By Larry Keane
NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- Minnesota Public Radio reports that Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis has said that he and 60 other mayors are considering boycotts of gun makers who don’t agree to their sweeping list of gun control demands.
Taking a page from the Rahm Emanuel playbook, the mayors intend to use their police department purchasing power as leverage.
This is a re-hash of the Clinton Administration threat, spearheaded by then-HUD Secretary and now governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, to do the same with federal agencies. Despite a successful court action by NSSF to counter the threat at the time, the idea was kicked up again in 2010 by disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who suggested that gun makers must cease and desist the sale of ALL semi-automatic firearms to escape this punishment.
Choosing a service sidearm for police agencies is serious business. Law enforcement procurement officers will be less than pleased to learn that their political overseers seem to want them to go back to revolvers in order to make a point in the gun control debate. In Minneapolis, the deputy chief said “ultimately, it is the chiefs decision what gun is going to be authorized for use by the department,” but the city attorney countered by saying “the city can always set reasonable specifications for the purchases it’s making.”
Mayor Rybak said he mentioned the idea to Barack Obama during a recent visit, and “Obama and his staff were delighted by the idea.”
By no coincidence, Obama is visiting Minneapolis on Monday, Feb. 4, for the first of a lengthy series of campaign-style gun control pep rallies. Perhaps the mayor and the White House plan to try out the idea that very day, telling both the Secret Service and local law enforcement to turn in their semi-automatic pistols and carry only .38 snub-nosed revolvers for event security.
If so, it’s safe to predict that “delight” is not the response they will receive. Meanwhile, we’ll be blowing the dust off the NSSF v Cuomo file.
About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen's organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.
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Maybe the gun manufacturers should boycott the cities by refusing to let their products be sold to the police there. Let's put the shoe on the other foot and then put the foot up the mayor's a##.
There are millions of gun ownera who will remember next election. Secondly, lets ban together as consumers, patriots, gun owners to boycott these cities, especially Minnesota and New York. Let them see how it feels to be put into a depression and attempt to crawl out of an economic collapse. Anarchy is waiting in the wings my dear mayors. Are your police forces equipped?
Gunmakers please move to Ocala/Marion county Florida. we'ed welcome you with open arms!
I am sick and tired of these socialist idiots trying to take our 2nd Amendment Rights. As a retired police officer now living in Northern Minnesota I can state positively that Ryback and his ilk DO NOT speak for the majority of law enforcement officers and for that matter the majority of Minnesotans. If the current bill, that by the way is even worse than Cuomo's new unconstitutional B.S., should somehow even get out of commitee, there will be a groundswell of local activism like Minnesota has never seen before. It will do absolutely nothing to stop maniacs from killing.… Read more »
Dang,
I guess I need to buy another gun. Just got one two weeks ago.
Maybe two. Another .40 handgun and maybe .40 carbine.
And of course, reloading equipment. With the scarcity and price of ammo these days…
All this group have done is energized and activated a bunch of people who wouldn't have owned a firearm.
They can come on down to Florida, the "Gunshine State" where we like guns and those that manufacture them!
I was at BassPro two days ago, and they had almost no handguns left. I overhead the clerk tell another customer that some manufacturers were a year and a half behind on orders. I don't think their little boycott will hurt the manufacturers one iota. Now their own officers on the other hand, well, they don't really care about life, all they care about is their agenda.
Gun Manufacturers are more than welcome to come to Texas and set up shop. Senator Ted Cruz has already invited Strum Ruger along with Smith and Wesson. In addition he's also invited Rahm Emanuel to keep his meddling nose North of the Red River.
I would guess those invitations would apply to all gun makers and damnyankee mayors.
[W3]
Gun industry to government (federal – including military, state, and local): No more firearm sales to you. All deliveries suspended immediately. No more ammunition sales to you. All deliveries suspended immediately. No more training for you. There are plenty of civilians on waiting lists for our training, we don't need your business. Private ranges closed to you (officers who are members are permitted, but no range time for you as a government entity). The civilian shooting community will back you up and buy your products. If you don't get on board, that same community will punish you. FYI, police organizations… Read more »
Mayors are elected officials too , please remember them come the next election cycle , a few extremely shortened political careers should pretty much end that communist anti-American bulls–t .
