> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.ammosquared.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Corporations vs. Freedom - URL: https://blog.ammosquared.com/corporations-vs-freedom/ - Published: 2019-09-27T06:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2023-03-30T10:43:47.000Z - Author: Dan Morton If there is one philosophical ideal running through my life it can be summed up in one word: **Freedom** (*I suspect this may be the same for you*). **I believe in freedom in all its different forms: personal freedom, financial freedom, and the freedom to make your own way in the world. The freedom to make mistakes and live with the consequences… I believe that goes for businesses too.** (*This probably sounds like some sort of AmmoSquared confession at this point… but it isn’t…keep reading*). I believe individuals have a choice about when and where they spend their money. It is their right to make those decisions of their own free will. They can make bad decisions with their money if they choose too as well. (*Shake Weight anyone?*) At the same time, I also believe that businesses can make decisions about what to sell and how to sell it. They should be able to sell whatever products or services they see fit. Businesses have a right to set policies in their stores and change the product offerings as often as they like. (*I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this… Walmart, Dicks, NASCAR…*) Now, whether those products, services, and policies line up with their existing customer base is up to the business management to decide. BUT! **When a company is so out of touch with their own customer base that they enact policies that turn people away, they are the ones that will suffer**. They will lose customers. They will see sales go to alternatives *(because there is ALWAYS an alternative*). Take us for example… **AmmoSquared is an alternative to Walmart for ammunition. We don’t sell wicker baskets, troll dolls, or pool noodles… but we do sell ammunition. That is our business. It is all we do.** We may talk about gun politics because that is the business we’re in. We don’t however have a political stance on pool chemicals, sustainable wicker growing practices or depleting the troll habitat…. that would be wrong. What to sell is Walmart’s choice as a company and they will suffer the loss of sales because of it. While I respect Walmart’s ability to make that choice, I feel that it will have ramifications and impact their bottom line like it did for Dick’s Sporting Goods. (Who recently suffered greatly from their [Anti-2A stance](https://therightscoop.com/dicks-sporting-goods-ceo-admits-gun-control-policies-have-hurt-business-may-close-stores/?ref=blog.ammosquared.com).). But since I’m not on the Walmart Board of Directors, nobody asked me for an opinion. Unfortunately, this decision is part of a larger, unsettling, trend. **These days it is politically correct to be against “assault weapons”, “high capacity magazines” and for “gun safety” and “common sense background checks” without really understanding what those words mean.** People don’t draw the logical conclusions to what a world with severely restricted gun ownership means. **If you are against gun ownership, then you are against freedom.** You can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim to be trying to make the world a better place and support policies that limit personal freedom. Unless your idea of a “better world” is one where those at the top have all the power and those at the bottom are the ones being controlled? **Many corporations are making bad policy decisions based on personal politics under the guise of “corporate responsibility”.** These large companies attempt to enact social (*socialist?*) change through their sheer size and political influence… even if it is not what the people in general, or their customers in particular, want. Maybe these corporate CEO’s should listen to one of the worlds richest men for advice instead: > ****“I do not believe in imposing my political opinions on the activities of our businesses, and if we get into what companies are pure and which ones aren’t pure, I think it is very difficult to make that call.” – Warren Buffet** Warren Buffet realizes that personal politics and GOOD business don’t mix. **Let people (ie: your customers) decide for themselves what to buy or not buy.