A little dry, somewhat tasteless, lacking good judgment â€" with just a hint of cherry.
At least that’s how one wine-producer might describe the National Rifle Association’s wine club.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE DAILY NEWS ONLINE PETITION TO BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS
PHOTOS: SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING VICTIMS
The NRA, already under fire for what was seen as its comprehensively insensitive response to the shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is facing another round of criticism from suppliers of its wine club.
The NRA has actually hosted a popular wine club since 2007, but widespread knowledge of it only occurred recently, as the group’s name shot to headlines with increasing frequency due to a recent rash of deadly school shootings.
But now that winemakers are aware that its bottles are being offered to weapons fanatics by the gun-toting organization, some labels that are furious with the group's politics are asking the club to no longer feature their wines.
RELATED: GROUPON: GUN DEALS ‘ON HIATUS’
Yalumba, an Australian winery, is one such label claiming that there’s nothing sweet about being sold by the NRA.
The vineyard, located in the Barossa Valley, in southern Australia, has pulled its wines from the wine club in protest of the radical group’s political positions.
"Philosophically, I'm not disposed towards the NRA, which runs counter to my family's â€" and I would think all my employees' â€" positions on gun laws,†Yalumba owner Robert Hill told the Herald Sun.
RELATED: NRA CHIEF CRITICIZES OBAMA
"We will act to withdraw our stock or at least not service the account any longer,†added Hill, who noted that he had no idea how four of his company’s wines made their way to the list of selections offered by the NRA’s wine club.
NRA Wine Club members do not have to be members of the NRA to join, but they do have to be comfortable with the fact that profits from wine club sales directly support the NRA’s campaign to fight mercilessly for gun rights in the United States.
"Your purchase will directly benefit the NRA's continuing support of America's right to keep and bear arms and the other basic freedoms of the American culture," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre wrote in a welcome message on the club’s website.
RELATED: GUN CONTROL MARCHERS RALLY IN D.C.
The welcome message appeared on the site’s homepage as recently as Saturday, but had been taken down by Monday, possibly in response to increasing press attention to the wine club.
Other companies, across multiple fields, have scaled back their business relationship with the controversial gun group â€" and the gun industry in general â€" in recent weeks, following a public outcry over a recent spate of school shootings. There have been five in the U.S. in the past two months alone, including the horrific Sandy Hook massacre in December that left 20 students and six educators dead.
Under growing pressure from gun-control advocates, daily discounts website Groupon stopped offering all gun-related deals in North America last week.
And in December, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced plans to sell its stake in Freedom Group, which makes Bushmaster firearms, including the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle that gunman Adam Lanza used in the Connecticut tragedy.
In addition, Dick’s Sporting Goods ceased selling “modern sporting rifles†in its 511 stores across the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment