This Wednesday the Oregon City Police Department posted a tweet (now removed) thanking the Benchmade Knife Company for helping destroy firearms.
The story hit the gun boards everywhere, and not surprisingly, the company’s Field Sports-oriented customer base was not amused to learn that Benchmade was proudly participating in chopping up turned-in guns in one of the classic liberal anti-firearms symbolic gestures. On Gun Feed, a poll response of 600 readers was indicating that 89% “will never again buy any Benchmade products.”
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Benchmade tried some damage control, posting on its Facebook feed:
Benchmade is aware of the recent post from our local Oregon City Police Department.
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We apologize for the confusion and concern that this post created. These were firearms that the Oregon City Police Department had to destroy in alignment with their policies. Oregon City Police requested the use of specialty equipment within the Benchmade facility to follow these requirements, and as a supporting partner of our local police force, we obliged the request.
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Benchmade is a proud and unwavering supporter of both law enforcement and Second Amendment rights. These are commitments that we do not take lightly and will continue to support well into the future.
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When asked for clarity from Oregon City Police Department, Chief Jim Band made the following statement: “When property is to be destroyed, it is the policy of the Oregon City Police Department to destroy property, including firearms, in accordance to our procedures and ORS. The Oregon City Police Department does not sell firearms.â€
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Angry gun enthusiasts looked around, and, what do you know? found Benchmade had given campaign donations to two anti-gun pols, one even out-of-state in New Mexico.
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Jim Shepherd reports, that by Thursday:
[O]ther knife companies… checked in. Kershaw (“Our knives cut a lot of things but guns will never be one of themâ€), Zero Tolerance, Spyderco and others wasted no time getting in their licks or reaffirming their “unwavering†support of the Second Amendment.
And don’t start me on the “rant†videos or clips of people grinding up, breaking or otherwise destroying Benchmade knives. There are dozens of them, and more showing up almost hourly.
I own some, and I’ll never buy another Benchmade knife.
OneGuy
We should be careful on who we identify as the bad guys or the good guys. I understand that Benchmade has changed that policy and it won’t happen again. They didn’t think destroying the guns would be a problem because by law the guns must be destroyed so being made at Benchmade is just symbolism. There are companies and groups who we should concentrate on to either voluntarily change their ways or force them to. Benchmade has already done that.
The Usual Suspect
The law of unintended consequences.
asquaretail
The decision to help the police destroy the guns could be viewed as a bad business decision. Benchmade’s political contributions reflect its ideology, however, and undermine its credibility that their cooperation with the police was merely a civic act.
Nori
Forget it,Jake. It’s Oregon.
Benchmade makes a mistake
[…] They posted pictures of their employees helping police destroy firearms. This is a good way to piss off the gun owning community, and that community likely has quite a lot in common with the (non-kitchen) knife-owning community. And they were caught donating to anti-gun politicians, too.They are trying to walk the public relations disaster back, but in the process, admitted it isn't the first time. […]
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