Not a knee jerk reaction at all, Rainbow Six, but a comment that has been months in coming.
The logic that was displayed in your base rationalization is the exact same type of logic that many anti-gunners are using to try to gut the Second Amendment.
You seem to claim that people who pass on the purchase of a new Smith & Wesson and instead choose a product by another manufacturer are somehow passive activists?
Tell me, how could it be passive activism when, by Smith & Wesson's own admission, sales have fallen precipitiously since the signing of the agreement and the old owners were forced to lay off a significant portion of the work force?
If you read the financials and sales agreement between the new owners and Tompkins, you'd possibly understand just how badly the boycott punished S&W and its parent company for its actions.
A boycott, by its very nature, is an active endeavor. As I have repeatedly stated, in years past I made approximately $700 worth of direct purchases from Smith & Wesson A YEAR -- parts, co-branded items such as shirts, knives, and other crap and, when the agreement was signed, was activly considering the purchase of an S&W Mountain Bike. Such was the level of my commitment to Smith & Wesson and its products.
In the 2 calendar years since the agreement has been signed?
I have purchased several new guns. I have purchased tons of goodies. And I purchased my Mountain Bike.
Not a single item of which came from Smith & Wesson.
By my ACTIVE participation in the boycott, and by letting Smith & Wesson know exactly WHY they no longer receive my business, I have kept nearly $2,000 dollars from Smith & Wesson's coffers, and by doing so had an active hand in Smith & Wesson's financial woes.
I am extremely proud of that.
I am as equally proud of the fact that I have prevented people -- both friends and strangers -- from purchasing Smith & Wesson firearms by educating them about the agreement, the exact sort of activism that you claim doesn't exist simply because no one was there to tackle you and prevent you from purchasing a new Smith & Wesson product. Nice try.
You also claim that no one has ever walked into TFL and purchased a Smith & Wesson. That's true, this board doesn't broker tangible products.
It brokers something FAR more valuable -- information.
You have no clue, nor do I for that matter, how many newbies, unaware of the scope of Smith & Wesson's duplicity, have come on to this board looking for information on new handguns and have been swayed against the purchase of a new Smith & Wesson product.
And, quite frankly, you have NO clue what others here on this board do in their spare time to combat this agreement while at gunshows, gun stores, or their shooting clubs.
But we do know what you've done in your spare time. You've purchased a new Smith & Wesson, rewarded the company for its actions, and then have tried desparately to justify and rationalize your actions with the ludicrous argument that somehow your support of the Second Amendment is more holy, more basic and more pure because you've crawled into bed with the sellouts and gutters who are endangering not only YOUR Second Amendment rights, but MY Second Amendment rights.
Even worse, you then have the audacity to come onto this board, crow about your purchase, and then whine because you're getting bashed for it.
You've made your bed, so lay in it like a man and accept the kudos AND the criticism.
