Benchmade gun destruction

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My question is " how much did they [ BM ] save the city by taking such horrible action as to destroy an INANIMATE OBJECT.

Its a general laugh that " guns don't kill people,people kill people ".

BUT its a truth that BM ignored.

I am a retired LEO, and I own more than a few BM's.

I will not be buying any more !

NO INANIMATE OBJECT EVER HARMED ANYONE,and that includes BM's product

Especially their "auto knives" as they are still banned in many states.

Will BM take in any states auto knives and destroy them for an PD agency ?.

Blaming the gun for the action of violent people that are lawless is wrong = period.
 
I understand why some guns might have to be destroyed.

I don't know many reasons.
Mechanically unsafe? You bet, scrap it.
By law because it is a "crime gun?" Either silly or intentionally repressive. As Dickens' Mr Bumble said, "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass–a idiot."

There are posts here about a couple of gun-destroying companies who sell the residue. They are careful to wreck only the receiver, leaving most of the parts usable. The thing that surprised me was the prices asked. They only sell in sets, not worth their while to part out the guns like Numrich, and they charge a lot for the barrel and guts of a good quality firearm.
 
But he hasn’t boycotted Academy, Glock, Ruger or Hornady (examples) for their roles in making firearms very accessible. I’m not saying he’s wrong or criticizing him. I am pointing out that quite a few people are willing to immediately criticize and boycott over a perceived 2A slight, but we sure as heck don’t boycott or protest the manufacturer, seller or even owner (in some cases) when one of the weapons we want is used to commit a crime.

In my opinion, I think you are wildly missing the point. To draw a parallel as you did is essentially comparing apples to livestock, or some other comparison that is sheer nonsense. Imagine that, people are boycotting an entity that has acted in a way that they vehemently disagree with. To accuse major manufacturers of moral injustice deserving of a boycott because they "make firearms very accessible" is quite asinine, to say the least. At risk of sounding like a broken record, you cannot blame a spoon for someone becoming overweight, just as you cannot blame the needle for a drug overdose, and you cannot blame a vehicle for the loss of life in a wreck. Lets boycott Dodge or Chevy because so-and-so died because of one of their cars wrecked. That just sounds silly, and so does what you stated.

The outrage is not over firearms having been ordered to be destroyed. It was the fact that a private entity was put on a pedestal and applauded for assisting in "final destruction", with no other information given. It appears to be a political stunt with Benchmade at the helm, and seemed quite intentional. The retraction statement from the Chief and Mayor certainly did not help. It's not about the fact that the guns were ordered to be destroyed. It was the way it was presented, coupled with the fact that Benchmade has hidden behind the scenes without so much as an utterance to clarify their stance to align with their 2A customer base. Adding insult to injury, Benchmade's silence on the issue is compounded with the recent information broadcasted about their support for the same party that is so eager to strip away 2A rights and impose severe control.
 
My previous snowflake comment aside, which I still stand by 100%...

If Benchmade is supporting anti-2A candidates, that’s real harm to me and my guns. In that sense, the bad optics I would’ve quickly dismissed have grown to include their political contributions which I won’t dismiss. Benchmade was stupid for that and not knowing their customer base.

I own a few Benchmades - Bushcrafter, Nimravus and two 707s. They’re awesome. Benchmade’s politics are not. My next new purchases will be other American-made knives.
 
I don’t care about the gun cut up thing.

I do find it interesting that issue has brought a different one to the surface.

I am sure, as I consider this, that Benchmade is putting their money where it will benefit their business the most. But i don't understand why they aren't asking themselves (or apparently they don’t care) how that would look to the people that buy their products-largely, overwhelmingly, nearly universally 2A supporters.

In today's “activist” climate, I believe that spreading a company’s money in a way that runs afoul of its core customer base is more damaging than at any previous time I can remember. And for Benchmade, I hope it is.
 
Was shopping for a knife recently, looked at Benchmade. Will not anymore.

They assisted a police department who is actively promoting this on their Fakebook page. On another forum, they are saying that comments are being censored. This is typical of cop pages on Fakebook. Way beyond bad optics. You don't try to hide when you're doing the right thing. You don't shut down discussion when you support free speech. The "it's my job" argument is made by weak men.

