By Joseph P. Tartaro | Executive Editor
Salesforce, a leading developer of business software, is the latest company to take action against gun sales in the wake of mass shootings. According to Business Insider, Salesforce is barring customers from using its system to sell semi-automatic guns and other firearms.
Salesforce is a $120 billion tech company based in San Francisco that updated its “acceptable use” policy in April to prohibit the use of its software for sales of automatic and semiautomatic firearms, as well as certain gun parts. The Washington Post first reported the change to its policies, which now prohibit using Salesforce software for marketing, customer-service operations, and order fulfillment related to those weapons.
“After carefully reviewing similar policies in the industry and discussing with internal and external stakeholders, we updated our policy,” a Salesforce spokesperson told Business Insider. “The change affects new customers and a small number of existing customers when their current contracts expire.”
AmmoLand.com reported that Salesforce.com is the leader in cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) services. The San Francisco tech giant has over 100,000 users with some spending over $1,000,000 a year on the services.
Salesforce has put firearms retailers in a tough place, according to AmmoLand.
“Retailers such as Camping World Holdings are almost totally dependent on the Salesforce software platform to get shipments out and for marketing. Unless Camping World Holdings, which is the parent company of Gander Mountain, stops selling semi-automatic rifles with the ability to take magazines, then they will be kicked off the platform when their contract expires.
Gander Mountain has its own problems. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 and when no buyer appeared moved to close 32 of its 162 stores.
AmmoLand reported that Salesforce has also banned the sale of 80% lowers, barrel shrouds, and flash hiders. Any rifle chambered in .50 BMG, and the round itself is also forbidden. Most bizarrely the company has banned the sale of stocks with thumb holes, but it is still OK to sell pistol grips for semi-automatic rifles.
Current Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, founded Salesforce.com in 1999, and reportedly is strictly on the anti-gun side of the debate. On Feb. 15 of last year, he tweeted out, “The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America. Ban it.”
Benioff has also given large sums of money to anti-gun groups. He stroked a check of $1,000,000 to March for Our Lives. That is the same group that David Hogg used in addition to his classmate’s deaths to jump-start his career as a professional activist.
Anti-gun advocates hailed Salesforce’s decision as a game-changer, but the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry trade organization, sees what Salesforce is doing as “corporate-policy virtue signaling” and said that it is going to have a chilling effect on the industry.
Sellmark acquires Kopfjager
Texas-based Sellmark Corporation has announced the addition of Kopfjager to the corporation’s family of popular brands. Launched in 2012 with the design of an innovative rifle rest, the popularity of Kopfjager products has skyrocketed.
Kopfjager began humbly with a rifle rest designed, tested and redesigned by two SWAT officers, Garret Hellinger and Matt Banes. Given their law enforcement experience, the two officers were looking for a way to minimize human factors, especially stress-induced, detrimental to precise shot placement. They also wanted to ensure their shooting rest solution was lightweight and mobile, yet rock-solid with fluid horizontal and vertical tracking.
Beginning in 2013, trials, errors and re-designs led to the introduction of the Reaper Rest, a tripod-mountable system that changed the way law enforcement and military operators were able to engage targets with precision accuracy. Shortly after the Reaper Rest was developed, Gabe Snyder joined Matt and Garret as a partner and began managing product design and development. Gabe’s efforts enhanced design, development and patentable innovation efforts tremendously and, in 2015, Kopfjager unveiled the Reaper Grip.
With the immediate rise of Kopfjager’s popularity among special-operations law enforcement officers and military personnel, scores of hunters and competitive shooters also took notice. The Reaper Grip took hunting and shooting by storm and positioned Kopfjager on the industry’s leading edge.
“Kopfjager’s position as a leading rest manufacturer committed to enhancing shooting experiences for law enforcement and military personnel, as well as recreational hunters and shooters, made it a perfect fit in our family of brands,” stated Sellmark founder and CEO, James Sellers.
Effective immediately, Sellmark Corporation has assumed Kopfjager’s day-to-day operations. Kopfjager now joins Sellmark Corporation’s other brands headquartered in Mansfield, TX.
Sellmark is dedicated to producing industry-leading outdoor lifestyle products and brands and continues to grow market share in more than 50 countries, including many quality retailers in every state across the US. To date, Sellmark products and brands have been sold in more than 5,000 locations around the world. Sellmark “Brands that Sell” include Sightmark, Pulsar, Firefield, and 12 Survivors.
Gun business donations
Smith & Wesson Corp. recently presented Honored American Veterans Afield (HAVA) with a donation of $20,000 to help fund HAVA-sanctioned hunting and shooting activities for disabled veterans and injured active military personnel.
Lane Tobiassen, president of the Smith & Wesson Division of American Outdoor Brands, presented the donation to Tom Taylor, chairman of HAVA, in the Smith & Wesson booth at the 2019 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Indianapolis, IN, in April.
Tobiassen said, “It is an honor to support an organization that has done so much for veterans for more than a decade. HAVA-funded activities are an inspiration to the firearms community, and the importance of the work being done to get our veterans back in the field cannot be overstated. These activities provide so much excitement and happiness to thousands of veterans and their families who have sacrificed themselves for our freedoms, and we are proud to give back through this important organization which supports the well-being of veterans throughout our community.”
Founded in 2007 by several companies in the shooting sports industry, HAVA is a tax-exempt organization that sponsors events across the nation and has worked to heighten awareness of issues facing disabled veterans upon returning home. Donations from HAVA’s co-sponsors help sustain the many hunting and shooting sports activities that it hosts each year.
Those who would like to continue on HAVA’s mission, learn more about the organization and how to contribute or see photos from past events can visit www.honoredveterans.org.
Sig-Sauer, Inc. has announced the release of three commemorative pistols to benefit the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). The pistols include a 1911 Nitron, 1911 Stainless, and P320 Carry that are exclusively engraved to honor law enforcement, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each pistol will be donated to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Warne Scope Mounts mourns passing of company founder
Warne Scope Mounts honors the passing of its founder and firearms industry icon, John (Jack) Llewellyn Warne. Jack, as he preferred to be called, passed away at home May 21, 2019, in the presence of his wife of 72 years, Marjory and his son Steve. He was 96.
Jack Warne was born in Adelaide, South Australia in April 1923 and had a long and industrious career in both metal products manufacturing and firearms and accessory design and production, both in Australia and in the United States.
As founder of Australia’s only official firearms maker, Sporting Arms Limited, Jack Warne designed a full line of sporting rifles, including the Sportco Model 62, known in the USA as the Winchester 320. His design and manufacturing prowess led him to an association with Omark Industries in 1958, for whom he manufactured under license Omark’s powder-actuated construction tools through 1968-at which time Sporting Arms Limited was acquired by Omark Industries. Jack Warne’s career at Omark Industries continued until 1985, when he retired as President / Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to his retirement from Omark Industries, Jack helped his son Greg develop the family business, Kimber of Oregon, where he designed Kimber’s Model 82 and 84 rifles in the late 1970s.
Jack Warne founded Warne Manufacturing Company in 1991, which became known throughout the global firearms industry for manufacturing and marketing high quality riflescope mounts. He sold the company ten years later in 2001, and it is now known as Warne Scope Mounts-or just Warne to its loyal customers.
Jack Warne is survived by his wife, Marjory, son Steve, three grandsons and three great-grandchildren.
