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The photogenic employees of Michael Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action anti-gun agitprop group have been agitating for months to have Staples ban guns from all of their stores. I’m still not exactly clear on why they’ve locked on to Staples as the target, since the office supply store isn’t really the highest-profile retailer out there, and hasn’t been receptive to their advances. Especially after today, when Moms Demand Action tried to deliver a petition to Staples’ corporate headquarters — and were kicked out of the building . . .

From the Framingham Patch:

Members of the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America tried deliver a petition with more than 12,000 signatures at Staples headquarters in Framingham on Tuesday morning to Staples’ CEO but were asked to leave the property.

The organization did deliver the signatures to Staples security.

There’s so much fail here on multiple levels.

First up, the anemic petition. There’s no doubt that gun control advocates are losing the war and their numbers are continuing to dwindle as they lose battle after battle, but I had expected them to be able to conjure up more than 12,000 signatures. Heck, TTAG alone can generate that in a single day without breaking a sweat, but 12,000 signatures represents a concerted and long term effort on the part of Moms Demand Action. Which, when you think about it, is kind of pathetic.

Also consider the fact that no one at Staples wanted anything to do with them. This supposedly powerful gun control advocacy lobby wasn’t met by a single actual employee of Staples — not even the “oh that’s nice here’s a gift basket” kind of meeting with a low level corporate peon that you’d expect. No one at Staples wanted to even speak with them, so instead they handed their petition to the security guards. And I’ll give you three guesses where that security guard filed their petition.

This could be one of the first signs that the shine is off the Moms Demand Action apple, that people are realizing that the photogenic and well paid employees of Michael Bloomberg don’t actually have any popular support, and the only reason they keep getting media attention is thanks to the deep pockets of the millionaire in charge and the mainstream media’s love of gun control in general. Michael Bloomberg’s request that the American public pay no attention to the man behind the curtain at MDA seem to be going unheeded, and what little political power they had is slowly fading into obscurity.

It’s not time to celebrate Moms Demand Action’s demise just yet, but there’s always time to wallow in the failures of the enemies of civil rights.

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169 COMMENTS

  2. So let’s do just that. Petition Staples to allow us to continue to carry in their stores. Have the local progun org takecthen to HQ. See how big it could be and what media attention could be gained.

    • I was thinking that. However it would seem more appropriate if staples had accepted the petition from MDA. Remember Starbucks threw up their hands and said “NO GUNS” (though doesn’t enforce it strongly) because they didn’t want to have their brand in headlines with “guns” all the time.

      Granted a petition is different from openly carried ar15s.

      I wish I had a better mind for strategy.

    • TTAG would undoubtedly create a petition that would require the purchase of many cases of Staples printer paper to print and a fair sized truck to deliver, HOWEVER – it may have exactly the effect other such actions had on Starbucks. These corporations do not want to be forced publicly into this extremely partisan fight. They want to stay neutral since their revenue comes from both sides of the spectrum and I suspect that is why they are so annoyed with the Moms at this point and refusing to accommodate them.

      I say, let the Anti-Second Amendment groups take the heat this time and allow Staples to continue with its current low-key policy without undue publicity.

      • Though it might be fun to collect signatures on a petition to prove the point and make a point of not delivering it “to respect staples neutrality” or somesuch.

      • If you want to collect signatures, do it for something worthwhile like, say, repeal of the NFA.

  4. I followed the link and see…1…2..3…6! There are 6 “moms” there! What a turnout! Another glorious victory for the Moms!

  5. We should start our own petition. I am ready to sign. Without a doubt we can exceed 12k signatures.

  6. It’s nice that MDA provided the security guards with paper targets. I’m sure they will be put to good use.

  7. I followed the link and see 1…2…3…6! 6 “moms!” What turnout! Another glorious victory for the Moms!

  8. These people don’t look particularly uneducated; what is the problem? Are they so myopic that the only aspect of this argument is that part that immediately addresses their own physical insecurity? They use that lame excuse “do it for the children”, time and time again, yet the simple truth is that they don’t trust themselves with a handgun, so therefore, no one else should have one.

    If these leftards were holding a pistol, they’d no doubt shoot themselves in the foot or pull a Feinstein and point the weapon at the audience with her hand on the trigger.

    • My brother-in-law’s wife is a Brown graduate, and a liberal. Yet she is unable to analyze personal events on anything other than a purely emotional level. She was telling me that she was driving around one day in the minivan when two bicyclists pulled up behind her at a stop light, causing her dog to go completely ape. When the riders did not back off, she concluded that they had pulled up behind her van on purpose to agitate the dog. In fact, she was adamant about it. After some discussion of the logical fallacy of her conspiracy theory (being as she did not know the riders nor ever saw them again, nor had any reasonable basis on which to infer that they knew that the dog would totally lose it), I finally had to call BS to get her to stuff it.
      This is the type of thinking we are up against–no amount of logic will sway them from their chosen path.

    • There is a big difference between those of us who open carry and the yahoos that go around sporting their rifles and shoot-me-first vests.

      • Working for spooks doesn’t make you special. Open carry is open carry. The Second Amendment means what it says, and it means it for you and those guys you look down your nosey nose at, too.

        • Open carry is open carry. Political carry is open carry + attention seeking.

          Based on my experience, the vast majority of the time, open carriers are not trying to attract any attention. They’re simply trying to go about their days while armed for self-defense purposes. That’s certainly what I do. There are occasional exceptions, e.g. when a group of open carriers meets at a restaurant for dinner (Delaware has a couple of these gatherings each month). But that’s the exception, not the rule.

          All of that said, I do not have any legal issue with people who open carry rifles and wear vests that could be interpreted as combat attire. I support their right to do it … but I’m not sure it’s normally wise or useful to do so.

          I do fully endorse OC of long guns anywhere handgun OC is prohibited (e.g. Texas) and fully endorse OC of long guns anywhere that a large mammal attack is a decent possibility. Otherwise, I think handgun OC generally makes more sense.

  11. I hope they lose, but I genuinely feel sorry/ embarrassed of them, now’s the time to approach MDA members and slowly turn their members, that will be a real slap in the face to Bloomberg….

  12. The only person posting a comment that was in favor of this futile effort was Kevin Cummings:

    Kevin Cummings March 04, 2014 at 04:20 PM
    They were there to make a statement against guns being allowed in stores. The woman on the phone was trying to call someone at Staples Headquarters to get them to come out and make a statement. I don’t think they were doing something useless. If I had known that a petition was being signed before they arrived I would have signed it even though I don’t have kids.

    Too bad Mr. Cummings was a media stooge photographing the event who can’t help interjecting his politics:

    Kevin Cummings
    Photographer
    I am a Framingham based photographer that specializes in portraiture, events, and fine art. You may find me with my camera at events around town shooting for the Framingham Patch which I freelance for.

    • No surprise there. Kevin the fotog is probably also trolling/sockpuppeting as six of the 20 or so posters on MDA hashtags on Twitter that all upvote one another, while banning anyone who makes an even inquiring comment with facts that dont fit MDAs propaganda, much less someone who dares to disagree.

      If it weren’t for their own echo chamber there and on FakeBook, and the well paid (I am sure…Bloomies got bucks to spare for burnishing his ego, and dont forget Cass Sunsteins taxpayer supported Nudge Team)

      Journolistas that fluff and Puff-ho these pathetic “events” (after all, they are all eager to make it to the WH Correspondents Dinner)

      there would be no one talking about them in the StateRunMedia.

      BTW, now that Patch has cratered, which sort of proves how futile the PTA Mommy network really is, other than the ones at home on the PC self-primping for reputation on Fakebook, its pretty clear theres no one else at the grass roots paying much attention to MDA, either.

  13. We should count our lucky stars that our own Dirk Diggler doesn’t run Staples. He would have sold us out in a heartbeat. 🙂

  14. So yesterday they’re about to get guns banned off Google, today they’re escorted out of corporate HQ? Not sure I’m seeing a trend here.

