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Levi Strauss Doubles Down on Anti-Second Amendment Virture Signaling
Gun Watch ^ | 8 September, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 09/08/2018 3:29:38 AM PDT by marktwain

Chip Bergh CEO Levi Strauss

Image from YouTube

Levi Strauss & Co. CEO and president Chip Bergh has jumped into the debate over the Second Amendment and American rights to self defense with both feet. He has come down on the side of those who want population disarmament. 

In 2016, Levi Strauss asked gun owners not to bring guns to their stores. They claimed they were not against gun owners, they just did not like people exercising the Second Amendment in their stores. From splinternews.com:
Citing a recent incident in which a customer was injured after the gun they were carrying was accidentally fired in a Levi's store, Bergh concluded that, "while we understand the heartfelt and strongly-held opinions on both sides of the gun debate, it is with the safety and security of our employees and customers in mind that we respectfully ask people not to bring firearms into our stores, offices or facilities, even in states where it’s permitted by law."
Now, in concert with the Democrat party ramp-up supporting gun control for the 2018 midterms, Bergh has announced full support for political groups pushing for more and more restrictions on the exercise of Second Amendment rights. In concert with the Progressive left, he uses the re-branded term of "gun safety", as "gun control" has become used up and toxic. Some policies, different label. From fortune.com
So today, on top of our previous actions, Levi Strauss & Co. is lending its support for gun violence prevention in three new areas.

First, we have established the Safer Tomorrow Fund, which will direct more than $1 million in philanthropic grants from Levi Strauss & Co. over the next four years to fuel the work of nonprofits and youth activists who are working to end gun violence in America.

Second, I’m proud to announce that Levi Strauss & Co. is partnering with Everytown for Gun Safety and executives including Michael Bloomberg to form Everytown Business Leaders for Gun Safety, a coalition of business leaders who believe, as we do, that business has a critical role to play in and a moral obligation to do something about the gun violence epidemic in this country. I encourage every CEO and business leader reading this to consider the impact we could make if we stood together alongside the broad coalition of concerned parents, youth, elders, veterans, and community and faith leaders who are committed to shaping a safer path forward.
As is typical with those pushing more restrictions on the ownership and use of guns, words and facts are carefully changed in Orwellian ways. Take this phrase from Bergh's interview:  "On an average day, 96 Americans are killed by guns" .
 
That is factually false. people are not killed *by* guns. People are killed with guns. To say that people are killed *by* guns is to impart cognition and volition to the gun from the person.

About 2/3 of the people who are killed with guns, kill themselves, with their own gun. Most are older white men, to use the identity standards of the left.


None of the current restrictions on gun ownership or use of guns proposed by the political left would make any significant reduction in those suicides. 

It is a bad idea for a company to insert itself into a contentious political question. They are bound to offend a large group of potential customers.

But progressive businessmen often put the political agenda ahead of profits and the well being of their stockholders.

It seldom works out well. There are many manufacturers of clothes on the market. It isn't hard for the 100 million gun owners in the United States to chose a different brand. Leftist virtue signaling has consequences.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; corporateamerica; guncontrol; levi; levistrauss; secondamendment
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More virtue signaling from the Left. Not a good idea to anger half of potential customers.
1 posted on 09/08/2018 3:29:38 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Gaydar is pegged to the max.


2 posted on 09/08/2018 3:34:22 AM PDT by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as wll say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!"to)
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To: marktwain

-—not new for Levi’s—they got on the anti-gun bandwagon nearly forty years ago (along with every other left wing California fantasy) and nearly broke the company-—


3 posted on 09/08/2018 3:37:45 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: rellimpank

Collective corporate suicide. You can’t fix stupid.


4 posted on 09/08/2018 3:49:18 AM PDT by littleharbour ("You take on the intel community they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you" C. Schumer)
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To: marktwain

I wonder if China tells these CEO’s “If you want access to our market, these are the political positions that we want you to take”.


5 posted on 09/08/2018 4:01:30 AM PDT by TruthBeforeAll
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To: raybbr

If I am a Levi Strauss stockholder, I am cursing this idiot every way I can.


6 posted on 09/08/2018 4:05:06 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: marktwain

The only ones who can bring guns into stores are those who will shoot up.your customers...rob or kill store workers or cuhrazy scofflawa....all others keep.your guns away..who is levi strauss gonna call when someone does bring a gun into.the store anyway? Someone with a denim knife?


