Gun safe company faces ‘Bud Light boycott’ for giving FBI customer access
Liberty Safe is facing a massive boycott after providing the FBI with a passcode to the safe of a customer who is being persecuted over January 6th.
Nathan Hughes, 34, was arrested at gunpoint by a team of FBI agents in Fayetteville last week for being at the Capitol on January 6th. FBI agents also raided and ransacked Hughes’ home, where they reportedly held his girlfriend at gunpoint and handcuffed.
After discovering that Hughes had a gun safe made by Liberty Safe, the FBI contacted the company and showed them a warrant to search Hughes’ property. Though they were under no legal obligation, Liberty Safe employees provided the FBI with a master code to gain access to the safe.
Hughes is being charged with a felony of civil disorder and misdemeanor trespassing charges. He is not being charged with assault or vandalism.
Liberty Safe was immediately met with public outrage with many netizens promising a “Bud Light-level boycott.” Political commentator Jeremy Hambly told his nearly 300,000 followers on X Wednesday that he canceled a $7,000 fireproof safe he ordered from Liberty and will be shopping for alternatives.
The company tried to temper the backlash with a statement Wednesday.
“Our company protocol is to provide access codes to law enforcement if a warrant grants them access to a property. After receiving the request, we received proof of the valid warrant, and only then did we provide them with an access code. Liberty Safe had no knowledge of any of the details surrounding the investigation at the time.”
Liberty stressed it is “devoted to protecting the personal property and 2nd amendment rights” of its customers.
But this did not weather the counterblast. Many pointed out Liberty Safe was not under any obligation to comply with a warrant for someone else’s property. Conservative Americans were quick to publicize Liberty Safe’s 2021 acquisition by Monomoy Capital Partners, an investment firm which donates heavily to the Democratic Party.
On Thursday Liberty Safe issued a longer statement, this time offering customers the option to request their access codes be deleted, though the company still retains master codes to access any safe it sells.
Liberty also notified customers that it will only comply with subpoenas from now on.
“Going forward we will require a subpoena that legally requires Liberty Safe to supply access codes but can only do so if these codes still exist in our system,” the company wrote.
