| To find all articles tagged or indexed using Bang_List, click below: | ||||
| click here >>> | Bang_List | <<< click here | ||
| (To view all FR Bump Lists, click here) | ||||
Heck, it's even in the dictionary. Check it out on Dictionary.com, definition #2.Larry Pratt, the president of Gun Owners of America, said Dell's nervousness is part of a growing trend that treats gun owners as second-class citizens.
"They offered the free machine and I declined," he said.
good article...
Kudos to Mr. Weigand.
Update 2/27/02
After fielding hundreds of emails and dozens of phone calls today my heart felt thanks to all who responded.
I was contacted by a Dell representative this morning a Mr. John Hood. John made the following remarks...... He extended Dells sincerest apologies for the incident. He said Dell would review and possibly change the screening policies to prevent this from happening again.
Dell offered to ship the machine I ordered to me at no charge, I respectfully declined the offer.
John told me he would have a statement sent to me sometime Thursday morning the 28th stating Dells position on this issue for me to post here for all to see. I will post the statement as soon as I receive it.
I thank the Firearms community as a family for being so willing to come to my aid.
God Bless
Jack Weigand
President
Weigand Combat Handguns Inc.
MM
OH, they do? Well, I guess I won't be "importing" any DELL products to Alaska anytime in the near future (20-30 years)!
They probably don't want me as a customer, anyway, since I own (gasp!) GUNS
But she was not able to provide a reference to Commerce Department Bureau of Export Administration or State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls regulations that require approval of shipments to U.S. customers. Dell's export forms apply only to out-of-country shipments.
If they are going to claim the above as the reason they blocked this guy's purchase, then I'd like to know how they can get away with not following the exact same procedure for all domestic sales.
To do otherwise would be to leave them open to liability in the rare event of a bona fide terrorist failing to label his front company with a self-incriminating name. /sarcasm
The document is available through the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence:
http://www.gunlawsuits.org/pdf/articles/gunsnbusiness.pdf
Ray,
I did some investigating on my own and find out that all it takes is the push of a button with the right software and anyone can find out all kinds of information about anyone they want to. A friend of mine is a private investigator and a former deputy sheriff so I asked him if it was possible to collect data like this about someone and he invited me over to his office to find out. He has a professional version of the "spyware" software that we always get email solicitations for. All he had to do was put in my name and hometown into this software and punch a button on his keyboard. We tried both versions of my name, first name and last name as well as first name, middle initial and last name. Within about 10 minutes he had a 4-page report on me detailing all kinds of data. For example, my social security number, driver license number, concealed carry permit number, marriage certificate number, birth certificate number, divorce cause number, who I had worked for and how long I stayed at each position ever since I first entered the professional work force in 19XX, my college transcripts, high school transcripts, association memberships, volunteer efforts, what position I had held with each association I had ever belonged to, rather it was as an officer, director or volunteer, my credit report that detailed who I owed money too, how much and for how long (luckily it did not give out my account numbers) etc. The list of data he retrieved was stagger and extremely frightening. What is even scarier is that he informed me that this is all public data that anyone with the right program or enough time and resources can find out about. Then he proceeded to tell me that the law enforcement community has software available to them that can dig even deeper and could include all kinds of criminal history records, including those that are supposed to have been expunged from your record.
So is it possible for Dell to run a check on someone and find out if they are gun owners, what kind of business they have or what organizations they belong to and at what level they participate in them, ABSOLUTELY!!!
Now is this what Dell did prior to canceling my order? I can't say. No one at Dell told me that this is how they determined that I was ineligible to purchase their products. All I know is that after applying to purchase a computer by financing it with a payment plan I was turned away. I have never been told that my financing was denied. I tried talking to their customer service people and went up several layers in the supervisory chain of command before I was told that Dell would not sell me a computer because they did not know if my potential uses for the equipment would be legal or not. When I tried to pursue this conversation further I was informed that Dell had nothing further to say and that if I needed a system I would need to look elsewhere.
Hopefully, this data is helpful in explaining to you how I was treated by Dell and how easy it is for someone to find out all kinds of private information about each of us if they are determined to do so.
Yes you can post my responses as long as you leave out the phone number, email address and hometown. You have been the 20th or so person who has either emailed me or called about this and although I do want to make my fellow lawful gun owners aware of this situation, I am by nature a private person and do not enjoy a lot of notoriety. Thanks for understanding this.
Denny