Love hiking or backpacking? Your gear may be linked to one of the gun lobby’s most loyal supporters. Popular outdoors water bottle brand Camelbak is actually owned by Vista Outdoor, the largest ammunition manufacturer in the country. Also on their product list? The MSR15 assault rifle. 

Last year alone, Vista spent $500,000 on federal lobbying. And its ties to the NRA make clear its agenda: putting profits for the weapons industry over the safety of everyone else.  

The tragic Parkland school shooting claimed the lives of 17 people when a former student armed with an assault rifle opened fire on students and staff. But the NRA is using its lobbying chokehold on the Republican Party to prevent the sensible gun control legislation Parkland survivors are calling for. 

Now more than ever, we need to chip away at the NRA’s stranglehold on American politics. That means breaking down their network of funders and corporate allies like Vista Outdoors that make their annual $3 billion lobbying budget possible. Let’s show Vista Outdoors that playing the NRA’s political game doesn’t pay, and call on Camelbak sponsored athletes to ditch the brand.  

Vista Outdoor’s ties to the gun lobby couldn’t be more clear. It hosts one of the biggest booths at the NRA’s annual gun show, displaying products like the “virtually bulletproof single-shot Stevens 301” and the “hard-hitting .338 Federal.” And Vista executive Robert J Kelly sits on the board of the NSSF, known as the “NRA’s smaller, highly effective cousin.” 

We’re guessing Camelbak athletes like mountain biker Rebecca Rusch and trail runner Sebastien Camus have no idea they’re brand ambassadors for a company linked to the NRA. But we think it’s about time they found out. 

High school survivors of the Parkland shooting are now leading the fight for gun control. It’s up to the rest of us to join their fight and stop another mass shooting before it happens. To do that, we need to out NRA accomplices like Vista Outdoor and tell them that the NRA agenda doesn’t pay.