Have knife retailers and distributors started dropping Benchmade knives?

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John_0917 said:
Remember that many of the big retailers that sell BM also do so at MSRP (Cabelas, BPS, Gander) so I doubt they’re selling to the most informed buyers to begin with.

If you don’t know that you can buy the same thing for 1/3 less online without tax I doubt they know about this story.
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^^This^^
Walk into an REI, Cabelas, Bass Pro, Field and Stream, or any other large retailer, and ask any customer looking at knives about BM. I would bet that 75% haven't even heard of this issue. Of the ones that have, any a percentage of them even care. And depending on the retailer (REI would be good example) a good portion of their customers are going to be left leaning as well.

And let's just add to that... most of the purchasing agents for these stores (at the corporate level) probably don't know, or don't care. They purchase what sells in their stores, and purchase so many different items, from different vendors, that Benchmade (or any other product) is just another line item. If you think that everyone at a major outdoors retailer has a passion for the product, you're gonna be sorely disappointed. Accountants are hired because their good at numbers, logistics managers are hired because they're good at getting stuff from A to B on time, and purchasing agents get product that sells at good prices. Most don't care about any one products political problems one way or another, as long as the bottom line is met.

You can all scream about ethics and political principals all you want, but the reality is, business is all about the bottom line. Corporations will stock what sells, and buyers will generally shop by convenience and price - and most could care less one way or another about a companies political leanings.

Durham68 said:
Right or wrong, enough of the gun community is pissed that it will show up in BM’s bottom line. Doubt it will be severe or last long but they will lose enough sales to notice.
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^^Disagree^^
Maybe enough of the 'online' gun community is upset, but just like I said above about the 'average' consumer, the average gun owner pays little real attention. Even on the gun forums I frequent, which are very politically aware, only about 30-40% even care. Of all the gun owners I know personally, most are blissfully unaware of the politics of firearms, let alone where a knife company stands. Gun owners are already severely fragmented as it is, between the absolute pro-2a chest thumpers, the hunters who are only concerned about keeping their rifles/shotguns, and those who only have a firearm for home defense and think .gov is right to regulate 'assault rifles', mag limits, and how you must keep and store guns, that the gun community will have no bearing whatsoever on Benchmade's sales or major retailers decision to carry them.

madcap_magician said:
That's the thing, though. Nobody to whom this was an important sales line has or will drop them. A mom and pop brick-and-mortar FFL dropping Benchmade will not noticeably affect Benchmade, either. Those stores probably rarely sold anything.
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^^ Again, this^^
Big retailers, online and brick and mortar alike, are gonna stock what sells, regardless of political issues. Mom and pop operations, local LGS's, and such, may decide to drop them here and there, but it's not a big part of their revenue stream anyway. They can afford to play politics if they want. Knife at these places are an impulse item at best - no one goes to the local LGS, primarily looking for knives.



Political debates aside, it's all about the numbers in business. And the numbers don't add up enough in any of the scenarios for this to really affect Benchmade at all. If they were a boutique operation, where only the really active knife community bought their product, it might affect them. If they were a large enough company to be a household name, again, it might affect their bottom line. But they're neither. They are big enough to not be really affected by the collector community, and small enough to not have the average consumer care about any controversy.
 
This whole thing is reminiscent of over a decade ago, when it came out that Tim Leatherman supported a certain political party, and some Leatherman customers claimed they were through with Leatherman for having different beliefs than theirs. IIRC, some people even predicted the imminent demise of Leatherman Tools. Well, all these years later and Leatherman is still around and doing quite well.

Jim
 
Bad Ninja said:
Incorrect.
1.) "Gun guys" represent the overwhelming majority of BM purchases.

2.) There was no court order to destroy those guns.
It was only OCPD department policy, started by the Chief of police.

3.) If it wasn't such a major issue, BM's owner wouldn't have bothered with making a video trying to explain the actions.
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Your right and I think what some here may not understand is
1.) In the big picture this has nothing to to with gun guys or knife guys.If there's guys in the knife community that could care less about guns even though it's a right under the constution and the right to carry or own a knife isn't. Thats ok. They "should" be concerned about the loss of Liberty because once it's lost , very hard if not impossible to get back;


2.) They should also keep in mind millions of their fellow Americans nowadays could care less about either guns or knives.
3.)Sure as the sun shall rise tomorrow when the gun guys loose there rights the knife guys will be next and no one will really care about that either
 
No politics, I am good with that. In fact, I am Canadian and neither dem nor gop. I have a question:

- but last I checked there were many dems on the nra A list... guys like Sanford Bishop in Georgia, etc etc and other dems who get nra funding.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/nra-political-money-clout/index.html

Is this really no longer the case? Have 100% of dems lost nra standing??

If not, then simply looking at which party someone makes donations to has nothing to do with 2A support right?
 
skyhorse said:
...Sure as the sun shall rise tomorrow when the gun guys loose there rights the knife guys will be next and no one will really care about that either
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Agreed. The bad thing about it is that we do not have a 2nd Amendment for knives so our knife rights could disappear quickly and very quietly. It won't start on a national level; just by city and county. Except in my home state. Sacramento loves to be at the forefront of stuff like this.

It is amazing how the State's attitude leans towards the idea that we the people are too stupid to take care of ourselves. The same holds true with the Feds also.
Just my opinion.
 
which seems silly - the actual wording of 2A is "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms"...
shouldn't knives be included under the general term 'arms' ??
 
dirc said:
No politics, I am good with that. In fact, I am Canadian and neither dem nor gop. I have a question:

- but last I checked there were many dems on the nra A list... guys like Sanford Bishop in Georgia, etc etc and other dems who get nra funding.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/nra-political-money-clout/index.html

Is this really no longer the case? Have 100% of dems lost nra standing??

