At the CCFR we are always looking for new products and services for our members and field officers, shopping around for the best deals for your dollar and utilizing technology to streamline processes. We recently had one of our Field Officers take an interest in an ever-popular item amongst gunnies, the challenge coin. He thought it would be a neat token for the field officer team and would promote a type of brotherhood amongst those tasked with educating the masses on the ground. We suggested he shop around, have some designs drawn up and fetch some quotes from Canadian suppliers to present to the Board.

We had one company flat out refuse to even quote on the item. We were a little shocked, surprised and offended by their refusal to do business with a registered Canadian Not for Profit advocacy organization that supports the shooting sports, including Canadian Olympic hopefuls. I would think that our members who are military and law enforcement would find this refusal rather irrational.

Below is the response from Helen Edley, Management Partner at Edley Engineering-Owners of SharkzCoins;

From sharkzcoins

It’s interesting that Helen from sharkzcoins.com obviously still hasn’t looked into our groups mission. How could any company be against the educating of Canadian firearms owners and how exactly is any of what the CCFR does a conflict with a company having a long and respected relationship with law enforcement agencies? This is a prime example of the bias and assumptions made by the public about Canadian gun owners. 2.2 million law abiding, licensed gun owners are in no way an “opposite” to law enforcement.

None of this is new, in fact we’ve had multiple instances of this kind of disassociation. We ran into the same problem trying to hire support services for our CRM database. A call came in to the CCFR office recently from a firearm retailer who was also experiencing these kind of road blocks while trying to enrol in banking services. Mainstream business owners and large corporations view gun owners as a “negative” for their own company’s image. We need to recognize these companies for what they are, anti-gun owner … not “anti-gun” as they willingly and eagerly work with LEO, but anti gun owner.

The next time you are looking to engage in business transactions with a company, retailer, manufacturer or service provider, take a moment to find out if they have automated bias and negative assumptions about who you are.

Let’s speak with our wallets.

UPDATE: After a troubled day dealing with offended gun owners across Canada, Chris Edley from Sharkzcoins spoke with CCFR President Rod Giltaca last night. He has posted this update on his company Facebook page: