Kroger Says “No” to Moms Demand: Our Customers Can #ShopSafe

Grocery Chain Refuses to Bow to Bullying from Moms Demand Action

Gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are back at their antics.  This time, however, the winner is real common sense, not the anti-gun group’s misguided, misappropriated version of the phrase.

After bullying other retailers with varying results, MDA moved their attention toward their biggest target yet, Kroger – the world’s fifth largest retailer – and their subsidiary, Fred Meyer.  Chipotle, Chili’s, Sonic, Jack-in-the-Box, Starbucks, and Target have all either outright banned guns or issued statements asking customers not to carry in their stores.  Staples, on the other hand, ejected Moms Demand Action from their property as they tried to deliver their anti-gun propaganda to the company’s CEO, Ron Sargent.

Kroger has indicated that they want to focus on selling groceries, not enter the heated political debate on gun control.  In their statement, the company said “Our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping.”   Unlike some of MDA’s other targets, Kroger expressed trust in their customers, choosing to treat them as responsible citizens rather than criminals.  “We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue, and we trust them to be responsible in our stores.”

Kroger’s statement makes it clear that they want their patrons to be able to shop in safety.  Like a frustrated child, when MDA didn’t get their way, they resorted to their usual tactics and threw the equivalent of a temper tantrum, calling for a boycott on buying groceries at Kroger stores on weekends.  “Moms need to shop for groceries, but we don’t have to shop at stores that put our families in harm’s way,” said MDA founder, Shannon Watts.  Apparently, that potential for harm only exists on weekends.

Employing her usual amount of common sense, Watts continued, “Kroger’s policy endangers our families by putting us in the position of having to guess if the man carrying a rifle through the cereal aisle is a threat to their safety” as if the type of lunatic who goes to a grocery store (or anywhere else) to gun down shoppers would be thwarted by a store’s polite request to not bring a firearm inside.  Are Shannon and her pals really so xenophobic and hoplophobic that they must size up every stranger they see as their potential murderer?  They push hard for gun free zones.  When they patronize stores with No Guns Allowed policies, do they spend their time hand-wringing over the potential for attack with other deadly instruments?  Are they uneasy in sporting goods stores with easy access to assault bats and high-capacity golf clubs.  Do they break out into a cold sweat while having to decide if the man carrying a Louisville Slugger is a threat?  Department stores must be terrifying with all of those unregulated knives in the kitchen section.

It is heartening to see such large businesses taking the high road instead of kowtowing to bullying from the vocal minority that support gun control.  If you are like most gun owners and just want to stay legal, exercise your rights and be left alone, let businesses that provide a place to #EatSafe and #ShopSafe know that you appreciate their policy.  Do not let the other side dominate the discussion.  These anti-gun campaigns are about more than just a store policy.