Hortonville firm flooded with calls after buying all its workers handguns for Christmas

Chris Mueller | Appleton Post-Crescent

Show Caption Hide Caption Learn more about concealed carry in Wisconsin Concealed carry has only been around in Wisconsin since 2011.

HORTONVILLE - The phone at BenShot has been ringing a lot more than usual lately as people from across the country call to share their opinions about the owners deciding to give each employee a handgun as a Christmas gift.

On Tuesday morning, the Hortonville-based manufacturer, which makes drinking glasses embedded with bullets, publicly shared a plan to give employees a handgun of their choice for Christmas.

The news spread fast after USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin posted a story on Tuesday about the gifting of the guns. It was picked up by several national media outlets. A Facebook post of the story from USA TODAY had been shared more than 5,300 times by Thursday afternoon. The post also had more than 1,300 comments.

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The public reactions haven't been limited to social media. The business has been flooded with calls from people reacting to the news, including many who weren't happy about it, said Chelsea Priest, a BenShot employee and spokeswoman.

“We’ve had people that have flat out called yelling at us,” she said.

But they've also heard from many people supportive of the idea of giving employees handguns as a gift, Priest said. The support has been humbling, if a little overwhelming.

“Our company backs what we stand for," she said. "That’s not something that’s ever going to change."

Employees didn't get their handguns directly from BenShot, Priest said. Instead, they were given a gift card they could use to buy it, which allows the business selling the firearms to do a background check on each individual.

But what has it been like for a family-owned business with 16 full-time employees in Hortonville, a village of about 2,700 people, to get a moment in the national spotlight? The employees are loving it, Priest said.

“The morale at our company is literally amazing to be around,” she said.

And they've seen a significant increase in how much business they're getting, too. The amount of traffic over the last few days has been comparable to what the business has seen on Black Friday in the past — a big deal for a business that sells products primarily online, Priest said.

Despite all the attention, though, the business isn't planning to make any changes to the way they do things, Priest said.

“We’re going to keep on doing what we’ve been doing,” she said.