Benchmade Discussion without Politics or Insults

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tokerblue said:
Except you don't know that either. We're all just guessing what Benchmade's intentions were.
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shinyedges said:
What does this even mean? Are you trying to say they donated to a politician because he supports a specific thing they like, and that they don't support his lobbying against our rights?

Wow that sure sounds like priorities! Yea, I don't believe you have any proof that was the case. What is a fact is that they gave money to a guy who is trying to undermine our rights.
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I don't have any proof, neither do you, that's my point. But if we take a second and look at Benchmade's entire history, culture and philosophy we can make a pretty solid guess that they're probably not stupid enough to aggressively shoot themselves in the foot, which allowing their donations to be used for anti-gun legislation would be doing. Can we agree on that much?
 
MittenStateMashers said:
If an LLC is treated as a corporation, it is prohibited from making contributions to candidate committees, but it can establish an SSF. It may also give money to IEOPCs. If it is considered a partnership, it is subject to the contribution limits for partnerships.


Found here

https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/registering-ssf/ssf-registration/

Benchmade can give all it wants at the state level and can also give unlimited funding to super PACs at the federal level.
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MittenStateMashers said:
If an LLC is treated as a corporation, it is prohibited from making contributions to candidate committees, but it can establish an SSF. It may also give money to IEOPCs. If it is considered a partnership, it is subject to the contribution limits for partnerships.


Found here

https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/registering-ssf/ssf-registration/

Benchmade can give all it wants at the state level and can also give unlimited funding to super PACs at the federal level.
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... so... what I said, then?
 
Insipid Moniker said:
I don't have any proof, neither do you, that's my point. But if we take a second and look at Benchmade's entire history, culture and philosophy we can make a pretty solid guess that they're probably not stupid enough to aggressively shoot themselves in the foot, which allowing their donations to be used for anti-gun legislation would be doing. Can we agree on that much?
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Agreed. I'm a Benchmade fan, but I'm not buying anything from them until a better statement comes out. That's been my point (and many others) all along.

They need to clarify their donations. That would go a long way with customers. Unfortunately, they haven't chosen to do that.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
I don't have any proof, neither do you, that's my point. But if we take a second and look at Benchmade's entire history, culture and philosophy we can make a pretty solid guess that they're probably not stupid enough to aggressively shoot themselves in the foot, which allowing their donations to be used for anti-gun legislation would be doing. Can we agree on that much?
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Except I have proof they supported anti gun politicians monetarily.
 
tokerblue said:
Agreed. I'm a Benchmade fan, but I'm not buying anything from them until a better statement comes out. That's been my point (and many others) all along.

They need to clarify their donations. That would go a long way with customers. Unfortunately, they haven't chosen to do that.
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That's totally fair, but that's also why I mention a purity test. This isn't because I think anyone REALLY thinks Benchmade is anti-2A, but they did some things that could, pardon the pun, give some ammunition to folks that are and they're being made an example because of that. And that serves the purpose of making sure they more strongly consider the cause you're advocating for and it serves as a warning to other companies. It's not inherently bad because it's a purity test, but that's what it is.
 
shinyedges said:
Except I have proof they supported anti gun politicians monetarily.
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Yup. And so you, as a consumer, hold their feet to the fire and they write a $50,000 check to the NRA or whatever. Or maybe whatever they do isn't enough, so they go under and the other knife companies make a note never to do that. My point is more that in situations like this the perception of their actions is vastly more important than what they actually did or believe. It happens all the time on both sides of the aisle to companies of all shapes and sizes.
 
This just seems really unlikely that this is anything other than coincidence. Benchmade has a marketing department, they know who their customers are. Why shouldn’t they help their community? And their local police? From their perspective helping out might’ve led to that department buying some knives for all of their officers. They’re a knife company so that’s their main stay.

And politically there’s a lot more that goes on than just 2a rights. Maybe those people they supported were better for conservation or something, Oregon has an awesome outdoors scene and seems like everyone out there is pretty set on keeping it all undeveloped. I’m just throwing ideas out there. I’ve been to their factory. I’d hate for them to do poorly due to a misunderstanding is all.
 
azjeff said:
Also hoping that BF can find a way to allow discussions to continue without locking them, possibly by removing replies that cross the line but not locking a thread? It could easily start to look like BF is trying to keep a lid on it to take the heat off of Benchmade.
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sovereign said:
The locking of these threads is having the reverse effect, like the responses to this by Benchmade so far. And it is now casting a bad light on BF as well.
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Bullshit... those threads were locked because of the politics and insults, no other reason.

There is already a thread in the Political Arena discussing the issue about Benchmade.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/benchmade-getting-woke.1644436/page-3#post-18808757

As far as the insults, take that to W&C.

Despite this thread going political... imagine that :rolleyes:, I'm inclined to leave it open for now as there's been no insults that I've noticed. As soon as the insults start though, this thread will be closed and the offending members will get a 30 day ban from BF's.
 
Benchmade will need to take active steps in an attempt to improve perception and earn trust among the 2A/knife community.

Hopefully that's a good thing, for everyone involved, long term.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
I don't have any proof, neither do you, that's my point. But if we take a second and look at Benchmade's entire history, culture and philosophy we can make a pretty solid guess that they're probably not stupid enough to aggressively shoot themselves in the foot, which allowing their donations to be used for anti-gun legislation would be doing. Can we agree on that much?
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Insipid Moniker said:
But if we take a second and look at Benchmade's entire history, culture and philosophy we can make a pretty solid guess that they're probably not stupid enough to aggressively shoot themselves in the foot
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-Bill Ruger did
-S&W did
-Dick's did
-CTD did
...and many others.

Success seems to often (potentially not in this case) convince a company that they can get away with upsetting their customer base as the vendor sees themselves as somehow dominant to the point of being irreplaceable. That might not be accurate in the Benchmade case, but it certainly was in the case of the four I listed and multiple others.

The number of pending or recently passed bills curtailing gun rights in many states has a lot of gun owners rather upset - a purposeful understatement. Any company that sells to that group would do well to think long/hard about what message they send to those customers. It's not like there aren't competitors for just about every company on the planet now, especially folding pocket knives.
 
Boru13 said:
Despite this thread going political... imagine that :rolleyes:, I'm inclined to leave it open for now as there's been no insults that I've noticed. As soon as the insults start though, this thread will be closed and the offending members will get a 30 day ban from BF's.
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Thanks.
 
Cypress said:
A number of us believe the contributions were grease money to keep the Oregon knife laws as liberal as they are. We can carry literally any bladed instrument we want, pending it isn't "concealed". That's part of the reason we have so many knife manufacturers in this state.

Further, if any Oregonians saw the list of politicians Benchmade donated to, they'd quickly realize these were FAR from the worst people to give money to. If I had seen Kate Brown on the list, I'd have flash-saled all of my knives and walked away from Benchmade, never to look back.
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As far as I'm aware, the Oregon knife laws are so lax because of case law that happened in the 80s, State vs Delgado I believe, among other cases, where the court found knife bans go against the Oregon constitution, not because of Benchmade grease money.
 
OCPD Cpt. Davis said "Oregon City Police do not auction off or sell guns." “...If we did sell a gun legally and it..was used in a violent crime or a murder or something like...we would have to answer to the public to say you had this gun and you had an opportunity to get rid of this gun and now look what it did.”
 
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