That really is the question, isn't it? Why would you risk alienating half your market?
I'd be willing to bet that he alienated a good bit more than half of his market. His market has to be very close to that of the firearms's market. I'm sure he has some burly teamster type pro-union thugs that buy his product, but I guarantee a huge portion of his market is the hunting and fishing crowd that will be voting for Bush in droves. What an idiotic business decision on his part.