The firearms industry is awesome. The vast majority of gun people with whom I interact are straight shooters. I reckon that’s because they believe in something other than lining their pockets. The major players prove the point by donating millions to the NRA and other pro-2A groups. It happens on a smaller scale, too. debuskarms.com, for example, donates 20 percent of their net profits to JWT’s mates at veteran-outdoors.com (who welcome good old-fashioned contributions). Question: do you care? If their prices were roughly the same, would you buy from Dubusk instead of cheaperthandirt.com just to support vets? By the same token, does GLOCK’s mega-checks to Wayne’s mob influence your buying decision? Or does charity begin – and end – at home?
I care only if they donate it to Brady Campaign or Mayors for Illegal Mayors.
I would agree with you. Also just so long as they do not raise the cost either.
Folks the companies contribute to may tip the scales, all else being equal. But the all else being equal has been a seldom event.
I’d rather buy from the little guys for the sake of supporting the little guys, especially if they’re local. If they donated to a worthy cause that would just be a bonus. Haven’t bought anything from cheapermyass since, you know.
cheaperthandirt is pretty consistently, NOT competitive in price. I can’t remember the last time I bought something from them for that reason alone. They are not even close.
Charity is more of a personal matter to me. I generally don’t donate to the bigger organizations because they are so inefficient with using the funds anyway. The smaller and more local ones use it a lot more effectively. Companies’ listed charities generally don’t attract me to do business with them… however if they donate to a charity that serves what I consider a bad cause, it can drive me away though.
Local shops I try to support as well, but the price has to be at least somewhat close. I’m willing to pay more for local goods… just not a whole freaking LOT more, if there is a choice.
Recently bought a couple CCP mags from them. They were cheaper than the other sources I found.
But on firearms, my LGS beats them. And I’d rather support them anyway.
But they didn’t have the CCP mags in stock.
However, I will check with my LGS next time I order mags for my FNX45.
I feel its generally a pretty good indicator of what they believe (or what their PR people want you to think), so yes, I buy from companies who support charities I like. Proud to have not spent a single dime in CTD since they tried that $100 usgi mag crap during the shortage.
Some people think $100 is worth it which is why prices go up in an emergency. It’s also a signal upstream in the supply chain that they should make more if possible because they can make more.
I don’t remember if they still sold out when they did that, but the idea is that at least you could get them if you really wanted them at $100. If they were $5…. Good luck.
Short version: it’s not gouging, it’s just CTD trying to find market equilibrium when demand changed. If they set it too high they suffer and so does the customer long term(no one buys so they don’t make money). If they set it too low, pretty much the same thing happens.(a few people horde and supply doesn’t increase at all)
Never mind, that wasn’t short, but I’m a business and Econ guy and work is slow.
I tend to support vendors who share my views and culture (RKB and support vets, hunting, fishing). I’d rather get lower prices and then donate myself. If the owners want to donate from their profits, good for them but it isn’t necessary to earn my business.
Agreed.
Well said. I don’t need the pink ribbons, yellow ribbons, black ribbons, Wounded Warrior stamps or whatever to make me buy a gun. I will hand them cash at a fair price and I will buy from someone who will do good with it for their own sake. I will keep the savings and donate to my own chosen causes.
This exactly
Yes.
Depends on the charity but I generally don’t care either way.
Donating to a worthy charity definitely gets then a +1 in the pro column for buying from them.
As for Glock, I won’t buy a Glock as long as they continue to sell firearms to the enemy, I.E. States like NJ and NY.
I’ll buy from whoever can get me a well-functioning firearm at the lowest price. Now if I found out they were donating to a charity that supported talking people out of joining the military (or any gov’t agency, for that matter) in the first place, I’d lean toward them.
Palmetto State Armory donates shotguns and rifles to the Indian Waters Council of the Boy Scouts for fundraising events (although I would be interested to see if they keep it up after the whole water gun thing). One of the owners is an Eagle Scout (along with his 3 other brothers who are not related to the business). As an Eagle Scout, I appreciate this, and I give Palmetto State Armory my business regularly. They also have the best prices and customer service in town, so that might also factor in.
I’m kinda picky about who I donate to. So I guess I’d be picky on the buying end if I found out a company donated to something I didn’t care for.
Yes…so when Ruger,S&W or Taurus contributes to the NRA(I got 3 NRA memberships outa’ Taurus) I tend to favor said companies. And I like SOME of my local gun shops-not paying an extra 100bucks just because they’re local.
Yes. Although I’m not sure I would consider donating to the NRA or other gun rights organizations charity. I see it as a wise investment. Without the gun lobby, we would be like England or Australia and they wouldn’t sell many guns.
(I’m not sure, however, where in the the NRA these donations go. The NRA’s political operations are kept separate from their education/outreach operations for tax reasons.)
It’s a charity that benefits ME. And I see you live in Illinois as do I. So the NRA, GOA,Gottlieb,etc. benefit me and YOU.
Don’t forget that if you buy from Amazon you can direct funds to organizations as well. Mine goes to the SAF.
I agree they are beneficial to me. My point is mainly about semantics. When I make a donation to one of those organizations, I don’t consider it charity. I think of it as buying a useful service for my own benefit. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just not charity.
I would like them to support firearms programs for youths. If we aren’t careful an entire generation will be ill-informed, untrained and unaware. We need more programs to counteract the school and media anti-gun/anti-2A indoctrination.
We are less than 20 years away from being Europe or Australia in gun rights.
If I learn that a company or organization actively supports anti gun efforts through donations and/or advertising, I will not patronize them and tune them out, other than to disparage or find some fault with them whenever their name comes up.
As far as company donations go, that is a personal decision for company leadership, though I would expect any firearm related company would have a vested interest in supporting pro gun organizations.
I don’t care much if they contribute towards charities, and doing so to get sales should not be the reason a business does contribute. It is a positive, but won’t sway me. Unless it is a cause I really don’t like, in which case I will not buy from them.
I prefer to buy from local companies, then those with lower prices, assuming they have a good reputation.
I tend to think that charity begins and ends at home. I have pretty high & narrow standards for what I like to contribute to, and there aren’t many companies, gun or otherwise, that would give the same way I do.
When I hear NRA, I don’t think charity, I think lobbying group. I know they do some charitable things, but mostly what I hear about is lobbying.
If they’re donating to a worthy charity, sure. Charity is a virtue, even if the people donating have less than virtuous motives.
However, there are companies I wouldn’t do business with no matter how much they donated. CTD is a prime example.
Give me lower prices. I’ll pick my charities, thank you.
Like he said. Very well. Succinctly.
No.
A company that gives away money has to make up for it by raising their prices. In essence their customers are being forced to contribute to the company’s favorite cause.
I’d rather the company sell at a lower price, allowing me to keep more of my money. That way I can decide who I contribute to.
Absolutely it matters to me. I don’t give to companies that I know donate to organizations I oppose. To do so would empowering my opponents.
Buying things from companies that give to organizations I do support promotes those organizations to other people in other ways that I can not. They are force multipliers. I buy stuff from all sorts of people, so it makes sense to buy things from people who are doing good with my money when I can.
Is your bottom line an honest deal? Heck yeah, let’s do business. Is your bottom line an honest deal, but you also support the same causes I support? You’ll get my money first.
this articulates my opinion better than i was able to myself.
Ugh, the headline killed my whole day… Americans still have to have their firearms provided to them… May as well line up with Occupy Wallstreet.
I’m missing your point here. Would you rather it say “dealer” or “seller” instead of “provider”?
Maybe Dustin only uses firearms he’s forged and machined himself, from metals he personally smelted from the ore he mines by hand on his own property, and he’s disgusted by the craven dependence the rest of us have on “factories” and “stores”…?
My FFL has his own charitable fund. Yes, I care about that, but I care more about getting a good deal. At my dealer, I get both.
It would largely depend on the charity, and whether or not the donated proceeds was having an impact on their overall competitive cost. To me it’s really not that different than shopping on Amazon and having Amazon donate to the Wounded Warrior Project without affecting my purchase price. As long as they’re upfront with who their charity is, I think it’s fine.
I wouldn’t buy from cheaperthandirt if they made charitable donations right into my bank account. I’ll buy from them at their bankruptcy auction or when they CUT prices during the next scare.
Charities are over rated..something like 5 cents from every dollar donated actually goes to the stated cause….I’m no fan of the ribbon campaigns .. Cut me a deal on guns and I’ll donate to the scrutinized charity of my choice.
Where that is shamefully true of some charities, it is not for others. There are great charities, like Veteran Outdoors or the Team 5 Medical Foundation that are volunteer organizations. More money goes out of charities like these than into them, because the people who volunteer to do the work for them are also donors or otherwise spend their own cash to make the mission happen.
Not in the least.
I wasn’t aware that any firearms, ammunition, or firearms accessories manufacturers were donating any significant portion of their cash to any charities.
I would rather they reduced their prices and give me the option to donate to charity.
Having said that, I really like the Cabelas and MidwayUSA options to round up your purchase and donate that to whatever charity they are offering at checkout.
Wounded warrior project does not take donations from any sort of firearms company. That’s a fact.
And yes only 58% of their money goes to vets. And the CEO only makes 300,000.00 a year.
35% goes to media, the rest is admin.
So if your FFL says they donate to them then he does it as an individual and not A business.
And that is why I don’t support Wounded Warrior. They got too big and too greedy. There are many small charities that benefit wounded vets with much greater percentages going to said vets.
It influences things I don’t buy. ESEE’s support of the drug war for instance. Can’t say that it has ever made me buy a thing.
Only care to make sure they don’t donate to cops or government agencies, or give preferential treatment to the same, i.e. Glock (Blue Label), HS Precision (Lon Horiuchi), Troy (multiple offenses), Cheytac (out of business already and good riddance), Mossberg (for issuing a DEA commemorative 500), that kind of thing.
Frankly I’d be a little less likely to buy. But I don’t buy enough new guns to matter anyway. As others have said, *most* charities eat up a ridiculous proportion in administrative costs, but I believe that to include all to nearly all charities large enough to get corporate donations. *People* may donate for many reasons up to and including showboating, but a corporation in my opinion is not capable of donating for any reason other than showboating or tax relief, neither of which interests me. I’d be more impressed if the CEO donated from his own pocket, but I’d be more impressed still if I didn’t know that because he kept it to himself. But then I wouldn’t be impressed at all. Classic tree falling in the forest.
No to answer the question
There are other reasons to support a charity even if it isn’t an efficient one.
The US Military uses the Red Cross to verify reasons for a service members need for “Emergency Leave” like Mom or Dad near death and things like that. They are also large enough and normally there in major national disasters. Efficient …. No, valuable …. Yes.
Well, I do sort of enjoy making Amazon donate to SAF. (smile.amazon.com)
Charity, not so much. What they do with their money is their business. But the special interest groups a business donates to do certainly influence where I spend my money.