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By Jim Shepherd

George Soros did not buy Remington. Ever. I don’t care what “confidential source” provided you with this hot info, it’s not true.

For years I’ve routinely been forwarded messages warning me of a “Critical Development!” “Emergency Situation for Gun Owners!” or asking “ Is An Attack on the Second Amendment Coming?”

Usually they come from readers who are “pretty certain it’s not true” but “just wanted to get your take on this.”

This is my annual response for 2021: It is still not true. Wasn’t true then, isn’t true now. And it won’t be true next Tuesday when that urgent plea for a donation to fight the takeover comes.

Just delete it.

At NASGW I saw the first inkling that there’s yet another one of those stories that won’t die circulating.

This one is far more contemporary as it deals with the Covid-19 pandemic. And it’s caused headaches for one of the families and companies I’ve considered industry leaders since I met them more than two decades ago.

The “hot rumor” is that Hornady has told their employees to get vaccinated or be terminated.

I talked – at length – with Steve Hornady about the rumor at NASGW. Actually, I listened as he told me what a gigantic distraction the rumor had been. And he told me, in no uncertain (or repeatable) terms it simply wasn’t true.

Fact or Fake news
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But here’s the straight from the source response to the rumor:

“Hornady does not, never had, and has no plans whatsoever to mandate any of our employees get a vaccine. Period”.

“We are the same company that told Cuomo to stuff it – we won’t sell NY, has supported NRA for years, a founding member of NSSF, was the first company to contribute a percentage of sales to fund the fight against the mayors when they sued the industry, and has supported the 2nd Amendment and we always will.”

So, you might ask, if this is just absolutely not true, why do these kinds of stories continue to spread? Good question, and the only reasons I can think of are simply more indications of just how far we’ve slid down the mountain since we were “that bright shining city on a hill”.

First, we have become a society where some people -on any side of any issue- are looking for a reason to be outraged. Some of them will respond negatively to my suggesting this. That’s fine, and I’m prepared to defend my position.

Second, there’s the “outraged cash call” methodology that all politicians -and that many of our own outdoor groups – use to rally their supporters. I begin my morning reading by deleting 4-6 of those messages out of my inbox. Every day. You probably get them too. In politics, it’s called “throwing red meat” to your constituents. Fire them up and they’ll loosen the purse strings.

Here’s Steve Hornady’s opinion:

“Unfortunately, there are people looking for the bogey man in everything and they think they found one in us. There are haters out there that just want to spread their hate.”

Hornady employees know the story’s just not true. If you ask them, they’ll tell you there is no vaccination policy – and there never was one. As Steve Hornady explained, there isn’t even a mask requirement in the plants. “We’re tired of it. It’s time to get on with living. Covid or some variant is with us forever, just like influenza, it still kills thousands every year..and measles and polio and…all those others we’re exposed to.”

So for the record: Hornady did not mandate vaccinations for employees. There was never a “policy” to that effect and they didn’t “change it because they were caught.”

You can’t treat everything you read, hear or see as absolute, unadulterated truth. You need to follow the famous Reagan advice about “facts”: Trust, but verify.

Haters gonna hate. Liars gonna lie.

And we’re going to keep you posted.

 

Jim Shepherd publishes the Outdoor Wire. This article originally appeared there and is republished here with permission. 

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42 COMMENTS

    • Or better yet, don’t even engage in classic social media. I’ve never had an account with Snoopbook, Snoopchat, Instasnoop, Snoop Tok, et al. If the Men In Black want to read what I’m saying, they’ll only find my comments here or (rarely) on a couple of other gun sites.

      But in regards to the article’s point of sifting through rumors and garbage, and where such things begin, just look to a site’s trolls. We have one here who spews lengthy diatribes, and another who isn’t capable of much more than biting ankles.

      • Same here. I have better things to do with my time. My son has started competing at my range and he is having a great time. He is learning there is far more to shooting than he thought and is enjoying the challenge. Last weekend on a 100m match he used my Ruger Precision Rimfire at 100m and said he really liked the rifle. He scored 100 out of 100.

      • “If the Men In Black want to read what I’m saying, they’ll only find my comments here or (rarely) on a couple of other gun sites.”

        Do you own a cell phone? Smart or dumb, that things an informer in your pocket.

        • Mine is a “hacked and cracked” phone with an open source OS and encryption. Not attached to Google in any way, nor is there an account with my name on it. It piggybacks anonymously on an existing carrier’s network and is fueled with top-up cards, which I buy with cash and implement via a computer at work, so not associated with my home IP. All my emails, texts, and Internet usage is encrypted and VPN’d.

          So…no, not really an informer.

        • “So…no, not really an informer.”

          One word, three letters : GPS.

          It’s hard-coded in the signal it transmits, even at ‘idle’…

        • My phone is not set to GPS, but yes you’re correct that any phone continually pings as a core function.

