OPINION: Cheers for those who support Walmart Boycott to end gun violence

Published 9:00 am Thursday, November 21, 2024

Columnists call on a Walmart boycott to encourage the retail giant to stop selling weapons. 

In response to the excellent op-ed (“Guns are the problem,” Dana Haynes, Tribune, Nov. 6), Oregon Gray Panthers is happy to announce that newly-elected Portland mayor Keith Wilson — with many others — has endorsed the Walmart Boycott to end gun violence.

Keith’s election as mayor was mostly based on his ambitious “12-month plan to end unsheltered homelessness” but, as a long-time friend of the Panthers, Keith spoke against gun violence at our Harm Reduction Town Hall on Feb. 14, 2024, in the Portland Building. Valentine’s Day is the anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High in Florida.

Panthers are now planning our next conference against gun violence for Feb. 14, 2025.

The Walmart Boycott has three demands:

Stop selling guns, ammo and scopes.

Set up a Reparations Fund for victims and families of gun violence.

Successfully use Walmart’s corporate power to lobby Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Portland’s mayor-elect is not the only boycott endorser.

Liv Othos, one of the alternate candidates for mayor, has endorsed the boycott. Angelita Morillo, newly elected City Council member; newly elected Congresswoman Dr. Maxine Dexter; Drs. Lisa Reynolds and Saskia Hostetler-Lippy; elected Metro Reps. Duncan Hwang and Ashton Simpson; Oregon City Mayor Denyse McGriff; Pastor Mark Knudsen; Sharon Gary-Smith with NAACP; plus Raging Grannies, CeaseFire Oregon and EMO (Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon) are Walmart Boycott endorsers.

The boycott expands.

In Vincennes, Indiana, Panther organizer Julia Smedley is organizing; in Flagstaff, Arizona, great grandma at 76 Sally Fronsman-Cecil is organizing; and a publication in Washington, D.C., (not owned by Jeff Bezos) has endorsed the Walmart Boycott.

We boycott in the tradition of John Lewis, Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King. That is, to lobby powerful entrenched interests, even when prevailing political parties, in this case, may put profits before the safety of elders, of students, of churchgoers, and of communities in state after state.

There are more local Northwest connections. Sharon Gary-Smith endorsed the boycott, as Sharon’s mom, Bobbi Gary, was a Panther organizer in Portland in the 1980s when several Panther organizers first worked with Gray Panthers.

When endorsing the boycott, Pastor Mark Knudsen told us that “I’ve worked for gun reform for 30 years, and things seem to be going backward, not forward.” Mark is one of the chief petitioners for Measure 114, a gun reform measure passed by voters but still stuck in the courts.

Dana Haynes, in his op-ed, is absolutely right to insist that gun violence is a uniquely American problem: folks in the United States are 20 times more likely to die from gun violence than people in other “advanced” countries.

At the Panther Town Hall held Feb. 14, Frank So, executive director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, spoke on the need to support Panthers, near and far, and to end the scourge of gun violence.

At the Town Hall, “Murph” the 17-year-old Black student body president at Lincoln High, talked about students — even at his “safe” school — being afraid of random, mass shootings. Asia Savage, a 27-year-old Black woman and gun reform supporter, noted that both her mom and her brother were killed by gun violence here in Portland.

Local organizers also attended this fall the 500-person anti-crime conference in the downtown Portland Hilton where we heard Gabby Giffords discuss the six people who were killed at her Arizona rally — and that Gabby survived a gunshot to her head — but spent years learning to walk and talk anew.

Enough!

Panthers are heartened by the election on Nov. 5 of Elana Pirtle-Guiney to Portland City Council. Elana was manager of the Measure 114 ballot measure for gun reform.

Like the Boston Tea Party two centuries ago, sometimes when voting, ballot measures, and “regular” efforts fail to enact changes, boycotts work. In state after state, this boycott against Walmart is one tool to stop carnage sooner, not later.

Amen!

We boycott in the tradition of John Lewis, Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King. That is, to lobby powerful entrenched interests, even when prevailing political parties, in this case, may put profits before the safety of elders, of students, of churchgoers, and of communities in state after state.

Columnists