OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER: IT ISN'T JUST A PERSONALITY DEFECT, IT'S ALSO A MARKETING STRATEGY!

Here's a charming story from the Daily Caller:

‘Deepthroating Gretchen Whitmer’s High Heels’: CEO Issues Scathing Response To MI Police After They Ask For Free Ammo

A Michigan small business, refusing to blindly support local law enforcement after the way some departments handled the Covid-19 pandemic, issued a scathing response to a Michigan police group after they asked for an ammo donation.

After the Michigan Tactical Officers Association (MTOA) asked Fenix Ammo for a donation for its upcoming training conference, CEO Justin Nazaroff replied he would be happy to do so, under certain conditions.

Nazaroff said he needed “a face-to-face apology from every Michigan police officer” who enforced Covid-19 restrictions, according to an email reviewed by the Daily Caller. Nazaroff also requested a signed statement from Michigan State Police, the Oakland County Sheriff’s office and the MTOA assuring they would not enforce any “red flag” gun laws or any other restrictive measures instituted by the state of Michigan or the federal government....

Nazaroff told the Daily Caller he always strove to support law enforcement in the past, and claimed he donated ammunition to the MTOA for their previous training conferences. That changed, however, when his business was fined by a local police officer during Covid-19 lockdowns for not complying with mask mandates.

“Respect has to go both ways,” Nazaroff told the Caller, later accusing the MTOA of “whole-hog deepthroating Gretchen Whitmer’s high heels two years ago.”

So much to unpack here. The sexism is repellent, of course. We're reminded once again that the pro-police beliefs of the angry right come with a massive asterisk: Yes, we wave "thin blue line" American flags and denounce anyone who questions police budgets, but we reserve the right to tell the cops to fuck off if they endorse any law we don't like. (A few right-wingers, like Tennessee governor Bill Lee, have made a great show of support for red flag laws recently, but the real gun crazies hate them. And also note that Nazaroff says in his response that local law enforcment should never cooperate with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in "firearm enforcement efforts.")

And as for the refusal to help the MTOA out: Did it really happen just now? I ask because Fenix announced in 2021 that it would no longer sell ammo to law enforcement as a result of the mask fine. So why would MTOA be asking Fenix for ammo now? Has Fenix secretly been providing ammo to cops all this time? Did Fenix post an old email exchange to get some new publicity? Note that the emails linked above are undated:

About that fine: It happened at a time when mask mandates were still in effect and COVID vaccines weren't generally available. Fenix openly defied the mandate -- and, in fact, announced a policy banning mask wearers in its store -- claiming that this was necessary was for safety reasons:

The fine was $1000, according to Nazaroff in this appearance on Dana Loesch's show (which undoubtedly resulted in much more than a thousand bucks in additional business):



My response after looking at this video is: Dude, you have guns and ammo behind the counter. Why are you afraid of being robbed?

For quite a while, oppositional defiant disorder has been a good marketing strategy for Fenix. In 2020, it was reported that the company saw an uptick in sales in part because it was marketing to the "boogaloo" movement, and describing that marketing as all in fun:

For months, Nazaroff had been posting memes to his company’s Facebook and Instagram pages referencing the “boogaloo,” slang for the armed uprising that a loose assortment of preppers, Second Amendment activists, and anti-government extremists is getting ready for — and in some cases trying to accelerate.

“I’ll be honest, it drives sales,” Nazaroff said in April of his company’s marketing practices. “People think it’s funny. People click on boogaloo memes. It’s something that gun people enjoy joking about.”

The company sells a T-shirt with the slogan BECOME UNGOVERNABLE: DRILL THE THIRD HOLE, a reference to a legally dubious modification procedure that reportedly turns a semi-automatic weapon into a full automatic weapon.

In 2021, the company began selling LET'S GO BRANDON bullet casings, and also said it wouldn't do business with anyone who voted for Joe Biden.

All this rage-stoking is what right-wingers want. I sincerely believe that if Justin Nazaroff were to enter the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, he'd get more votes than Chris Sununu, Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley combined.