Virtue-signaling by Dick's Sporting Goods has a cost that goes beyond alienating gun-owners and Second Amendment-supporters. When the national store announced at the end of February this year that it would no longer sell assault-style firearms and high-capacity magazines, nor sell any guns to people younger than 21, it left some of its suppliers in the lurch. One of them, ammunition-maker BBM, which supplied house-brand ammunition to the company, has sued.

We'll let the jurors in Pennsylvania sort out the liability. I suspect that the case may be eligible for triple damages – not enough to tank a company of the size of Dick's, but enough to reward BBM for its pain.

Tying up the available cash of this company in inventory and then refusing to pay for the custom goods ordered, could have driven BBM out of business. As it happened, the company managed to survive the cash flow crisis, and Dick's ultimately paid up. But in the interim, unable to fund other business prospects, the company says it lost out on a lucrative contract elsewhere.

The 11-page lawsuit filed Tuesday in a Pennsylvania federal court details that the two companies entered into an agreement in January 2016 to supply ammo packaged with Dick's trademarked Field & Stream packaging. Acting on the contract, BBM paid two ammo manufacturers – Bosnian-based Igman and Hungarian-based RUAG – a total of $4.5 million for the product and made the munitions available to Dick's by November of the same year, a delivery timeline stipulated by the contract. However, BBM says Dick's then left them holding the bag for almost a year, refusing to pay them or take delivery of the ammo.

At the root of the filing is what BBM says was the failure by Dick's to hold up their end of a contract for the ammo distributor to supply the retailer with Field & Stream-branded ammo for resale in their stores. The delay by the big box sporting goods outlet, argues the filing, resulted in BBM losing out on a multi-million dollar contract to supply helicopters to an overseas U.S. ally.

Virtue-signaling by Dick's Sporting Goods has a cost that goes beyond alienating gun-owners and Second Amendment-supporters. When the national store announced at the end of February this year that it would no longer sell assault-style firearms and high-capacity magazines, nor sell any guns to people younger than 21, it left some of its suppliers in the lurch. One of them, ammunition-maker BBM, which supplied house-brand ammunition to the company, has sued.

Chris Egger of Guns.com reports:

Citing breach of contract and fraud, Nevada-based Battle Born Munitions filed suit in federal court against Dick's Sporting Goods this week. At the root of the filing is what BBM says was the failure by Dick's to hold up their end of a contract for the ammo distributor to supply the retailer with Field & Stream-branded ammo for resale in their stores. The delay by the big box sporting goods outlet, argues the filing, resulted in BBM losing out on a multi-million dollar contract to supply helicopters to an overseas U.S. ally. The 11-page lawsuit filed Tuesday in a Pennsylvania federal court details that the two companies entered into an agreement in January 2016 to supply ammo packaged with Dick's trademarked Field & Stream packaging. Acting on the contract, BBM paid two ammo manufacturers – Bosnian-based Igman and Hungarian-based RUAG – a total of $4.5 million for the product and made the munitions available to Dick's by November of the same year, a delivery timeline stipulated by the contract. However, BBM says Dick's then left them holding the bag for almost a year, refusing to pay them or take delivery of the ammo.

Tying up the available cash of this company in inventory and then refusing to pay for the custom goods ordered, could have driven BBM out of business. As it happened, the company managed to survive the cash flow crisis, and Dick's ultimately paid up. But in the interim, unable to fund other business prospects, the company says it lost out on a lucrative contract elsewhere.

We'll let the jurors in Pennsylvania sort out the liability. I suspect that the case may be eligible for triple damages – not enough to tank a company of the size of Dick's, but enough to reward BBM for its pain.

Hat tip: Bearing Arms and Red State

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.