Couple this with the record of Benchmade's political contributions and it's clear they are a compromised company at the top, at a minimum.
 
This coincides with Gunny's observation that criminals are tending to use a better quality of firearm than they once did. It is tragic that law enforcement agencies are obligated to destroy firearms rather than realize some income from them, but the risk of seized guns falling into the wrong hands is too great to ignore. What's missing is an intelligent system of triage that would take guns with minimal value or illegal/unsafe guns out of action while preserving the pythons and collector guns for sale to those who would appreciate them. Inevitably, politics wins over common sense.

Benchmade is not the problem, but certainly not part of the solution either.
 
but the risk of seized guns falling into the wrong hands is too great to ignore.

The risk for a confiscated gun sold by a PD "falling into the wrong hands" is precisely the same as for a brand new gun. I googled a sheriff's auction and it stated that local sales were subject to background check and out of state sales must go to a FFL.

The PD here seems of the more usual sort. Stolen guns are returned to the owner of record - I got mine back - good guns are kept for "training", cheap or shabby guns are scrapped.
 
This is much brewha about a non issue. Sure it was a little political. Police are political after all. The reasons for their policies are political as well. It is up to locals to force change to the firearm disposal policies regarding firearms obtained by the police. Benchmark assisted and now we are supposed to be mad at Benchmark. For me a non issue. I don't care if they are destroyed or sold. What I would care about would be those that walk out the station back door, back into a tool for crime.

To understand is to look at the politics and not be tainted in your understand of those politics by your position on the subject.
 
Jim, my reference to falling into the wrong hands included misappropriation along the chain of custody, as noted regarding the steel mill employee or others with access. A functional firearm is an object of desire that a few have difficulty passing up.
 
I guess I don't get any of this. No reason to destroy a functioning firearm, or any legal seized item.

I also don't blame Benchmade one bit. They didn't set the law/policy, they're just providing the service.

I don't see how any of this affects 2A rights either. It certainly has no effect on gun supply.
 
Should we destroy cars seized from drunk drivers lest they be used to drive drunk again?

You don't seem to understand. The best way to keep drunk drivers from killing sober drivers is to ban sober drivers from being on the road.

It's just like gun control. If you sufficiently restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners, it will stop law breakers from using guns to commit crime. See ? You just need to apply the same logic...
 
Whatever the boycotts/politics/thoughts, the most useful thing I got out of this thread that I didn't know was the www.opensecrets.org website, which I've now bookmarked. Go to it and type a few of your favorite companies into the search and I think you'll find it interesting. Academy Sports was surprising to me, almost no contributions to Republicans. Walmart is pretty split down the middle.

I just hope the data is accurate if we're going to be drawing conclusions on where to buy from it.
 
I am not sure which disturbs me more, the idea that some companies make political donations for non-business reasons, or the idea that there's an enormous swath of the public, independent of ideology, who thinks that the correct answer is to limit our interactions in the common space and social sphere to those individuals and companies who believe what we do and to try to actively destroy those individuals and companies who don't.

... coupled with the fact that Benchmade has hidden behind the scenes without so much as an utterance to clarify their stance to align with their 2A customer base. Adding insult to injury, Benchmade's silence on the issue is compounded with the recent information broadcasted about their support for the same party that is so eager to strip away 2A rights and impose severe control.

This is not accurate, Benchmade has in fact made a statement. It's not a good statement, but they did in fact release a statement. It's available on their social media platforms and Bladeforums, which are hard to link here.
 
The Chief of the Oregon City PD has been doing this "gun destruction show" crap for years. And he always makes sure to bring out lots of press to make his point when he destroys firearms. He is extremely anti 2nd Amendment and always has been. He is NOT required to destroy seized firearms. That is totally HIS decision. They could be sold to fund his Department or sold for scrap metal value. But NO, after using taxpayer's dollars to "buy them back" he destroys perfectly serviceable firearms in front of the press. Getting the picture now? For Benchmade to be part of his little Liberal circus was Benchmade's decision. Now they will pay for that decision. Benchmade's owners have been contributing many thousands of dollars to anti gun Democrats for 10 years now. This is not at all unlike what Springfield Armory did some time ago. Benchmade absolutely deserves what is about to happen to them. You are either with us or against us. Personally I have always like Benchmade's designs even though they bought most of them from other people but paying over 200 dollars for a knife with a plastic handle is just like buying a Yeti cooler. I owned one Benchmade many years ago and while it was a good work knife it was nowhere near being worth the price I paid for it. Bye bye Benchmade.
 