    • The trend is that they APPEAR to have some success with organizations/businesses that are already on board with their agit-prop, not so much with businesses that dearly wish to stay neutral, and none at all with businesses that support the Second Amendment and the Constitution.

      • Which would be about 70% of the country, judging by the Pew Survey, and 90% of small businesses, who have better things to do than have ANOTHER foolish rule imposed upon them.

    • But parenting isn’t an issue they can rally against, unless they decide their purchased antidepression medication, alcohol dependence, over medicated children are worthy of attention. But that would mean they need to have some level of responsibility.

      • No. Ever hear of common sense? Look at the kids in the past 25-30 years. There is a HUGE lack of parenting. Just look at the kids in your own neighborhood. DUMBASSES most of them. People cranking out kids and leaving them in daycare centers to be raised by someone else.

        Don’t get me started on that cluster****……..

      • For the Prog-tards its called It Takes a Village”, or “All Your Chillens Belong to All of Us”, or simply- Uncle Sugar.

  16. Give it a few more months, maybe a year or so more, tops. MDA is going to flame out and auger in. I suspect the 2014 elections are going to show a sea change rebuke of the Blue, progressive model.

  17. One has to ponder who Shannon Watts or Bloomberg knows or has on the inside at Staples due to their concerted push and singling out of this patticular retailer.

  18. Regarding the notion that “the only reason they keep getting media attention is thanks to the deep pockets of the millionaire in charge and the mainstream media’s love of gun control in general.” (that’s actually two reasons) –most of the coverage this group gets seems to come from this website. Are the folks behind TTAG motivated by the mainstream media’s love of gun control, do they get money from Bloomberg, or is there perhaps a third reason for giving them so much attention?

  21. Okay all you OC Gunnys….let’s not blow this by OC your AR-15 or Glock and post photos on your FB page (if it’s not banned yet by FB) like was done at Fourbucks…I mean Satrbucks….and…we don’t need “I Love Guns and Staples” t-shirts either…leave well enough alone, and just let it be…celebrate in our own, quite (and well concealed) way…

  22. Every photo of MDA I’ve ever seen has had less than a dozen people. How could they have collected 12,000 signatures with so few apparent supporters without fudging the names on the petition?

      • Also vague and misleading pitches from the paid petition gatherers–“will you sign this petition to protect children,” for example.

    • It doesn’t take much to get a signature. Wonder how many “Daffy Ducks” are on there.

      • Hire a couple of SEIU folks
        and you’ll have 120% of every person in a 5 mile radius of the MDA rally signed up on the petition….in a couple hours.

        C’mon! Its the OFA database, after all.
        James O’Keefe, call your office…

  25. Could we simply start a “petition” for the sole purpose of getting more signatures?

    Like just for fun? Just so we can get 12k sigs in no time flat?

    • Have you seen that YouTube video where the fake signature collector is running around a college campus (I think UC Davis) collecting signatures to repeal the 2A, confiscate all guns and kill their owners? Brainless folks signing right and left.

      Half the folks that sign petitions (particularly when chased around by a guy with a clipboard) do it to get the collector out of their hair. Most people don’t want confrontation, don’t care, and if all it takes is a quick signature to get on with their business, they’ll do it.

      If you took the same collection of signatories to the MDA petition and caught them on another day at a different location, with a petition to “Stop the Senseless and Dangerous Risk to Children at McDonalds (by arming the clerks)” you could probably get them to sign that, too.

      • Mark Dice. A little heavy on the New World Order stuff, but his man on the street videos are absolutely stunning.

        • That’s done on the boardwalk in San Diego. The people are even more mindless than college students. If that’s possible.

          He has proved that you can get people to sign ANYTHING, as long as you say it’s “for Obama”!

        • That guy is a crackup- remember when he was walking the boardwalk trying to get people to give him change for a US Gold Eagle? The Taco Bell cashier? Too funny.

