{"id":38182,"date":"2016-12-02T20:29:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T02:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/?p=38182"},"modified":"2016-12-02T20:29:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T02:29:19","slug":"gunowners-take-offense-to-claims-by-the-new-york-times-levis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/gunowners-take-offense-to-claims-by-the-new-york-times-levis\/38182\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunowners Take Offense to Claims by The New York Times &#038; Levi\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-36372 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/USCCA-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"USCCA Logo\" width=\"225\" height=\"246\">West Bend, WI&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;The United States Conceal Carry Association responded to Levi Strauss &amp; Co. CEO Chip Bergh who posted an open letter to customers, asking law-abiding citizens to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2016\/11\/30\/levis-guns\/\" target=\"_blank\">refrain from bringing their concealed carry firearms into Levi Strauss stores<\/a>. Bergh said his letter represents a \u201crequest\u201d rather than a \u201cmandate\u201d or all-out ban, but he hopes customers will honor the request and enter Levi Strauss stores unarmed. Bergh suggested that the recent terrorist attacks in Nice, Orlando and Paris&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/big-government\/2016\/11\/30\/levis-straus-law-abiding-citizens-not-bring-concealed-carry-firearms-stores\/\" target=\"_blank\">played a role in the decision<\/a>&nbsp;to make this statement.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, the New York Times&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/01\/opinion\/the-threat-to-public-safety-if-concealed-carry-goes-national.html\" target=\"_blank\">editorialized<\/a>&nbsp;that the self-defense argument in favor of the right to carry a concealed weapon is nothing more than a \u201cmyth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>United&nbsp;States Concealed Carry Association Founder &amp; President Tim Schmidt has released the following statement in response:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>The statements made by both of these organizations are irresponsible and insulting.<\/b>&nbsp;<b>As responsible, law-abiding gunowners, we know the powerful deterrent effect that responsible gun ownership has on criminals looking to commit acts of violence.<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>You may not need a gun to try on a pair of jeans, but you may need one if a criminal enters the store seeking to harm you and your family.<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp; In fact, the CEO of Levi Strauss is suggesting that his stores become voluntary \u201cgun free zones.\u201d&nbsp; We know that these areas can easily make innocent citizens the target of those who are hunting for unarmed victims to prey upon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also simply false for the New York Times to describe as a myth the widespread use of concealed weapons in the name of self-defense.&nbsp;<b>Many of our members owe their lives to the fact that they could defend themselves when threatened by a criminal wishing to do them harm.<\/b>&nbsp;<b>Ask the number of people saved because law-abiding citizens carried concealed weapons whether or not the New York Times is right.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><i>The U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) provides education, training and self-defense insurance to responsible, American gun owners. Headquartered in West Bend, WI, the USCCA is the largest and fastest-growing, member-owned, private association whose sole focus is the responsibly armed American.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Responsible, Law-Abiding Gun Ownership Part of the Solution, not the Problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":36372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58,5],"tags":[3735,3454],"class_list":["post-38182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-from-the-industry","category-second-amendment","tag-levis","tag-uscca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}