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Freedom Action of the Week
Email List Archive
Free-Market.Net's F r e e d o m A c t i o n o f t h e W e e k
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Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this and
other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/
----- Featured Action of the Week -----
First Week of March, 2002:
In like a lion ...
Well, you're actually getting your "Action of the Week" column weekly this
time. On the very edge of "weekly," but weekly nonetheless. As usual,
there's a reason for that, and a better one than usual. March came in like
a lion, and I've been following that lion's trail for several days, trying
to catch it.
Like many Second Amendment activists, I was ready to put the screws to
Dell, Inc., one of the nation's largest computer companies. I had planned
to use this week's column to do so. But I wanted to get it right, and I'm
glad I waited a bit and followed up to make sure I was doing the right thing.
At issue was Dell's failure to fill an order for a new laptop from Jack
Weigand of Weigand Combat Handguns. At first blush -- and even after a
couple of second looks -- it appeared that Dell had a heretofore
unpublicized policy of not doing business with gun-related enterprises, and
possibly even a policy of supporting victim disarmament advocacy
organizations such as Handgun Control, Inc. The word "boycott" was in the
air ...
We got it wrong, folks. There's just no other way to explain it.
This week, I'd like to turn Action of the Week around a little bit. No, I'm
not asking you to buy a Dell computer. What I _am_ asking you to do is help
get the word out and put a stop to what might be a very big mistake.
Boycotts and letter-writing campaigns can be very effective tools. You know
that as well as I do, and we've participated together in letting companies
know when they've stepped on liberty's toes.
The flip side of the coin is that such actions can work counter to our
purposes when they are pointed in the wrong direction. If a company
_hasn't_ done anything wrong, or if it promptly responds to concerns and
takes action to solve a problem, we need to spread the word about that with
the same fervor that we put into getting the initial alert out.
To put a finer point on it, Dell has gone out of its way to explain the
mistake and to reassure gun owners. But if doing so doesn't fix the
situation, why _should_ they listen to us? There's a carrot and a stick
involved, and if all we ever show is stick, the person or company we're
beating with that stick has no incentive to pay us any heed.
To the extent that the Dell story has legs and continues to circulate, we
are telling Dell "We don't care if you are right or wrong. We don't care
what you've done to clarify, correct or address the situation. We have a
story, and we're sticking to it -- whether it's true or not."
That doesn't bode well for the freedom community's relations with Dell.
Worse, it doesn't bode well for the _next_ company which might need a
wake-up call. If Company X sees, from Dell's experience, that there's
nothing it can do to satisfy the concerns of freedom activists, they may
well not even try to.
Several libertarian and gun publications are following the Dell story. The
best coverage I've seen so far comes from Sierra Times.
Help get the word out. When the Dell story pops up on mailing lists or in
conversation with friends, make sure that the _whole_ story is told. You
can forward this column, or the Sierra Times link, or you can tell it in
your own words -- but don't let it go untold.
J.J. Johnson's Sierra Times article on Dell (includes links to ongoing
coverage):
http://www.free-market.net/rd/829427009.html
Action of the Week archive:
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/maillist.html
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J.D. Tuccille
Senior Editor
Free-Market.Net
http://www.free-market.net/
email: jdtuccille@free-market.net
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