- Joined
- Apr 5, 1999
- Messages
- 460
I am pissed! First let me say this. I understand free speech and how free speech is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. I know that the right of free speech is protected by our constitution to prevent the Government from infringing on the rights of U.S. citizens to speak freely without restriction or penalty by the government. I also understand that the same rules do not apply to the private sector or businesses, etc. which may legally censure or deny the rights of people to speak freely while in the domain or employment of a non-government institution. So let's just say I do understand my rights and when and where they protect me and when and where they do not.
What I am pissed about is this. Liberals who are all about "free speech" always seem to be the ones restricting, preventing or penalizing the voices of others who are not of the same political or philosophical ideology as them.
Most of you who are interested in Emerson Knives or who have known me over the years know where I stand on politics, philosophy and personal responsibility, which ironically has caused my dilemma. And the dilemma is this. I own a company that provides not only my living but the living for a number of people either in my employment or indirectly benefitting from the existence of Emerson Knives which includes all of our vendors, and the resellers of all the Emerson products across the globe. I will not sacrifice my business or endanger it in any way ever, for all the obvious reasons.
But, I will tell you that I have gone over 16 years without an IRS audit, then in the last 2 years we have been audited 8 separate times, WTF?
The only good thing is that we are as clean as a tuna. I think I had to pay $312.00 one time for one of the 8 audits on some interest thing. But it has cost me time, and money to answer their "official" requests. Needless to say, this started after making contributions to some political causes. Coincidence?
But now something is threatening to directly affect our business.
You might all surmise that I am a "right to own firearms" guy and that knives and guns go together like meat and potatoes, at least in my world. But not in all worlds. We have now been informed that we are on the watch list for having anything connected to, linked to or shown with guns, on our web page. If we do, we can have our accounts frozen by Paypal and then revoked, never to be available to us again. For petes sake we have an F.F.L. I have spec'ed guns to be made by several manufacturers. I've done several gun/knife collaborations and have several more in the offering. Never before a problem. We don't sell the guns. We just linked to the sites that sold them.
We also have many beautiful pictures of our knives featured with guns that we have been advised to remove from our site. We already are working under the restrictions imposed on us by several other social media outlets concerning the "content" of our site and the political commentary by myself. Well Fuck me. I've got it. They don't like guns, knives or a conservative point of view, and when it comes to a business owner their recourse is to impose or threaten "sanctions" that will hurt that business.
So, I'm pissed, but the absolute worst thing you could ever do is tell me that I can't do something. Because of all the above we had to create an alternate venue.
I have 4 books that are being published over the next couple of months, they are;
1. Surviving Inside The Kill Zone - The Essential Tools You Need To Survive Deadly Combat
2. The Seven Strategies of Hand To Hand Combat - Surviving In The Arena of Life and Death
3. The Seven Essential Skills Needed To Survive a Deadly Attack - In The Game of Life and Death Winning Isn't The Only Thing, It's Everything
4. Chain Reaction Training - Exercising The Nuclear Option For Combat Strength and Conditioning
In addition to the books, I have over 100 articles that will also be published for download to those that are interested. Unfortunately for me? Most of what I write about is about self defense, self reliance, counter-terrorism and using hands and fists, or guns and knives as weapons against other human beings (Bad human beings). And of course a few articles that include my political and philosophical point of view. But because of the subject matter that I am an "expert" in, it doesn't play well with those who are "watching" Emerson Knives.
So, we will be creating several websites that will have all of this content available for those who are of like interest. One of the sites is: TheGuardianShepherd.com. The charter of which is this; The goal of The Guardian Shepherd is to build a website dedicated to providing products, advice and information to enable individuals to better protect their country, themselves, their family, their loved ones and anyone else threatened by evil, harm or danger.
The site is not open yet but it will be in the next several weeks. I will keep you posted.
We cannot allow them to shout us down. The greatest and most feared weapon we can ever use is simply the truth.
My Best Regards,
Ernest Emerson
What I am pissed about is this. Liberals who are all about "free speech" always seem to be the ones restricting, preventing or penalizing the voices of others who are not of the same political or philosophical ideology as them.
Most of you who are interested in Emerson Knives or who have known me over the years know where I stand on politics, philosophy and personal responsibility, which ironically has caused my dilemma. And the dilemma is this. I own a company that provides not only my living but the living for a number of people either in my employment or indirectly benefitting from the existence of Emerson Knives which includes all of our vendors, and the resellers of all the Emerson products across the globe. I will not sacrifice my business or endanger it in any way ever, for all the obvious reasons.
But, I will tell you that I have gone over 16 years without an IRS audit, then in the last 2 years we have been audited 8 separate times, WTF?
The only good thing is that we are as clean as a tuna. I think I had to pay $312.00 one time for one of the 8 audits on some interest thing. But it has cost me time, and money to answer their "official" requests. Needless to say, this started after making contributions to some political causes. Coincidence?
But now something is threatening to directly affect our business.
You might all surmise that I am a "right to own firearms" guy and that knives and guns go together like meat and potatoes, at least in my world. But not in all worlds. We have now been informed that we are on the watch list for having anything connected to, linked to or shown with guns, on our web page. If we do, we can have our accounts frozen by Paypal and then revoked, never to be available to us again. For petes sake we have an F.F.L. I have spec'ed guns to be made by several manufacturers. I've done several gun/knife collaborations and have several more in the offering. Never before a problem. We don't sell the guns. We just linked to the sites that sold them.
We also have many beautiful pictures of our knives featured with guns that we have been advised to remove from our site. We already are working under the restrictions imposed on us by several other social media outlets concerning the "content" of our site and the political commentary by myself. Well Fuck me. I've got it. They don't like guns, knives or a conservative point of view, and when it comes to a business owner their recourse is to impose or threaten "sanctions" that will hurt that business.
So, I'm pissed, but the absolute worst thing you could ever do is tell me that I can't do something. Because of all the above we had to create an alternate venue.
I have 4 books that are being published over the next couple of months, they are;
1. Surviving Inside The Kill Zone - The Essential Tools You Need To Survive Deadly Combat
2. The Seven Strategies of Hand To Hand Combat - Surviving In The Arena of Life and Death
3. The Seven Essential Skills Needed To Survive a Deadly Attack - In The Game of Life and Death Winning Isn't The Only Thing, It's Everything
4. Chain Reaction Training - Exercising The Nuclear Option For Combat Strength and Conditioning
In addition to the books, I have over 100 articles that will also be published for download to those that are interested. Unfortunately for me? Most of what I write about is about self defense, self reliance, counter-terrorism and using hands and fists, or guns and knives as weapons against other human beings (Bad human beings). And of course a few articles that include my political and philosophical point of view. But because of the subject matter that I am an "expert" in, it doesn't play well with those who are "watching" Emerson Knives.
So, we will be creating several websites that will have all of this content available for those who are of like interest. One of the sites is: TheGuardianShepherd.com. The charter of which is this; The goal of The Guardian Shepherd is to build a website dedicated to providing products, advice and information to enable individuals to better protect their country, themselves, their family, their loved ones and anyone else threatened by evil, harm or danger.
The site is not open yet but it will be in the next several weeks. I will keep you posted.
We cannot allow them to shout us down. The greatest and most feared weapon we can ever use is simply the truth.
My Best Regards,
Ernest Emerson
:thumbup: 