If not, then simply looking at which party someone makes donations to has nothing to do with 2A support right?
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It's fairly hard for a dem to get a good rating from the NRA even if some deserve it, but the NRA isn't the only gun owners association so..

I generally don't default to where the NRA gives money or they're grading system I generally look at where they're from and how they voted.

Compare Sanders to Clinton Sanders has had as high as a C- grade from the NRA, I can't remember Clinton ever getting above an F (Vermont v Chicago)

There are a significant number of lefties that like or are indifferent to guns, but it tends not to be a core focus i.e. I'm geneally less concerned where a candidate stands on guns than how they stand on labor unions gun rights will be protected by the judiciary but the same cannot be said for labor.
 
James Y said:
This whole thing is reminiscent of over a decade ago, when it came out that Tim Leatherman supported a certain political party, and some Leatherman customers claimed they were through with Leatherman for having different beliefs than theirs. IIRC, some people even predicted the imminent demise of Leatherman Tools. Well, all these years later and Leatherman is still around and doing quite well.

Jim
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"Always Think Forefeiture"

I'm still selecting Gerber for my multi tool use to this day.
 
sabre cat said:
Agreed. The bad thing about it is that we do not have a 2nd Amendment for knives so our knife rights could disappear quickly and very quietly. It won't start on a national level; just by city and county. Except in my home state. Sacramento loves to be at the forefront of stuff like this.

It is amazing how the State's attitude leans towards the idea that we the people are too stupid to take care of ourselves. The same holds true with the Feds also.
Just my opinion.
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What's interesting about this is that even though there's been more and more controversy over guns and access to guns, knife laws around the country have been continuing to become more lenient thanks to work from places like Knife Rights.

Oddly enough, most of the time, the right and the left want to repeal knife laws. In places like New York, knife laws disproportionally affect minorities and the working class so the left sees it as a civil rights issue.
 
dirc said:
which seems silly - the actual wording of 2A is "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms"...
shouldn't knives be included under the general term 'arms' ??
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While a sword and/or bayonet are not nearly as much essential "Arms" today they have been throughout much of history so to me bladed weapons are a Second Amendment issue.
 
dirc said:
which seems silly - the actual wording of 2A is "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms"...
shouldn't knives be included under the general term 'arms' ??
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Courts around the country have been divided on whether knives are protected under 2A. Some courts have said yes and others have said no. For example, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled a machete and other bladed tools were covered under the Constitution.

The closest the Supreme Court got was in Heller I believe. However, they never explicitly said knives were covered but SCOTUS usually issues rulings narrowly. Here's more about that from AKTI: https://www.akti.org/news/u-s-supreme-court-case-summary/
 
melmac said:
What's interesting about this is that even though there's been more and more controversy over guns and access to guns, knife laws around the country have been continuing to become more lenient thanks to work from places like Knife Rights.

Oddly enough, most of the time, the right and the left want to repeal knife laws. In places like New York, knife laws disproportionally affect minorities and the working class so the left sees it as a civil rights issue.
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I can honestly say that I never have seen policies of the left ever used to repeal laws restricting the rights of the individual. Nor have I ever seen the left take the stance that knife or gun rights are civil rights issues. Never.

Now, you may have an individual politician speak up from time to time but, that's about it. It's like having a someone board a train headed in the wrong direction and then decide to walk to the back of the train to solve the problem. It just isn't enough. The overall policies have to change to make it effective and I just don't see that happening with the left.

As for Knife Rights and the like, they all have seemed to have turned their backs on the State of California. What people seem to ignore is this, history shows that what California does has a ripple effect over the rest of the union. Sooner or later most States adopt CA policies and attitudes to some degree or another. I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

I need to stop writing about this. I come to BF.com to get a break from this sort of garbage.
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I spend about 95% of my time on gun forums and maybe 5% here. If this Benchmade fiasco is anything like the Springfield mess they stepped in, it will not go well for them. As far as the gun forums are concerned, the overwhelming consensus there is that Springfield can pound sand and it will not get any better any time soon. 2a people have very long memories. I Was a Benchmade fanboy but I've bought my last one.
 
If integrity was such a major factor for the success of a knife company, then the market would look very different. At this stage, like all protests, there will be "those who care" on both sides, but mainly on the boycott side, and those who have bigger fish, mostly on the non-boycott side. So the conversation will start to look stronger since the "debate" will be very one-sided. But the reality is that within six months, very few will still care. This is a microscope/telescope problem, and its related to many other such debates that seem contentious but are in reality POV disputes. So long as neither side bothers to clarify the bounds of any debate, its just old people yelling at clouds.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't Oregon had some of the most liberal knife laws in the country for decades? Isn't that why a number of knife makers ended up there? Don't we owe Oregon a debt of gratitude for the modern high end automatic knife biz? Ironic, no?
 
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1. This will unlikely hurt benchmade in the long run. Every time I go to my local gun store there are a handful of people lusting over them in the glass case. One of the salesman Saturday was explaining the benchmade debacle to a customer that was looking. The salesman said this is blown out of proportion and the customer could have cared less. He bought his griptilian.

2. I think all the guys that are holding their pitchforks and saying benchmade will suffer and lose business, WANT benchmade to suffer and lose business. But they won’t.

3. Of all the people that said they were “selling” all their benchmades, probably a small percentage actually will. The majority will likely keep those sweet, sweet benchmades. Most were just talking big but won’t do it.

4. Yes I’m a gun owner and like my firearms. But this is being blown way out of proportion. Benchmade will be fine.
 
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