7 posted on 09/08/2018 4:07:06 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: marktwain
In 2016, Levi Strauss asked gun owners not to bring guns to their stores.

I didn't know Levis had stores. So, they don't want me there with a gun, but since a gun is an inanimate object, then it must be me they don't like. Well, I won't go where I am not wanted, and my gun and my money will stay with me.

8 posted on 09/08/2018 4:08:26 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Trump: "I am Batman!")
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To: marktwain

Get woke, go broke.


9 posted on 09/08/2018 4:08:55 AM PDT by Malsua
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To: Fresh Wind

Levis are overpriced anyway.


10 posted on 09/08/2018 4:09:13 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Trump: "I am Batman!")
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To: marktwain

If they want to do something useful start making some of their clothing out of Kevlar.
I’ll bet a Kevlar lined denim jacket would sell.


11 posted on 09/08/2018 4:11:50 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: marktwain

Stopped buying Levi’s years ago when the became a LOT more expensive than Wrangler and Lee in Walmart...


12 posted on 09/08/2018 4:18:38 AM PDT by trebb (So many "experts" with so little experience in what they preach....even here...)
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If there was a firearm discharge in one of his stores, either accidentally, or out of stupidity...

To be sure there is a lawyer attached to every bullet, and with that comes liability court cases. I’m wondering if Strauss is just trying to avoid any future liability issues due to idiots walking around with guns strapped on.

There are MANY people who carry and they know what they are doing, but then again there are many people who really, absolutely, need training because they do not practice safe gun handling, I have seen it time and time again - Safe handling protocols, and proficiencies are lacking, if not totally ignored altogether.

Continous training and keeping current with YOUR method of self preservation should be a given, but is very often not the case at all.


13 posted on 09/08/2018 4:20:45 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: trebb

I know. Levi strauss is robbing the public....you can get jeans of near quality for almost 1/3 of price of levi’s. Kiss Levi’s good bye.


14 posted on 09/08/2018 4:22:47 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: Getready

This is going to be a tough one, Levi’s are the best jeans. sure you can get Wrangler and Lee’s cheaper, but they look like Wrangler and Lee.
Crap, I gotta sit down and think about this!


15 posted on 09/08/2018 4:29:15 AM PDT by Ouch (The only way three people keep a secret is if two of them are dead.)
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To: marktwain

Levi has been anti gun ownership for years
Nothing new for them


16 posted on 09/08/2018 4:36:51 AM PDT by uncbob
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To: marktwain

It occurs to me that maybe these leftist run companies don’t realize something obvious to us. Do they realize how easy it is, truly easy, to abandon their products? Nike and Levi’s.... You come out in support of measures I disagree with, I’ll look at other products first. But when you come out in support of a leftist agenda I vehemently disagree with and believe is bad for my Country... I’ll never purchase your products again. The thing is, that’s no real sacrifice on my part. There are lots of alternatives to your products. I can decide you’re dead to me over morning cereal and never look back. Companies would do well to simply stick to the business at hand, mind their markets. But that’s not how lefties operate. To them it’s not enough that they hold their leftist beliefs. No, they feel compelled to not only evangelize them but also impose them on others. The very antithesis of “liberal” and diversity and tolerance and acceptance and all those other lies they cloak themselves in.


17 posted on 09/08/2018 4:40:37 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: trebb
Stopped buying Levi’s years ago when the became a LOT more expensive than Wrangler and Lee in Walmart...

My local Walmart doesn't even carry Levis, but they do sell ammunition...

18 posted on 09/08/2018 4:41:06 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Trump: "I am Batman!")
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To: littleharbour

I’m not so sure it’s “suicide”. Nike saw a 31% increase in sales. A dip in their stock for a day and now it’s moving back up. Makes me sad to think that Americans buy something so anti American as Nike.


19 posted on 09/08/2018 4:41:09 AM PDT by albie
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To: marktwain

Levis does not really serve the farm/ranch/working man demographic anymore. They have ceded that portion of the market to Wrangler. They have gone, almost exclusively, into the urban and suburban fashion conscious market.

The interesting question is whether the urban hipster brand can survive untethered from the authentic working man root. Or will tomorrow’s hipsters shun Levis in favor of the still authentic Wranglers they seen worn by their auto mechanic, construction workers, and country cousins.


20 posted on 09/08/2018 4:53:31 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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