  26. By the look of their group photos, Grandmothers Demand Action would be a more appropriate name.

  27. They probably thought that their people on the inside still had some influence – remember the story of the Nebraska gun shop: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130611/MONEY/130619926

    Staple was burned so badly on that, that corporate probably decided to declare these people anathema. If they would have sent someone to meet with them, it would have been an intern or janitor. Wearing latex gloves.

    I wonder what happened to the stalinist idiots who created the anti-gun contest rules.

    • See, when people say, “communist”, it just sounds like they don’t do their homework.

      But you, you say “stalinists”; that’s very wise, and very smart-sounding. You rock!

  29. There’s no doubt that gun control advocates are losing the war and their numbers are continuing to dwindle as they lose battle after battle, but I had expected them to be able to conjure up more than 12,000 signatures. Heck, TTAG alone can generate that in a single day without breaking a sweat, but 12,000 signatures represents a concerted and long term effort on the part of Moms Demand Action.

    For more on the cold hard CR08 steel of the knives we use to stick it to them and twist, make the jump to The Truth About Knives. You’re welcome.

  31. Only thing I could think of regards their interest in Staples is the past presidential election. During it the fact that Mitt Romney helped guide it in the early years and made some money out of it was grist for the left wing media mill. Some MOM must have seen that and it it stuck in her single firing neuron.

  33. I’ve said it over and over. It doesn’t matter how you dress it up, if it isn’t popular, it’s going to fail. Piers Morgan? Bloomberg can throw around all the money he wants, I hope he does actually, because eventually, he will figure out that all his money doesn’t make him, his ideas or agendas popular. There comes a point that it becomes counter productive. However, a man like Bloomberg will find that a very difficult pill to swallow.

    Personally, I think the hens at MDA are doing more damage than good (for their cause that is) So keep it up! You go girls! We enjoy making fun of you and sharing a good laugh at your expense.

  36. Well, they gave it their best shot. Obviously the Staples employees knew what they were aiming for. Guess their efforts were off target. What’s next, something of a different caliber I guess!

  37. If they weren’t Bloomberg stooges I’d feel somewhat sorry for them. Hopefully that was enough action for one day moms.

  39. No wide-angel shots allowed, eh, Shannon Watts? 😉

    Don’t want us to see the abysmal turn-out of your so-called “rallies” and faux “victories”, huh, Shannon? 😉

    No, we can’t have that, can we, Shannon?

    We can’t have the craven, anti-rights minority seeing how little support your asinine position actually has. We can’t have the general public knowing that, either, especially when they go back and look through your inane, venomous, and out-right hostile lies spread across cyberspace on your infinitesimal social media channels. We can’t have them seeing the factually accurate comments that countermand your sexist, racist, and oft times anti-semite mantra that you very swiftly delete without so much as a thoughtful pause. We can’t have an open, honest debate about this.

    No. Not with you, we can’t. You won’t allow it, Shannon.

  40. Is the shine off the moms demand something or other apple?

    No

    They just went to the wrong spot to do whatever it is they do.

    Protestor: We’re here to demand gun control.

    Staples: Ma’am, we’re an office supply store.

    P: We’re here to demand gun control.

    S: Ma’am unless you’re going to buy some pens or make copies we’re going to have to ask you to leave.

    P:We’re hear to demand gun control.

    S: Security…..

  42. Another FAIL.

    Personally I plan to go out and buy some more office supplies from Staples this evening, and send this link to all my small business owner buddies.

    99% of small business owners here in So Cal are completely sick of the excessive regulation and taxation already imposed upon us, and this is just another example of how “Nanny Bloomberg” and the rest of “Those Who Know Whats Best For The Rest of Us” are using stooges like Shannon Watts, to make make it harder to feed and defend our families.

    Go Away MDA.

  43. If I was staples CEO I would accept it simply to wipe my ass after taking a fat, Mexican fueled dump.

  44. Still don’t understand why any company has come out to say they’re on either side of this issue.

    The correct answer for Staples, Starbucks, or any other non-gun connected business is to say they’re an “Office Supplies Store” or “Coffee Shop” or “Restaurant” and they’re focused on their own industry.

