“A Western Pennsylvania sheriff has banned his department from conducting county sheriff business with any of the corporations that have cut ties with members of the National Rifle Association.” That means Sheriff Michael Slupe’s deputies won’t be renting cars from Enterprise, flying Delta, staying at a Wyndham Hotel, protecting their computers with Norton Antivirus or moving anything with Allied Van Lines.
“Though I cannot dictate which companies you utilize in your personal life, I can and am going to dictate which companies the Butler County Sheriff’s Office will not use,” Slupe wrote. He said the companies won’t be used “when making arrangements for any extradition or stay over that you are scheduling.”
Boycotts, which rarely seem to be effective in changing corporate behavior, can work both ways.
“These companies made the choice to boycott the NRA for whatever their reason(s) are, so, I am making the choice not to support them,” Slupe wrote. “I believe it is important to send a message as a department that we support the members of our community that are members of the NRA that have had nothing to do with any of the shootings, yet they are the face of the blame in the eyes of corporate America,” Slupe said of the corporate response following the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February.
There’s no question that far more sheriffs, who are usually elected, rather than appointed like most chiefs of police, are supportive of their constituents’ gun rights.
Slupe was first elected into office in 2009. The first Republican to hold the seat in nearly three decades, Slupe won the first election by 69 percent of the vote over his Democratic opponent. He won again in 2013 and last November, both times receiving over 98 percent of the vote.
To date, Slupe has received no complaints from his constituents or his deputies.
Somehow we don’t think he’ll be terribly worried if he does.