by 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.
I was at the local Dick's yesterday, just killing time while the wife was shopping in the mall, and because business was slow, the guy behind the gun counter and I were chatting. He said that the next one to drop Dicks is going to be Ruger. I haven't been able to confirm it yet, but if true, they might as well pack it in and simply stop selling guns. Might well be a workplace rumor with no foundation, though, so take it with a grain of salt.
I figure that HiPoint dropping Dick's isn;t a big deal; I've never seen one of them for sale there. On the contrary, Mossberg is a BIG deal – The last time I looked, the store I was in had an entire rack of Mossberg shotguns.
I liked the way that Ruger responded to the 'Catholic' push for gun control and hope they make a move soon too.