    I don’t care what Starbucks or Peet’s corporate or individual CEO’s opinions are on X, Y, Z when all I want from them is a cup of freakin coffee. Give me the coffee and hold your non-coffee opinions at the door.

    • Let’s say the owner of a coffee shop (just to use an example) is rabidly anti-gun. What do you think he does with the profits?

      Are you going to finance your own loss of Constitutional Rights?

      CEO’s and the like do not exist in a vacuum. They are part of this thing we call society, too.

      In other words, isn’t a bit self indulgent to say “Oh me, I want a cup of coffee so I don’t care what the principles of this coffee shop owner are.” Nothing else matters but the “what I want, when I want it” huh?

      And people talk about the lack of guts and willingness to sacrifice in the recent generations of Americans….sheesh.

  45. I’d love to see a before & after picture. Their bright smiling shiny faces & then me walking past open carrying.

  46. I keep reading how photogenic, telegenic, alluring and attractive these attention-demanding gals are supposed to be. I don’t know, maybe, on a purely physical level, perhaps. However, the immensity of irrationality on the part of Disarmament Barbie and her frivolous hordes overwhelms any of those other considerations. I think they’re as ugly as the idea they represent.

    • That second one from the left looks nice, I suppose Dirk has dibs on her. Story of my life, I see a pretty lady at the nightclub & start to walk over & before I get there 6 guys are on her regaling her about the time they slew a dragon barehanded.

  47. So, just as I was getting ready to start writing this the Advertisement just below the Post Comment box suddenly popped-up with…you guessed it… a STAPLES ad!

    Anyway, this article and the comments made me hear Nelson’s “Haw-HAW!” laugh without having to play the audio file someone posted above. Hope those Security Guards put the MDA Petition in their toilet and used it to wipe-up…the sink…THE SINK!

  48. And the official MDA press release will read:

    MDA members were walked to the door by Staples’ company representatives after successfully delivering their petition containing over 12000 signatures in a noble effort to stop the scurge of gun deaths sweeping the nation.

  49. Doesn’t Staples have shredders?

    Ah, the tired tactic of pulling people into a conversation they don’t want to be in.

  50. thanks to the deep pockets of the millionaire in charge

    Billionaire. Millionaire is so last year.

  51. Bloomberg has a truckload of dirt on him that he would not like being public knowledge. Some good research and a determined reporter would bring that to light.

  52. I for one, like MDA. If it wasn’t for them, the Anti-Gun establishment would need to create something like them and therein lies the problem. MDA is about as ineffective and pathetic as a “lobby” group gets. If they went away, like many here want, what gets developed in their place might be better organized or appeal to a wider audience.

    So kudos to them and their Bloomberg backed activities. LIke PETA, they never fail to provide me a good laugh and their existence, actually bolsters support on the opposite side, our side. Unlike PETA or some other liberal groups, some MDA members aren’t too bad looking. Ever seen a PETA activist upclose? *shudders*. Sorry for the visual but count your blessings, we’ve fought much more capable and far uglier (in apperance and rheotric) foes than the women of MDA.

    You go girls!!

  54. I wonder if the petition even had signatures on it. It might be like their membership rosters and they were counting Facebook “likes”.

  55. oh what tangled webs…..whatever…….
    why MDA picked on Staples? a Concealed Handgun Permit holder had a negligent discharge:
    http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9201518
    who is Shannon Watts? well, she’s changed her name for one:
    Shannon Troughton/ Shannon Watts is far from the image of a traditional mom who was baking cookies.
    http://adam.curry.com/art/1371364990_mz2UFs4r.html

    bottom line: Shannon is getting PAID, just like a lawyer is paid to represent an idiot client.
    Staples is an innocent bystander due to an idiot customer, but Staples won’t have any
    actual stores much longer, so they don’t care, since their future emphasis is online.

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