NRA calls for ConocoPhillips boycott Move comes in response to leading U.S. refiner banning firearms on company property IDABELL, Oklahoma (Reuters) - The National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful conservative U.S. political organizations, on Monday asked its 4 million members to boycott leading U.S. refiner ConocoPhillips in retaliation for a ban on firearms on company property.
Conoco (Research) is among several companies challenging an Oklahoma law in federal court that allows workers to keep guns in their locked cars on company property.
The law was passed after Weyerhaeuser Corp. (Research) fired 12 employees in 2002 at a plant near Idabell for violating a policy forbidding firearms on company property.
"If you are a corporation that is anti-gun, anti-gun owner or anti-Second Amendment, we will spare no effort or expense to work against you to protect the rights of your law-abiding employees," said Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, in a news release.
The NRA routinely cites the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment as prohibiting restrictions on gun ownership and possession by "law-abiding" citizens.
Conoco said in a statement the company wants to protect its workers from possible violence.
"ConocoPhillips supports the Second Amendment and respects the rights of law abiding citizens to own guns," the company said in the statement. "We are simply trying to provide a safe and secure working environment for our employees by keeping guns out of our facilities, including our company parking lots."
The NRA plans to purchase billboard advertising urging motorists to join the boycott of ConocoPhillips motor fuels, which are marketed as Conoco or Phillips 66.
A judge has blocked enforcement of the Oklahoma law pending resolution of the federal lawsuit.
According to a study by Handgun-Free America, which seeks to ban private handgun ownership, there were 164 workplace shootings in the United States between 1994 and 2003, in which 290 people were killed and 161 were wounded.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/01/news/fortune500/nra_conoco.reut/*FW Note:Good. It's time to start dealing with these enemies of freedom.
If riches are more valuable than the liberty of their faithful employees, then it's time to take the fight to where they live.
Their wallets.
:wink:
