1. Most of these companies would be pissing off their actual customer base in order to appease a bunch of coastal progressives that would rather forgo their Starbucks Soy Lattes for a week than enter one of these outdoor retailers. That doesn’t mean the companies will have a spine though.

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2. Orvis sells guns? The Orvis near me only sells clothing, I always thought it was an L.L. Bean type operation.

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3. Cabelas is now owned by Bass Pro which is a very 2A freindly chain. They even have an NRA firearm museum in their flagship store in Springfield, MO. I don’t see them caving to this astroturf campaign.

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4. It might not hurt to warn Cabelas (and others as needed) before they cave.

   Today’s WSJ had an article about gun makers “wary of smart technology”. The WSJ is a NY publication, so the fact they don’t understand is not all that surprising. Still, good to see S&W is acting sanely this time around (for now anyway). It may be time to point out to the WSJ that companies are wary because they understand they must say no or face instant and massive boycott.

   1. There are people who are still mad at S&W for caving in to the government and won’t buy anything from them.

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      1. Yes, I remember “S&W must DIE” by L. Neil Smith. That was one or two owners ago, though, and besides, those owners were Brits so they didn’t know what they were doing. So I’m inclined to cut S&W a small amount of slack. For now. An inch or two.

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5. While it pains me to see Orvis side with the gun-control fanatics, for decades they’ve been nothing more than a “lifestyle” store, selling country-style bric-a-brac and dog beds to decorators and hausfraus. In fact, their fly rod department at the flagship store in Manchester Center is an embarrassment. I’ve seen guides with better inventory in their pickups.

   1. My dad was big into Orvis. As a family vacation we did their fly fishing school in VT and the sporting clays school in FL. That was years ago. This would have broken my dad’s heart.

6. I don’t know if Shannon Watts has ever been to a Cabela’s, but if Cabela’s folds to her I’m going to find another card to spend my $39,000 a year on.

   This is the critical part of the calculus that the businesses who have caved are missing. The anti-gun people DO NOT shop there, and will continue to NOT shop there even if they cave.

   But the people who DO shop there will STOP doing so if they are pissed off.

   There’s literally no up-side to caving to the anti-gun shrills; the stores won’t gain anything from that crowd. But they will lose many existing customers.

   On the other hand, if the stores stand firm, they’ll keep their current customer base, and if they play their cards well will gain many new customers who used to frequent competitors who caved. If the anti-gunners try to “boycott”, well … they never shopped there anyway, so the stores lose nothing.

   J.Kb.: I can all but guarantee that Shannon Watts does not spend $39k per year on a Cabela’s card, nor does anyone in her cadre of supporters, and if Cabela’s caves they still won’t. Cabela’s stands to either keep or lose your business; they gain or lose nothing from Shannon Watts’ side either way.

   BTW, an Oregon man is suing (separately) Dick’s AND Walmart over raising the age to purchase firearms. As it turns out, age discrimination is illegal under Oregon law (and some other states’ laws, to varying degrees, but in Oregon age is a protected status right up there with race, religion, and sexual orientation); as long as the law allows it for his age — which both state and federal law do — retailers subject to “public accommodation” cannot use age as a disqualifying criteria.
   https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/07/us/dicks-lawsuit-rifle-trnd/index.html

   The gun he was trying to purchase is reportedly a Ruger 10/22, or similar; i.e. not an AR-15 or other “assault weapon” (a term which is legally meaningless in Oregon … so far).

   I’m enjoying me some good schadenfreude on that one!

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