsigned form letter from some junior functionary in "corporate communications" explaining to me why their feeble effort at "social engineering" was in my best interests.  I tried to call the functionary whose name appeared at the bottom of the page.  I was going to ask her the name of BofA's biggest competitor to save me the trouble of researching prospective future banks.  Funny, she never returned my call.  I guess that's the new "customer service" at the BofA.

One of the very nice things about America is that we can vote with our feet.  If we don't like the laws or the taxes in one state, we can move to another.  The 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees us that.  And if we don't like the way a business treats us, we can choose to move our business elsewhere.

I wonder if the junior dweeb who sent me the unsigned form letter from BofA ever found out I moved my account.  I picked Wells Fargo.  They've been given an "F" by the Bloomberg gun control group, so I know they're the perfect choice for me.

And maybe you?