HyVee grocery stores are the latest target of gun control efforts.

HyVee grocery stores are the latest target of gun control efforts.

 

The anti-gun Bloomberg crew lead by Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety are continuing their campaign to persecute lawful gun owners. This time it’s at HyVee Grocery Stores.

The West Des Moines, Iowa based company operates more than 235 stores in 8 Midwest states. A very short time ago the gun control zealots opened up a petition specifically targeting HyVee stores and demanding they ban open carry in all HyVee stores.

HyVee Gun Control Demands

Anti-gunners are demanding that HyVee prohibit law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights.

Persecuting Shoppers

After realizing they stood no chance of getting their gun control agenda passed at the federal level these anti-gunners, lead by the out of touch billionaire Michael Bloomberg, have been forced to settle for badgering individual businesses. They use startling, and misleading images to scare uneducated shoppers into thinking anyone who carries a gun is a threat. This campaign of ignorance and fear saw a few early successes as some companies caved to their demands. But more recently the anti’s have found it harder and harder to sell their anti-freedom propaganda.

Kroger Gets It Right

Last year the anti-gunners targeted the Kroger grocery store and all of their subsidiaries. After numerous attempts to try to bully store management into banning the lawful open carry of firearms Moms Demand Action and their siblings at Everytown for Gun Safety fell flat on the faces yet again.

Kroger management carefully weighed the facts, looking beyond the anti-gunners superficial scare campaign. More importantly store management examined the law their customers must adhere to. And you know what they realized? Gun owners aren’t the threat Bloomberg and Co. make them out to be and there was not reason to cave to the anti-gunners.

In the end Kroger held to their principles and declared they would not bow to these demands. Instead they would continue to follow all applicable laws and not dictate to their customers.

Kroger Chief Financial Officer Michael Schlotman made the store’s policy crystal clear on CNBC’s Squawk Box:

“If the local gun laws are to allow open carry, we’ll certainly allow customers to do that based on what the local laws are. We don’t believe it’s up to us to legislate what the local gun control laws should be. It’s up to the local legislators to decide to do that.

So we follow local laws [and] we ask our customers to be respectful to the other people they are shopping with. And we really haven’t had any issues inside of our stores as a result of that.”

The icing on the cake? Despite a high-profile anti-gunner boycott of all things Kroger, the chain of grocery stores actually saw a 21% increase in profits!

HyVee, how will you respond?

So, HyVee executives, the anti-gunners are setting their sights on you and your stores. Your colleagues at Kroger have set a great example for you. As representatives of hundreds of thousands of peaceful, trained and law-abiding Permit to Carry holders we urge to follow their lead. As Everytown, Moms Demand Action, and Michael Bloomberg’s out of touch billionaire cronies turn up the pressure on you we urge you to look past their superficial scare campaigns.

The rights of your customers are guaranteed by law, constitutional law. And at the end of the day law trumps feelings. But even still, we feel it’s extremely important that you acknowledge all of your customers rights.

 

Attention HyVee shoppers

It’s important that you let HyVee know that respecting your rights is an extremely important issue.

We encourage you to contact the HyVee stores you shop — here’s a directory of their stores.

Thank them for recognizing your Second Amendment rights, and politely remind them that as a gun owner and Permit to Carry holder you’ve passed multiple background checks, you’ve been trained, and most importantly you’re a peaceful law-abiding citizen (and there are hundreds of thousands more like you throughout the state). You are not the threat some people try to make you out to be. Then urge them to remember your rights the next time someone tries convincing them that gun owners are a threat to their safety.

Remember to be polite. The anti-gunners work very hard to paint a picture that gun owners are callous thugs and bullies. We need prove them wrong, and the best way of doing that is being polite and respectful while making our case to neutral parties.

If you’re on Facebook you, leave a message on HyVee’s corporate Facebook page.

If you’re on Twitter, tweet them @HyVee

 


Iowa Firearms Coalition is an entirely volunteer, grassroots, Second Amendment advocacy group. Responsible for bringing uniformity to Iowa’s Concealed Weapons Permitting process, IFC’s members work to protect and enhance Second Amendment rights in Iowa. An affiliate of the National Rifle Association, the IFC actively seeks to foster and promote the shooting sports. Sign up for our email list for the latest on Second Amendment issues in Iowa. You can support our work by becoming a member, or making a donation.