It Matters Where You Shop

Merry Xmas from Kittery Trading Post.

This was the scene outside Kittery Trading Post earlier this month on a cold December morning: Santa with a sidearm and an AR-15 waving to puzzled people entering the store, some toting small children. As “Santa” spread his special version of holiday cheer, a man marched up and down the sidewalk brandishing a sign: “AR15-The Perfect Christmas Gift”. Others help a Confederate Flag aloft while store owners and employees greeted them warmly, inviting them to gather on the store lawn and in the parking lot.

In stark contrast was the other group present that day. Smaller. Quieter. Made up of teachers, doctors, me, and other Seacoast residents.

We there to ask holiday shoppers to consider taking their business elsewhere because the store that they were about to shop in is responsible for allowing military style semi-automatic firearms to flood into our community. Unlike group mentioned at the top of this story, this group was NOT welcomed by the owners of the store, who unlike other store owners selling many of the same products as KTP, have apparently decided that people are more important than profits.

When I struck up a conversation with the man beside me, I discovered I was speaking with Dr. Leonard Korn, the former chairman of the NH Medical Society, who told me about the terrible and lasting damage these weapons do to the human body. (See Dr. Korn’s recent letter to the Portsmouth Herald). As Chairman of the New Hampshire Medical Society, Dr. Korn sees gun violence prevention as an urgent public health issue. As NHMS leader, he was responsible for the drafting and approval of a resolution supporting funding CDC research on gun violence and firearm safety, banning assault weapons, banning high capacity magazines and armor piercing rounds, licensing firearms, repealing the state’s permit less concealed carry law, legalizing extreme risk protection orders that would authorize police to remove firearms from people posing an immediate danger to themselves or others, and would encourage doctors to have conversations with patients about firearms safety. The same resolution was later passed by the American Medical Association.

Not content to simply preach to the choir, Dr. Korn engaged in polite conversations with several pro-gun supporters.

The fight for gun violence prevention is not a fight against the 2nd Amendment, hunting, target shooting, or the right to protect your home. It is a fight to protect our kids from people—some well-meaning and others less so—who choose to sell weapons of war that too easily can fall into the hands of a truly disturbed individual. It is a fight to change our laws to protect the interests of people rather than the firearms industry. It is a fight I’m glad to be fighting with people like Dr. Leonard Korn.

So until the day comes when Kittery Trading Post decides to stop selling these weapons, I urge you to talk to your friends and neighbors and find other places to shop. 

As good fights go, it doesn’t get much easier to be a foot soldier for a good cause. 

Here’s how: When you see Kittery Trading Post in front of you, just keep driving until it’s in your rearview mirror.

It’s just that simple.