** Now, if you are the head of a multinational corporation, what do you care? You can press your own fairy-tale politics and policies if you want. You are the king of your own little kingdom… right? Well, some may think so, but in reality, every CEO has a boss. He (or she) answers to the Board of Directors and even they have a boss too. The Board answers to the Shareholders. Here is a business secret that loops us all the way back to the beginning: while it is true that the management of a company is free to make decisions based on personal politics, once they lose customers and sales start declining, they have to answer to their board and shareholders for those decisions. If they try to go against their customers and enact policies that push their personal agenda, they might be entering a world of pain… (as Dick’s CEO Ed Stack found out). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/10/0c/100cd0b8-10f0-4c8d-8a4f-c08259050d63/content/images/2023/03/World-of-Pain-500x267-2.gif) Walter’s approach might not work here… so we need an alternative (legal) strategy: \*\*As a 2A Community, the most important power we hold with companies trying to take “corporate responsibility” too far is the power of the purse. Where we spend our money has huge implications in which companies survive and thrive and which companies struggle and fail. \*\* So as you go about the business of life and you are looking at where to spend your money, choose to spend money with those that either supports the 2nd Amendment (ideal) or at least choose those that are not out there trying to enact hair-brained “corporate responsibility” schemes aimed at taking away your rights. **The better a business sticks to its business the better!** \-Dan *PS: Here is a list to get you started. It consists of 150 anti-gun CEOs who recently* [*sent a letter*](https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1699-gun-control-letter-to-the-sena/3258ed616a016f80dfa3/optimized/full.pdf?ref=blog.ammosquared.com#page=1) *to the Senate pushing their anti-gun agenda. Notable names include both Uber and Lyft, Airbnb, DoorDash, Yelp, and Twitter.* Organizations with more than 500 employees : Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, Head of Community and CEO, Airbnb KeithMestrich, President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine, Co-Managing Partners, and Josh Bekenstein and Steve Pagliuca, Co-Chairmen, Bain Capital Ethan Brown, Co-Founder and CEO, Beyond Meat Peter T. Grauer, Chairman, Bloomberg LP Ric Clark, Chairman, Brookfield Property Group Fritz Lanman, CEO , ClassPass Roger Lynch, CEO, CondéNast Ken Lin, Founder and CEO, Credit Karma Edward Stack, CEO, DICK ‘S SportingGoods Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO, DoorDash Doug Baker, Chairman and CEO, Ecolab Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO, Eventbrite Art Peck, CEO, Gap Inc. Eddy Lu, CEO GoatGroup Ben Lerer, Co-Founder and CEO, Group NineMedia Yannick Bolloré, CEO, Havas Group BillKoenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder, HorizonMedia Patrick O . Brown, MD, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Impossible Foods Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Rob Frohwein, Co-Founder and CEO, and Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President, Kabbage Inc. and Drum Technologies Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. Logan Green, Co-Founder and CEO, and John Zimmer, Co-Founder and President, Lyft Dev Ittycheria, President and CEO, MongoDB, Inc. Howard Marks, Co-Chairman, Oaktree CapitalManagement Todd McKinnon, Co-Founder and CEO, Okta John Wren, Chairman and CEO, Omnicom Group Ben Silbermann, Co-Founder and CEO, Pinterest Bastian Lehmann, Co-Founder & CEO, Postmates Hamid R . Moghadam, Chairman and CEO, Prologis Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit Richard Fain, CEO, RoyalCaribbean Cruises Ltd. ScottRechler, Chairman and CEO, RXR Realty Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO, Shutterstock Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO, Squarespace Zander Lurie, CEO, SurveyMonkey Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, and Jim Alling, CEO, TOMS Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder and CEO Twilio DaraKhosrowshahi, CEO, Uber Mark Read CEO, WPP JeremyStoppelman, Co-Founder and CEO, Yelp Organizations with fewer than 500 