Gun Grabbers Want to Shut Down Publix -- Let's Give Them Some Business
As part of their all-out war against the Second Amendment and National Rifle Association, anti-gun activists have begun targeting businesses even tangentially connected to the NRA with boycotts and negative publicity campaigns.
The Tampa Bay Times reported Thursday that popular Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain Publix is the latest to draw fire from the leftist gun grabbers, who are incensed that the corporation made a sizable donation to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who describes himself as a “proud NRA sellout.”
That candidate is Adam Putnam, who currently serves as the state’s commissioner of agriculture and is running against GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis in the Florida primary to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Putnam loudly opposed the recent gun control measures signed into law by Scott in the wake of the Parkland school massacre, which included the implementation of a three-day waiting period on firearm purchases and a raising of the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21 years of age.
In an interview with NRATV, Putnam revealed that while gun ownership has increased and roughly 1.8 million Floridians hold a concealed weapons license, crime in the state is at a 46-year low. He encouraged gun owners and Second Amendment advocates to become more involved in defending their constitutional rights.
Putnam stated in regard to the new minimum age law, “If you are 18, you can fight and die for this country. … And yet, you wouldn’t be able to be trusted at the same age to go to the sporting goods store and purchase a shotgun to go dove-shoot, or purchase a firearm and go to the local shooting range.”
As for the new three-day waiting period, Putnam noted that Broward County had already instituted a five-day waiting period, yet the Parkland shooter legally purchased a gun after waiting those five days and waited more than a year before he used it to commit mass murder.
The Times reported that Publix had contributed $670,000 to Putnam’s campaign, not because of his outspoken support for the Second Amendment or the NRA — to which Publix has never donated and has no affiliation — but due to fact that he is a “hometown candidate” who is very “pro-business.”
Nevertheless, liberal and progressive gun grabbers have mounted a boycott against Publix over that campaign donation. They have taken to posting pictures of receipts from other grocery chains to display their disapproval.
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Though The Times seemed subtly supportive of the effort, even they were forced to admit there weren’t any “obvious signs” it had any impact on the number of shoppers at the incredibly popular chain. The newspaper also noted that a counter-effort had sprung up of people purposefully shopping at Publix in a show of support.
Fox Business reported Publix has received remarkably high ratings in customer satisfaction over the years, and was recently ranked by Forbes as the seventh-largest private company in the U.S. based on annual revenue, as it took in roughly $34.6 billion in 2017.
The chain operates more than 1,100 stores in seven states across the southeast, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. They employ more than 190,000 employees total.
“As the largest private employer in the state of Florida, and with the majority of our stores and our corporate headquarters located here as well, we have a history of supporting candidates focused on job growth and a healthy Florida economy,” Publix said in a statement to Fox Business.
“We regret that some of our political contributions have led to an unintentional customer divide instead of our desire to support a growing economy in Florida,” the statement continued.
Publix added that it is evaluating its “processes to ensure that our giving better reflects our intended desire to support a strong economy and a healthy community.”
Hopefully that evaluation doesn’t result in their bowing to the whims of anti-gun activists and withdrawing support from a pro-business candidate they favor simply because that candidate is also an outspoken supporter of the Second Amendment.
A little extra support from the pro-gun community could go a long way toward ensuring that doesn’t happen.
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