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This is much brewha about a non issue. Sure it was a little political. Police are political after all. The reasons for their policies are political as well. It is up to locals to force change to the firearm disposal policies regarding firearms obtained by the police. Benchmark assisted and now we are supposed to be mad at Benchmark. For me a non issue. I don't care if they are destroyed or sold. What I would care about would be those that walk out the station back door, back into a tool for crime.

To understand is to look at the politics and not be tainted in your understand of those politics by your position on the subject.


The destruction of firearms is not the issue

Them donating 30K to get Democrats elected is
 
I am not sure which disturbs me more. . . who thinks that the correct answer is to limit our interactions in the common space and social sphere to those individuals and companies who believe what we do and to try to actively destroy those individuals and companies who don't.
Why? My dollars, my politics, my priorities.

I buy Magpul because they've made the rare move of moving out of a repressive regime instead of living with it. I don't do business with businesses that Post their premises, and I tell them why.

In both cases, I'm delighted that they have the freedom to choose. . . and that I have the same freedom. Why wouldn't you vote with your wallet?
 
Tarosean, this is what I mean. Horseman61 is boycotting Benchmade for this, because they offended him by helping to destroy firearms. But he hasn’t boycotted Academy, Glock, Ruger or Hornady (examples) for their roles in making firearms very accessible. I’m not saying he’s wrong or criticizing him. I am pointing out that quite a few people are willing to immediately criticize and boycott over a perceived 2A slight, but we sure as heck don’t boycott or protest the manufacturer, seller or even owner (in some cases) when one of the weapons we want is used to commit a crime. Heck, I reckon there’s people here who want the Vegas shooters arsenal sold off.

Academy, Glock, Ruger, Hornady, etc., are conducting legal business. Why would anyone (except maybe you ....:evil:) boycott a legal business????
 
Academy, Glock, Ruger, Hornady, etc., are conducting legal business. Why would anyone (except maybe you ....:evil:) boycott a legal business????
To be clear, what Benchmade did was legal. . . and I don't like it, so I won't buy their stuff.

What Academy, Glock, Ruger, Hornady, etc do is legal, and I like it, so I buy their stuff. Well, except for Academy. . . and Glock. . .

This IS politics, via the Wallet; the best and second-most-honest sort of politics.
 
To be clear, what Benchmade did was legal. . . and I don't like it, so I won't buy their stuff.

What Academy, Glock, Ruger, Hornady, etc do is legal, and I like it, so I buy their stuff. Well, except for Academy. . . and Glock. . .

This IS politics, via the Wallet; the best and second-most-honest sort of politics.

Certainly; you have the right to boycott a legally operating business if they're doing something that offends you! If a business was doing something illegal, hopefully the law would put an end to it whether someone was boycotting it or not.
 
I wonder if the PD went to Benchmark or if Benchmark went to the PD to offer this service. There has to be hundreds of company's in that area that could destroy guns. I could knock out a thousand in a day in my shop as a private contractor.

The fact that Benchmade of all companies was chosen, is a clear publicity stunt for both Benchmark and the PD. Poor business decision for a knife company to make.
 
At least they let everyone know where they stand. How many businesses, you do business with, do you think support views that oppose yours that you don’t know about?

I bet it’s a lot and they would prefer to keep things that would hurt their business private vs shove it in the face of their customers.

Same with the company I work for. We lean conservative from the top down. I have been asked to put that conservative lean into some of our marketing materials. As much as I lean conservative, I have repeatedly explained to the people in my company how we want to earn money from all sides of the political spectrum.

Now, if we had products for sale that only conservatives would purchase, that would be a different matter. But that's not the case, and the industry we serve is not flush enough for us to cut off half of our sales.
 
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