As far as the personal attacks go - the internet is a wonderful place to do it - you get to attack, present no 'facts' or skewed 'facts' and everybody gets to remember how they were screwed by somebody else and wonder if the same thing happened to the poster. Keeping a business out of a town? - I know it happens and every town has its gadfly, or worse, social crusader(s). Big companies have been the victims, McDonalds, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. I just hope that residents of East Freetown (Ironic huh?) appreciate its self-appointed protector of commerce.
The circumstances surrounding my extreme dislike for Flint had been published here on NES very openly before. Some of you may not have seen it before it was removed and some would rather not bother to even look for information here because it takes too much time to find it and would rather just assume this is a "personal attack". I am going to apologize to Derek in advanced for posting excerpts from a previous post on NES that he later removed. These excerpts are part of a post that was put on a public and open forum previously by one party involved. These are not from private correspondence sent to me. I figure I will be reprimanded/suspended/banned for doing so but if that is what it takes to open some eyes then so be it. The original incident had nothing to do with me but I do know the individual involved. That being said I take no sides regarding the employee/employer relationship and what happened between them. I do take exception to how Roger at Flint put his personal name and the Flint Arms business ahead of our legal gun rights and tried to use various threats to protect his “good name” form being “besmirched”.
After a fairly ugly breakup between employer and employee at Flint an
email was sent to the employee firing him. There were other circumstances involving the employee and possible loss of LTC but he still had a valid and current LTC at that given time (and still may). Some firearms had been put into Rogers inventory by the employee for use in classes he was doing for Flint and others may have been as well. I, personally, do not know the extent of how many firearms went into inventory.
Furthermore, I want to state that there is a great deal of public outrage on NES (and elsewhere) regarding bonded warehouses and how unfair they are. Comm2a is doing great work right now trying to address these issues in court. You will see in the quotes excerpts below that the bonded warehouse was brought up in the verbal threat used to prevent the employee from “besmirching” Flint Arms. What is also a problem is that in this email to the employee where the offer to store the firearms until they could be picked up it shows a willingness to hold them and release them. When the time came for the firearms to be picked up a great deal of effort was put forth NOT to release them.
Here is the except regarding storage:
Flint said:
I suspect that you will want to lash out verbally or electronically over your termination. If Flint Armament, the management or staff are besmirched in any way, I can assure you that I my attorney will seek any and all appropriate remedies.
Flint said:
Flint Armament will continue to store your firearms and ammunition free of charge for up to 3 months provided you conduct yourself in the best interest of Flint Armament and its Management and Staff. After three months, if you are unable to accept receipt of your firearms, we will consider extending this offer for another 3 months if you have abided by our terms contained within. After six months, if you are still unable to accept receipt of your firearms, they will be transferred to a bonded warehouse for final disposition. Please note that if any defamation of Flint Armament, its Management or Staff occurs, this offer is rescinded in its entirety and you will be responsible for reasonable and customary charges starting at Midnight tonight.
Below is an excerpt from the original post from the employee describing what happened upon trying to pick the firearms up:
Nick said:
I had also brought in several guns in to use during my training courses and for legal purposes they were put into Flint inventory. I have a valid Class A LTC and trespassing me (even though an e-mail trespass is not exactly legitimate) was an attempt to prevent me from retrieving my property. Offering to not charge me "storage fees" if I don't "besmirch" the company could also be considered extortion as well. I returned the following night with John Costa, a federally and state licensed firearms dealer, to retrieve my firearms and other property. It took the mediation of the Fall River Police Department and 4 of it's officers and supervisors to get back the firearms that I owned. One of the first thing he said when I arrived was "I may not know the laws, but I don't think he can take these...". I had to wait in the street because I wasn't allowed on Flint property and John had quoted Roger as telling the police officers that I was, "a hothead", "emotionally unstable", and "that I was in gun trouble". The officers checked that my LTC was valid (even though it was John who was technically transporting them in my pickup), and after 40 minutes of him trying to prevent it they finally told him to give me my firearms and I went on my way.
Some of you here keep stating that this is some kind of personal vendetta for me or that it was an employee/employee issue. This is neither of those cases. This is a case where we have a gun shop owner that is supposed to be a “champion for our causes” that was more concerned with his own good name than the legal and moral issues regarding our second amendment rights. We have enough issues with the current laws we have stacked against us but when a shop owner decides to go above and beyond those laws I have a problem with that. He had no legal right to try to prevent the employee from leaving his establishment with those guns. If he did then the officers would not have allowed the firearms to leave the store.
There will always be those individuals who like the convenience of the shop location or the fact that they did nothing to me yet so I will keep on going there. There also those who think it was a one time employee/employer thing and that it would never happen again. My point is it should have never happened in the first place.
To be fair, if this were a case where Roger feels he may have handled the issue wrong I could see this point and acknowledge we all make mistakes. After speaking with others who have talked with him about this incident he still feels he did nothing wrong. Also Flint WAS a dealer here on NES during the whole time this was publicly being discussed and not once did anyone at Flint openly refute any of what was being posted. You may say he didn’t want to publicly discuss what could be a legal matter or not want to air dirty laundry and I can see that. However, if I had been unfairly accused of doing something like this I would have at least drafted a letter and posted it to clear the air. NES is a place with a lot of opinions, influence with the politics, and community involvement with firearms. If I am a dealer trying to use NES to help my business I certainly would try to use that same avenue to right a wrong.
I was at a game dinner a couple of weeks ago and one of the door prizes were four $25 gift certificates to Flint. My numbers were pulled 3 times for them and I told them to give them to someone else. That is my right as a consumer to voice my opinion. As it is my right as a citizen in my town to make an attempt to keep that shop out of my town. Most people I speak with who do not know what happened soon change their thinking after knowing what occurred. Not all people because not everyone is committed to fighting for our rights. We have people here who lash out politicians for trying to strip our rights. We also have those who see the things that were done by Northeast Trading, still done by bonded warehouses and what was done at Flint to be worse because they are supposed to be part of the solution and not the problem. We have enough problems with fighting the antis without having to fight our own as well.
In a nutshell, I don’t have respect for a person who will put their corporate name ahead of the rights of you and I.
Charlie
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