George Soros did not buy Remington. Ever. Don’t care what “confidential source” provided you with this hot info, it’s not true.

For years I’ve routinely been forwarded messages warning me of a “Critical Development!” “Emergency Situation for Gun Owners!” or asking “ Is An Attack on the Second Amendment Coming?”

Usually they come from readers who are “pretty certain it’s not true” but “just wanted to get your take on this.”

This is my annual response for 2021: It is still not true. Wasn’t true then, isn’t true now. And it won’t be true next Tuesday when that urgent plea for a donation to fight the takeover comes.

Just delete it.

At NASGW I saw the first inkling that there’s yet another one of those stories that won’t die circulating.

This one is far more contemporary as it deals with the Covid-19 pandemic. And it’s caused headaches for one of the families and companies I’ve considered industry leaders since I met them more than two decades ago.

The “hot rumor” is that Hornady has told their employees to get vaccinated or be terminated.

I talked -at length- with Steve Hornady about the rumor at NASGW. Actually, I listened as he told me what a gigantic distraction the rumor had been. And he told me, in no uncertain (or repeatable) terms it simply wasn’t true.

But here’s the straight from the source response to the rumor:

"Hornady does not, never had, and has no plans whatsoever to mandate any of our employees get a vaccine. Period”.

"We are the same company that told Cuomo to stuff it- we won't sell NY, has supported NRA for years, a founding member of NSSF, was the first company to contribute a percentage of sales to fund the fight against the mayors when they sued the industry, and has supported the 2nd Amendment and we always will.”

So, you might ask, if this is just absolutely not true, why do these kinds of stories continue to spread? Good question, and the only reasons I can think of are simply more indications of just how far we’ve slid down the mountain since we were “that bright shining city on a hill”.

First, we have become a society where some people -on any side of any issue- are looking for a reason to be outraged. Some of them will respond negatively to my suggesting this. That’s fine, and I’m prepared to defend my position.

Second, there’s the “outraged cash call” methodology that all politicians -and that many of our own outdoor groups - use to rally their supporters. I begin my morning reading by deleting 4-6 of those messages out of my inbox. Every day. You probably get them too. In politics, it’s called “throwing red meat” to your constituents. Fire them up and they’ll loosen the purse strings.

Here’s Steve Hornady’s opinion: “unfortunately, there are people looking for the bogey man in everything and they think they found one in us. There are haters out there that just want to spread their hate.”

Hornady employees know the story’s just not true. If you ask them, they’ll tell you there is no vaccination policy -and there never was one. As Steve Hornady explained, there isn’t even a mask requirement in the plants. “We’re tired of it. It’s time to get on with living. Covid or some variant is with us forever, just like influenza, it still kills thousands every year..and measles and polio and…all those others we’re exposed to.”

So for the record: Hornady did not mandate vaccinations for employees. There was never a “policy” to that effect and they didn’t “change it because they were caught.”

You can’t treat everything you read, hear or see as absolute, unadulterated truth. You need to follow the famous Reagan advice about “facts”: “Trust. But verify.”

Haters gonna hate. Liars gonna lie.

And we’re going to keep you posted.

— Jim Shepherd