          However, if everyone stands on the sidewalk and shouts their name, then any person can be located and identified. But if the person named Geoff simply shouts, then the sound is certainly heard, but the person hearing it doesn’t know the identity of the shouter.

      • Remember when you called eNd oF wAtCh and vowed to leave this site for good? Can you do that again, but for real this time?

  2. I also look at the title of my incoming mail and just like my printed mail a lot of it goes into the round file unopened.
    My “Charity Funds” are parsed out after my essential funds are accounted for. As I have lived Paycheck to Paycheck for over 50 years I know what I can spend and when I cannot. The panic shout will have to be real to get me to move.

  3. My question is…When are gun owners going to cease chasing their tails trying to “explain” the 2A and attack Gun Control? Tons of History Confirmed Diabolical Gun Control Baggage out there and their silence is deafening. Perhaps they need inspiration from some ar15dotcom gasbag with 35,000 incomplete sentence posts? From what I’ve seen its the number of posts that coincide with intelligence and does the, “motivating.” It damned sure isn’t The History of Gun Control. Why talking about Gun Control and Racism may offend gun owning bigots. And besides their N-Word jokes are funny. Let’s see how funny it is when Silence allows Jim Crow Gun Control joe and his ilk to have it their way.

    • Lessee…

      “Racism” mentioned? Check
      “Bigots” mentioned? Check
      “N-word” mentioned? Check
      “Jim Crow” mentioned? Check
      Complete absence of racism even mentioned in the article in the first place? Check

      I’m just confused as to why you’re always so focused on racism, and consumed with the task of “finding” it around every corner and under every rock. You sound like other race-baiters on the Left.

      • “I’m just confused as to why you’re always so focused on racism”

        ’cause the dacian syndrome?

      • The drumbeat gets a bit tiring, but she’s not wrong. Racism IS underneath every gun control rock, around every corner of it, and in every nook and cranny of it.

  4. I heard from an anonymous source that when Joe Biden dumps Kamala as VP, Hornady is going to immediately hire her as Senior VP for nitrose-free cartridge development.

    Too soon?

    • I hear that Kammey has been fixing the brakes on the Beast. How those idiots came up with her for the backup???

      • She’s highly qualified by virtue of her race, her gender, and her pedigree as a descendant of slave-owners.

        • Not to mention being a psychopath and a whore who will do *anything* for a little more power. That part is also very important. She’s the very model of a modern American leftist.

    • SloJoe is never going to dump Kommie HaHa. She’s the best insurance he against being pushed out of office. Everyone hates that woman– including Democrats. Even her own party has come to realize she’s a total loser.

  5. “If you ask [Hornady employees], they’ll tell you there is no vaccination policy – and there never was one.”

    Worded to imply, while carefully skirting around an objective (and therefore disprovable) statement, that the author did ask them – but he’s clearly disproven the “fake news” by asking the guy who was accused – LOL!

    Wouldn’t our criminal justice system be so much simpler if we just ignored all other witnesses and evidence, confident that a not-guilty plea is conclusive proof of innocence?

  6. Ehh…can’t remember the last time I bought any Hornady ammo. I think their defense handgun ammo has weak ballistics. I’d get AR ammo from them but I never see it now. No ZombieMax. The rumor mill had zero effect on me. I get tired of the “hater” meme.

  7. “First, we have become a society where some people -on any side of any issue- are looking for a reason to be outraged. Some of them will respond negatively to my suggesting this. That’s fine, and I’m prepared to defend my position.”

    maybe “First” should be ’cause internet.

  8. I get a lot of mail every day warning me of the upcoming implosion of the stock market. Unfortunately, I think they may be right, although the timing is open to question. The stuff that irritates me the most, though, are the ones you unsubscribe from–that show up again a couple of weeks later. The “funniest” ones are the ones warning of some unspecified tragic event–that never comes, and the date it is supposed to come keeps on being pushed back.

  9. If they contract with the .gov and the osha stuff gets the ok after the court cases

    They don’t have a choice

  10. “You can’t treat everything you read, hear or see as absolute, unadulterated truth. ”

    Well, rats.

    Life is getting too complicated.

    • “My favorite fake news emails are the ones that say “The NRA is defending the Second Amendment!””.

      *snicker*… 😉

  12. News spelled backwards is swen, that’s something to think about right there.
    Swen you start believing the news you might get lied too.

  13. …did not I see, within the last couple days, a whole article devoted to the Hornady vaxx situation? Did this article not include a screen shot of the employee memo? Were there not numerous comments telling Hornady to take a flying leap?

    What happened to it, or was I lahucinating?

  16. Hornady is a fine company with good products. I am glad they and many like them are in business to serve all of us in the shooting sports community.

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