Dick’s Sporting Goods may have thought it was making a great stand when it decided to cut off all AR-15s from all of its stores–previously they had been relegated to the Field and Stream locations. It figured it’d signal its virtue to show it was a “good” company, it would weather the inevitable boycott, then offer a few deals that were just too good, and gun owners would come running back.

Well, that’s not really going to happen.

First, Springfield Armory cut off Dick’s, vowing to not sell to the retail chain. Reading that, I called for other manufacturers to do the same.

I don’t know if anyone at Mossberg read that, but it did it anyway.

Mossberg^® Terminates Relationship with Dick’s Sporting Goods

NORTH HAVEN, CT – O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., a leading American firearmsmanufacturer, announced today its decision to discontinue selling products to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring of guncontrol 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 firearmretailers to make their purchases of Mossberg and Maverick® firearms. Firearmretailers can be found through the Mossberg Dealer Locator by visiting http://www.mossberg.com/dealers/.

The kicker is, its not the only one.

Ohio-based MKS Supply, best known for Hi-Points and Inland 1911s, has also joined the effort.

MKS said the recent move by Dick’s to hire a government affairs group for the purpose of gun control lobbying, coupled with the big box retailer’s past choices to destroy their existing inventory of AR-15s and refuse firearm sales to those under age 21 put the two companies at odds when it came to the right to keep and bear arms.

“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,” said Charles Brown, MKS president. “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.”

Founded in 1992, Hi-Point specializes in economical handguns and pistol caliber carbines while Inland, launched in 2014, produces a series of classic military firearms including variants of the M1911 pistol and M1 Carbine. According to federal regulators, MKS’s Ohio production partners — Haskell Manufacturing, Iberia Firearms, and Strassells Machine — produced 147,400 handguns and 58,600 rifles in 2016, making it one of the largest gun makers in the country by volume.

Now let’s just hope this continues.

Dick’s made what it thought was a calculated decision. What it didn’t account for is that the firearm industry has principles, as well. It, like its customers, believe in the Second Amendment.

While anti-gunners pretend that the industry is all about putting guns in everyone’s hands and damn the consequences, the reality is quite different. It believes in the right to keep and bear arms, and while it wants to enable those who can to do so, it isn’t beholden exclusively to profit.

In other words, it’s willing to lose a few bucks in order to make a stand.

If others join in–and really, why wouldn’t they?–then Dick’s will find itself in a tough spot. While its main locations may well be able to withstand a lack of firearms due to all the other sporting goods it sells, its Field & Stream stores really won’t. This is especially true if a large number of other outdoor brands join in. It’s hard to have a store if you don’t have things to sell.

The overall effect would be devastating.

Frankly, it should be. Dick’s effectively declared that it really doesn’t care about our rights. Not only did it unilaterally declare its intention to discriminate against law-abiding citizens based on age, but then it hired lobbyists to push a radical anti-gun agenda that would infringe on our right to keep and bear arms.

Further, it expected the gun owners of this country to simply allow this to stand. Well, we’re not.

More importantly, though, Dick’s suppliers aren’t either.