All I can say is, you mess with the bull and you get the horns.
I would wonder what those police forces would do without parts, repair services, or ammunition. Notice they are only after the firearms manufacturers. Let them have snub-nosed revolvers, but without ammo, not even that is useful.
Ronnie Barrett is The best example of how to handle the statist gun control politicians. He won't do business with them. The gun community at large will rally to support any manufacturer who tells these mayors they don't need their business. Tin horn dictators should get their comeuppance in the form of boycotts and lost revenue.
Sixty mayors out of how many? Thousands. You know the good thing about firearms is they are made to last. How many times do large metropolitan police forces purchase firearms? Not as much as you might think. If I were to manufacturers I would tell the mayor to stuff it. The free public will purchase the firearms and when the police forces need firearms what do you think will happen? They aren't going to go around without packing are they? No the mayors will be dumped by the voters.
I would remind all of what happened to Smith and Wesson when they made "deals" with the Klinton administration . Make a deal with marxist rabble and we will bury you! Colts too was decimated by our efforts. So to Wallmart ,dicks, Cheaper than dirt etc. When you see your sales plummet? Keep that in mind! And to our Republican allies and the NRA I would issue the same warning. Make deals and suffer the consequences. We the people really should have cleaned out the nest of vipers a long time ago. But no time like the present to start.… Read more »
ATTENTION ALL AMMO AND GUN MANUFACTURERS!!!
TELL WASHINGTON, THESE IDIOT MAYORS, AND ANY POLITICIAN THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER GOING TO SELL THEM ANYTHING!!!!!! THEY THEMSELVES WILL EVENTUALLY HAVE TO BE PROTECTED BY BATS AND KNIVES OR AS THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY STATED HIDE AND GRAB A PAIR OF SCISSORS!!!!
I hate to tell this, John I but the police are under no obligation to protect you, or provide for your safety. They usually come in and tape off the scene and don't even clean up the mess. The supreme court has ruled that we are on our own.
Yeah, that'll be a tuff call for a cop. Do I want a six shooter or a 15 shooter? Hmm. Let me ponder? Driving more police into out camp. LOL
This is serious fellow Americans.We depend on our local police departments to keep our neighborhoods safe, and anything that deminishes their ability to do that makes our community less desirable to live in.That makes our property worth less than it would be.Tell the Mayors of this country to listen to their respective officers and quit playing politics with our lives and our money.
Great news! I have been unable to find ammo lately; gun sales are going through the ceiling as well. The gun manufacturers don't need the police as the public has already pushed them beyond their capacity. Let's see how well the police do without parts or ammo in these cities. Let them be on their own like any other citizen and call their toothless bluff.
Great, more stuff for us!
Let's see. There are something like 700,000 law enforcement officers nationwide.
Add to that something like 120,000 federal law enforcement.
Less then 1 million potential gun sales a year at most.
I say they gun companies tell the cities to go pound sand. Makes more quality firearms available to the public.
The gun Manufacturers should first threaten to move their manufacturing and HQ from states where certain cities threaten to boycott to right-to-work, gun friendly Red States. (I don't understand why all gun MFGs have not moved out of the Northeast.) The governors and employees that work in the plant will be none to happy, and will governors will tell the mayors to tone down their rhetoric and boycott threats. If this tactic doesn't work, the gun companies should find excuses to raise gun and parts prices significantly. The only problem with this tactic is anti-trust violations.
How many guns do police departments actually buy…….im sure they get discounted prices…..if the manufactures cant sell to the public will it be worth it to just make a couple a year just for law enforcement…. Maybe 200000 each…..
I think with all the money the gun industry is making off civilian sales, they should refuse to supply guns and ammo to all city governments that are involved in this boycott.
Manufactures should grow a pair like Ronnie Barrett and show some principles. We need to hang together because we will surely hang separately.
Gun makers need to take the offensive and tell the Mayors they will not sell to them unless they back down from their anti-gun agenda.