employees: Kevin P . Ryan, Founder and CEO, AlleyCorp Travis Truett, Co-Founder and CEO, Ambition John W . Rogers, Jr., Founder, Chairman and Co -CEO, and Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President, Ariel Investments, LLC Mike Steib, CEO, Artsy Sean Knapp, Co-Founder and CEO, Ascend Andrei Cherny, Co-Founder and CEO, Aspiration Abdur Chowdhury, CEO, Aura Fahim M . Aziz, Founder and CEO, Backpack Abrams, Chairman and Co-CEO, and Katie McGrath, Co-CEO Bad Robot Ari Paparo, CEO, BeeswaxIO Corporation Ryan Block, Co-Founder, Begin John Borthwick, Founder and CEO, Betaworks Raphael Crawford -Marks, Co-Founder and CEO, Bonusly Darren Lachtman , Co-Founder , Brat Trevor McFedries, CEO, Brud Sameer Shariff, Co-Founder , Cambly Analisa Goodin, Founder and CEO, Catch & Release, Inc. Andrew Feldman, Founder and CEO, Cerebral Systems George Favvas, CEO, Circle Medical Alex MacCaw, CEO, Clearbit Tyler Bosmeny, CEO, Clever MattMartin, Co-Founder and CEO, Clockwise Othman Laraki, Co-Founder and CEO Color Genomics Jager McConnell, CEO, Crunchbase, Inc. Apu Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Curalate, Inc . David Oates, Co-Founder and CEO, Curtsy Brian Ree, Founder and CEO, DAILYLOOK Saurabh Ladha, CEO, Doxel, Inc. Andy Coravos, Co-Founder and CEO, Elektra Labs Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective Pradeep Elankumaran, Co-Founder & CEO Farmstead Desiree Gruber, CEO, Full Picture Jared Hecht, Founder and CEO, Fundera JudeGomila, Founder and CEO, Golden Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CEO, Guru Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO, Hint, Inc. Jeff Sellinger, Co-Founder and CEO, HipDot Prerna Gupta, CEO, Hooked Cyrus Massoumi, Managing Partner, humbition Kristin Savilia, CEO, JOOR Pierre Valade, CEO, Jumbo Privacy William Martino, Founder and CEO, Kadena Jake Perlman -Garr, CEO, Kanga Warren Shaeffer, Co-Founder and CEO, Knowable Jack Altman, CEO Lattice Aaron N . Block, Co-Founder and Managing Director, MetaProp. Afton Vechery, Co-Founder and CEO, Modern Fertility Dan Parham, Founder and CEO, and Tee Parham, Founder and CTO Neighborland Shafqat Islam, CEO, NewsCred Sarah Friar, CEO, Nextdoor Athan Stephanopoulos, President, NowThis Varsha Rao, CEO, Nurx William E . Oberndorf, Chairman, Oberndorf Enterprises Steven Rosenblatt, Co-Founder and General Partner, Oceans Nick Huzar, Co-Founder and CEO, OfferUp James Segil, Co-Founder and President, Openpath Jordan Husney, CEO, Parabol Doug Aley, CEO, Paravision John Milinovich, CEO, Plato Design Rajat Suri, CEO, Presto Christopher Gavigan, Founder and CEO, Prima Adam Regelmann, Founder and COO, Quartzy Nate Maslak, Co-Founder and CEO, and Nate Fox, Co-Founder and CTO, Ribbon Health Zachariah Reitano, Co-Founder and CEO, Ro Gary Beasley, Co-Founder and CEO, Roofstock Stephen Ehikian, Co-Founder and CEO, Ruist Brian Schechter, CEO, SelfMade Olga Vidisheva, Founder and CEO, Shoptiques Inc. Dan Doctoroff, CEO, Sidewalk Labs Jason Tan, CEO, Sift Matt Cooper, CEO, Skillshare Grant Jordan, CEO, SkySafe Josh Guttman, Co-Founder and CEO and Florent Peyre, Co-Founder and President, Small Door Michael Carvin, Co-Founder and CEO SmartAsset Aaron King, Founder and CEO, Snapdocs, Inc. Neil Capel, CEO, Solve. io Ben Hindman, Co-Founder and CEO, Splash Evan Beard, Founder and CEO Standard Bots Stanlee R . Gatti, Founder, Stanlee R . Gatti Designs Bradford Oberwager, CEO, Sundia Corporation Ross Feinstein, CEO, Sunlight Health Paul Budnitz, CEO, Superplastic Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel HeidiZak, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, and David Spector, Co-Founder and Co- CEO ThirdLove Yashar Nejati, CEO, thisopenspace inc. Joshua Kushner, Founder and Managing Partner Thrive Capital Chris Wang, CEO, ThunderCore Inc. Corbett Kull, CEO, Tillable Meghan Jewitt, CEO, Uniform Teeth Nicholas Goldner, Co-Founder and CEO, and Christopher Bulow, Co-Founder and COO Viosera Therapeutics Ken Chong, CEO Virtual Kitchen Co Irv Remedios, CEO, Voxer Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder and CEO Voyage Chase Adam, Co-Founder and CEO, and Grace Garey, Co-Founder and COO, Watsi Liz Wessel, Co-Founder and CEO, WayUp NeilWaller, CEO, Whalar Bismarck Lepe, CEO, Wizeline Dennis R . Mortensen, Founder and CEO, x .ai, inc. Geoff Ralston, President, Y Combinator Shan-Lyn Ma, Co-Founder and CEO Zola