The next time you purchase a pair of jeans, consider a company other than Levi's:
Blue jeans manufacturer Levi’s Strauss & Co., a symbol of rugged individualism for many Americans, announced this week it’s taking a stance against the Second Amendment.
The company revealed Tuesday it’ll be teaming up with notorious anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg to form a new gun control alliance for business leaders, as well as donate to groups working to “end gun violence in America.”
In a statement released on the company’s website,
Levi’s revealed they will give $1 million in grants to various gun control groups, in addition to encouraging employees to volunteer at anti-gun non-profits.
“We are inspired by the young people who are speaking up on America’s gun violence epidemic,” the company wrote.
The attitude was echoed in a Fortune editorial penned by the company’s CEO Chip Bergh, who in 2016 banned guns from Levi’s stores after a customer shot himself while trying on a pair of jeans.
While acknowledging the company is “known the world over as a pioneer of the American West and one of the great symbols of American freedom,” Bergh goes on to say Levi’s cannot sit idly by “on issues that threaten the very fabric of the communities where we live and work.”
“While taking a stand can be unpopular with some, doing nothing is no longer an option,” Bergh said, adding,
“That’s why Levi Strauss & Co. is stepping up our support for gun violence prevention.”
“You may wonder why a company that doesn’t manufacture or sell guns is wading into this issue, but for us, it’s simple. Americans shouldn’t have to live in fear of gun violence.”
Furthermore, the company made known it will match funds for employees who donate to organizations which support similar gun control measures, including Live Free, Gabby Giffords’ Courage to Fight Gun Violence group, and Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety.
While Bergh says he’s not calling to “repeal the Second Amendment,” a member of one of Michael Bloomberg’s previous anti-gun organizations exposed the group’s ultimate goal was an all-out gun ban.
In 2014, former Poughkeepsie Mayor John C. Tkazyik wrote in an op-ed he was leaving Bloomberg’s now-defunct Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) group after discovering its gun confiscation agenda.
“Under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens,” Tkazyik revealed.
Writing at
BearingArms.com, Tom Knighton, an admitted lifelong Levi’s jeans wearer, maintained he’d no longer support the company.
“And just like that, I’ll never own another stitch of Levi Strauss clothing again in my life,” Knighton stated.
“For one, plenty of other brands–less expensive brands, I might add–make pretty good jeans that fit me fine. Further, those brands aren’t working to take away one of my most basic rights as a human being,” Knighton wrote.
“So yeah, the brand is dead to me.”
