Armalite: Not cutting off law enforcement sales to anti-gun states

Armalite, like many gun manufacturers, has been deluged with gun owner requests that they quit selling guns to government agencies in states like New York which deny their civilian residents the right to own America’s favorite rifle and most other modern self-defense firearms.

One person sending a request received this charming reply from a sales rep at Armalite:

Dear concerned gun owner,

First of all I would like to say thank you for filling my email with all this spam email.

Second, I am not sure where you got this blanket email from to send out as spam, but please stop it.

Third, The manufacture is not the one you need to convince.

You need to convince the law enforcement agencies and the common people about their mistake in electing these officials and have them removed. Again NOT the manufacture.

AR Stands for ArmaLite…

Respectfully,

Pat Raley
raleyp@armalite.com
Master Armorer / Sales Rep.
ArmaLite, Inc.
P.O. Box 299
Geneseo, IL. 61254

That post quickly made the rounds in social media and on gun forums.

Sensing the coming fecal storm, Armalite’s top dog posted the following at Facebook.

It didn’t go so well, so they killed their Facebook page before a tsunami buried them.

Thanks for posting this email. I just received a concerned telephone call about it, an email from the staffer who stimulated the mail.

I think a bit of clarification is in order.

The root of the matter is a HUGE series of inquiries by both email and telephone asking ArmaLite to cut off sales to New York and other states which deny its citizens the right to own our rifles, as several other firms have done. Some of the contacts have been duplicates of others and some were so redundant that they appeared to be spam. Many of them have been rude and I’m afraid one of my staffers thought that he was responding to a spammer and was more terse than he should have been. Once he realized what happened he came to me and apologized.

My purpose here is to pass on his apology from the corporate level and to answer the initial question: What is ArmaLite going to do?

ArmaLite is continuing a policy put into place when California first banned our rifles. That policy remains:

1. We will not sell to those states which deny it’s honorable citizens the right to own ArmaLite’s.

2. We do not halt sales to individual officers even in problematic states. I am a former Police Officer myself, and the staffer who stimulated the recent anger is a currently serving one. We are well familiar with the fact that most rifles serving Police Officers are purchased by the officers themselves, and that they shouldn’t be punished for the actions of their political elite.

We consider sales to those sate subdivisions which are not engaged or potentially engaged with disarming its citizens. DNR and Forestry Departments, for instance, sometimes serve in remote areas that conceal drug farms and their officers deserve good hardware.

3. We will not sell to those lower political subdivisions that deny their honorable citizens the right to own ArmaLite’s. Chicago, for instance, prohibits its citizens from owning ArmaLite’s within the city limits so we make no effort to sell into that city. We have many friends on the Chicago Police Department and have continued to sell to them individually.

Our observation is that most County Sheriffs disagree with banning sales of our rifles and many publicly refuse to enforce such laws. We sell to those departments and to their Deputies, but will not sell to those County departments headed by Sheriffs who would deny their citizens the same rights.

In short, Americans need not worry that ArmaLite is selling to those who betray them.

As you can see by reading posts on the topic, some readers have been harsh with their criticism of ArmaLite. It was in response to this atmosphere that my staffer reacted harshly. He’s come to me and apologized and I personally am passing my own apology along with his.

But don’t be mistaken, ArmaLite is strongly involved with both personal, corporate, and political efforts at the State, National, and International level to protect our civil rights. And we’ll continue to support your shooting needs as the situation moves forward.

Respectfully,
Mark Westrom
President,
ArmaLite Inc.

Respectfully, Mark, as a company here in Illinois where Guns Save Life is based, we’re finding ourselves insulted.  You wrote:

DNR and Forestry Departments, for instance, sometimes serve in remote areas that conceal drug farms and their officers deserve good hardware.

So an average Joe’s life in New York or California or these other states that ban America’s favorite rifle are somehow worth less than a cop’s life?  That smacks of elitism.  Just as gun control is elitism.

You’re willing to sell to law enforcement in states where civilians aren’t allowed to have the same sorts of semi-automatic rifles as the police.  You’re contributing to a police state in those locales.

You claim you’re not making government sales, but are making an exception for individual officers making purchases.  Nice try.

Put simply, Mark:  Not good enough.

You can make up your mind, but it would seem the folks at Armalite don’t care about civilian sales.

Perhaps right now they are so busy with sales they don’t even see the light at the end of the tunnel as they are buried under so many orders.

Perhaps it’s time to cancel those orders and help these folks get caught up.

Not a good move, Mr. Westrom.  Not a good move at all.