It’s been four years since the Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois became a killing field, when a 21-year-old opened fire from the top of a building along the parade route and killed seven people while wounding more than 40 others.
The killer is now serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole. Meanwhile, the state of Illinois banned the sale of so-called assault weapons as part of its Protect Illinois Communities Act. The longevity of that ban is in serious doubt after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to similar bans in Cook County, Illinois and the state of Connecticut, but several Highland Park residents are hoping to get rid of semi-automatic rifles even if a ban is struck down-not through legislation, but by targeting businesses outside of the firearms industry that have any connection, however tenuous, to gun makers.
The Highland Park Peace Project, which also goes by HP3, maintains a growing public database of hundreds of companies and businesses it categorizes as either “heroes” or “enablers,” depending on whether they work with the five major civilian-facing manufacturers of so-called assault weapons like the one used in the mass shooting four years ago.
These “enablers” can range from online retailers like Amazon to accounting firms. These companies may work with, sell to, retail for, or be under contract with Smith & Wesson, Sturm Ruger, Bushmaster, Daniel Defense, or Sig Sauer.
HP3 co-founder Daniel Perlman was at the Highland Park parade when a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing seven and wounding nearly 50 others. He’s been active in the gun violence prevention space ever since and helped found the group a year ago.
Perlman said he has a background in private equity and is aware of efforts by some public pension funds to avoid their investments being used in areas “they (find) socially or morally at odds with their organization.”
… Perlman argued their goal wasn’t to vilify but to stop businesses from working with the manufacturers and from helping put “millions of dollars into the pockets” of manufacturers giving assault weapons to civilians.
Part of that is celebrating their hero businesses that take clear stances or cut ties with manufacturers, he said, such as Salesforce or REI.
He said the group doesn’t take a political stance on legislation, instead focusing on trying to “change behavior” and describing the database as “apolitical.”
The phrasing at HP3’s website is rather odd. “Heroes” are those companies that “don’t support the manufacturers selling assault weapons direct to consumers,” but it’s not direct sales (which still have to go through a federally licensed firearm dealer) that the group has a problem with. It’s the existence of so-called assault weapons that they’re trying to change.
The database, which is supposedly checked and re-checked to make sure its “heroes” and “enablers” are accurately depicted, does appear to have some issues.
ACE Hardware, for instance, is listed as a “hero”, even though some ACE stores (every location is independently operated) carry guns for sale. At Ruggiero’s ACE Hardware in Queen Creek, Arizona, for example, customers can visit the “Gun Corner” and purchase an AR-15 or other semi-automatic firearms that HP3 would surely label “assault weapons.”
Other businesses aren’t likely to have any connection to the firearms industry in the first place. Abercrombie & Fitch, to name one example, may have started out as an outfitter, but it hasn’t sold firearms in decades. The database features yoga companies, ice cream brands, and other businesses that have no reason to do business with gun makers.
Is this having any real effect? Not that I can tell. Perlman didn’t brag about HP3 convincing any company to stop doing business with a gun maker, and there’s nothing on HP3’s website to indicate that any of their “heroes” were once “enablers” but changed as a result of the group’s activism.
If Perlman wants to spend his days trying to convince Americans to boycott any company that does business with a gun manufacturer, that’s his right. I think it’s going to be an exercise in frustration, though. He might not like it, but we do have a right to keep and bear arms in this country, and that includes semi-automatic rifles.
The Highland Park shooting was horrific, but the gun used by the loser who committed that terrible act of violence isn’t to blame, any more than Ford is responsible for the actions of the ISIS-inspired terrorist who rammed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. If Perlman and his friends really want to make a difference, I’d suggest trying to change that toxic subculture that celebrates and encourages mass casualty events, not the culture of responsible gun ownership and the exercise of a fundamental civil right.
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