Boo Hoo, Kroger Told Me To Take A Hike!

Boo hoo, Kroger won't give me the time of day. That's the essence of an op-ed Shannon Watts, head of Moms Demand Gunsense for America, wrote for HuffPo:

For months, Moms have called on Kroger to make a safer and more family-friendly shopping environment by prohibiting the open carry of firearms in its stores, just as brands including Target, Starbucks, and Panera have done. 

Instead of meeting with us and reconsidering an irresponsible policy, Kroger's leadership has refused to listen. They have pressured radio stations to reject our ads and relocated their annual investor meeting to avoid interacting with customers. Just imagine how much easier it would have been if they would talk with us.

This week, Kroger executives and investors met in Cincinnati and I was there, along with dozens of Moms Demand Action volunteers from neighboring states, to make it as easy as possible for Kroger leadership to meet with us on an issue that women and mothers care about more than anything: the safety of our families. Rather than agree to a meeting, Kroger bullied radio stations into pulling our ads highlighting the absurdity of their gun policy (you can listen to the ads here and here). And this week, Kroger bussed its investors out of the hotel where they were planning to meet and to an alternate location -- probably to avoid the rally of mothers and customers we had organized to spark a conversation with them.

Evidently Kroger is growing uncomfortable with their gun policy, and frankly, they should be. Kroger is siding with gun extremists, rather than mothers, gun violence survivors, and the majority of Kroger shoppers, who support ending open carry in Kroger stores. 

Moms refuse to be silenced. The ads that made Kroger so nervous are nothing more than recordings of Kroger employees reiterating Kroger's policy, which is to prohibit children's toys and household pets in the name of customer safety, but to allow anyone to openly carry loaded firearms, even though no permit, training, or background check is required to do so in most states.

Instead of working with us to make stores safer, Kroger has cited politicians' inaction to regulate open carry to justify their own stubborn refusal to institute a policy that does more than force employees and customers into a position where they must guess whether the armed individual in the frozen food aisle poses a threat to customers.

How are moms shopping with children expected to know the difference between an activist and a threat to our families? In a majority of states, it is completely legal to open carry a loaded gun in public without any training, permitting, or a background check. In some states, there isn't even an age requirement to open carry a loaded firearm.

That's why open carry poses a unique risk to the public. That's why we want Kroger to act, just as so many other major companies have done. And 83% of Kroger shoppers agree - Kroger is well within their rights to stop open carry.

When I founded Moms Demand Action the day after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, I knew that it would be a long road towards gun safety. Since then, millions of Americans have joined this fight and we will continue to be relentless whenever we feel the safety of our children is threatened.

Kroger's customers deserve to be heard and Moms won't stop until we get the change we need.

No, Kroger isn't "growing uncomfortable with their gun policy," Watts just can't get it through her head that, just as Kroger has the "right" to DISCONTINUE a practice, it well within their RIGHT to do what they have said already said they are GOING to do - CONTINUE THEIR POLICY TO ALLOW FIREARMS CARRY. She needs to get that through her head! Watts only recognizes the rights of Kroger as they comport with her agenda, and she can't handle it that Kroger has the temerity to defy her and her sugar daddy, Bloomberg. She certainly can't reconcile the FACT that, since Kroger announced their intent to continue their policy, their sales have increased 21% with her supposed poll results indicating that 83% of Kroger customers agree with her point of view. She also ignores the fact that Starbucks has actually backtracked on their so-called "ban" on firearms carry, taking a more publicly neutral position on the subject - which is all they ever wanted to do in the first place.  In fact, if you actually read the statements issued by Target, Starbucks, and Panera, none of them actually "ban" firearms carry, they respectfully requested that firearms carriers not take them onto their premises, but all stopped short of actually banning them.  Watts still considers them to be victories.

Reality stinks, doesn't it Shannon!

Moms Demand's Anti-Kroger Thanksgiving Campaign….

Moms Demand is running this graphic to remind their members which Kroger companies to boycott because they refuse to bow down to MD and ban lawful firearms carry in their stores.  Let's be sure to support them whenever possible!

Public Backs Kroger Firearm Carry Policy….

MSNBC has been running a poll to gauge public sentiment on the question of firearms carry in Kroger stores - and to bring pressure to bear on Kroger.

I'm certain the results aren't what they were expecting….

For the record, the Construction Zone supports and applauds Kroger's common sense policy:

"The safety of our customers and associates is one of our most important company values. Millions of customers are present in our busy grocery stores every day and we don't want to put our associates in a position of having to confront a customer who is legally carrying a gun. That is why our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping. We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue and we trust them to be responsible in our stores," policy-on-customers-carrying-firearms-in-stores

Mr. W. Rodney McMullen, CEO, Kroger Company: Thank You!

W. Rodney McMullen
Chief Executive Officer
Kroger Co.
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100

Dear Mr. McMullen:

We in the pro-Second Amendment community understand that Kroger has attracted some very unwanted attention and found itself in a most unenviable position with regard to the debate over Second Amendment rights.

Michael Bloomberg-backed Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDAGSA) has essentially demanded that you declare your premises to be “gun free” (let us be perfectly clear: acquiescence to their demand for an open carry ban WILL eventually lead to a further demand that you declare yourselves to be COMPLETELY “gun free”), and threatened to boycott your Michigan locations.

Now, Senators Chris Murphy, Richard Blumenthal, and Dianne Feinstein are abusing their elected positions in the US Senate to force Kroger to implement an open carry ban, with the same eventual goal as MDAGSA.  The unspoken threats implicit in their recent letter to you are clearly understood.

Mr. McMullen, I applaud the courage and wisdom you displayed in your response to MDAGSA:

“...That is why our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to urge customers to be respectful of others while shopping to feed their families. We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue and we trust them to be responsible in our stores."

Thank you for this stand.  Please know that I will do my best to patronize your stores and encourage others with whom I am acquainted to do so as well.  Your response is the epitome of the common sense for which MDAGSA and other such organizations claim to be searching; you have shown them what it looks like.

Sincerely,

Moms Demand Implements New Ad Series To Pressure Companies To Prohibit Open Firearm Carry….

Moms Demand (yes, they are maintaining a separate identity since merging with Everytown) is running the following series of ads in newspapers across the nation in an effort to force Kroger and other companies to prohibit open carry:

Each ad presents the same question: Kroger won't let you in their stores with/without shirt, skateboard, or shoes, so why should they allow a loaded gun?

Well, let's see, Moms Demand: of the four scenarios you portray, inappropriate (or no) attire, a skateboard, eating, and carrying a firearm (at least they portrayed the firearms carriers accurately, with fingers off the trigger), which one is a right explicitly protected by the Constitution?

Good call, Kroger!

Note: this focus by Moms Demand on ARs is completely out of line with reality; in logical terms, they are employing the logical fallacy reductio ad absurdum to the open carry debate - making an absurd reduction to portray all carriers as AR carrying, potential nut jobs. While I have seen numerous people legally openly carrying handguns, I have never in my 50 years, even in my place of employment where I sell firearms (including ARs), actually seen someone enter a store or restaurant with an AR. Despite the headlines capitalizing on open carry events in which some owners choose to show up with ARs, the reality is that encountering someone in a public venue carrying one is exceedingly rare.

Michael Bloomberg: "...when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in…"

A surprise is awaiting Michael Bloomberg.  In a recent interview he said that, because of his work to implement national gun control, stop smoking and fight obesity, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close,” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/us/bloomberg-plans-a-50-million-challenge-to-the-nra.html?src=twr&_r=0

Mr. Bloomberg, God's Word has a few things to say on that subject.

First, your works mean nothing in the greater scheme of things: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment,"  Isaiah 64:6

Second, they earn you no special dispensation or favor with the God whose existence you only notionally acknowledge: "knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot," 1 Peter 1:18-19.

In fact, the Bible says that your billions, which you are now using to try to buy your way into Heaven, will be a witness against you: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you," James 5:1-6.  This is not a statement against ALL wealth; there are certainly wealthy people who have used their fortunes for the glory of God.

Finally, you WILL stop to be "interviewed," and you WILL be forced to acknowledge the existence and supremacy of Yahweh:  "For we must ALL appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil," 2 Corinthians 5:10, "...For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;  for it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God," Romans 14:10-12.

This is a warning AND an invitation, not just to Mr. Bloomberg, but to every person who has yet to come to the realization that they cannot do it on their own.  We cannot buy or work our way into Heaven.  What is our individual fortune in comparison to the One who owns it all in the first place?  And what "righteousness" can we offer to the One who is the definition of holiness and righteousness?  "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus," Romans 3:21-26.