Posted on 09/19/2013 4:17:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Let’s be clear: I’m not a real Starbucks fan in the first place. The coffee is horribly expensive and, frankly, you can get a better cup for a quarter of the price at a Quick Trip. Interestingly enough, even McDonald’s has stepped up their coffee quality lately. Dunkin’ Donuts is good also, but I prefer to sweeten my own coffee, thank you, so don’t ask me how many Sweet ‘n Lows I want.
Another thing …. I stopped going to Starbucks when they came out and openly supported Obama for a second term. I guess it goes with the territory … Seattle and all that … but I prefer not to support businesses that actively participate in the destruction of our country … and supporting Obama fits that bill. That’s why Boortz appearances have been rare around such places as Starbucks, Costco, Kohl’s, and Atlanta Falcon Football games. (Can you believe Falcons owner Arthur Blank throwing a fundraiser for Obama?)
Now … the big coffee news yesterday was the CEO of Starbucks sending a letter – and Tweets – to Starbucks customers asking them not to bring weapons into Starbucks even if they happen to have a valid concealed carry permit. Fine … that’s his privilege. To be perfectly honest, though, it was the gun owners themselves that goaded him into this. It seems that some Starbucks locations have been targeted by permit holders to flaunt their weapons. They would gather at a particular Starbucks with their pistols visible in holsters – and sometimes carrying rifles.
Stupid.
Frankly, I find it hard to fault the Starbucks CEO for his actions. Some customers are just not going to be comfortable with a bunch of show-offs brandishing their guns in a coffee shop.
Yes … I have a permit to carry a weapon. And yes … I have received some pretty extensive training in the use of that weapon (An Uselton 1911) and appropriate safety measures. And yes … I do carry that weapon—CONCEALED—when I think the situation warrants it … and that means pretty much everywhere I go in Atlanta. The key word, though, is “concealed.” I believe that to flaunt your weapon is to invite trouble. I don’t need some thug deciding to test just how tough I am. If you walk through life in a fighting pose with your fists balled up and ready to strike, someone, someday, somewhere, is going to want to test your mettle. I can think of only one time where I wanted it to be clear that I was armed … and that was gassing up in Atlanta at a station that, shall we say, was not in one of Atlanta’s finest neighborhoods. One guy at another pump looked at me, looked down at my holster, and then gave me a big thumbs up. “Smart move,” he said. “Especially here.” If the clerk inside is behind a bulletproof barrier … well, there’s your clue.
But guess what? Starbucks is not an inherently dangerous place --- unless you spill a latte on Big Al and the Boys, that is. There is nothing to be gained by a group of Second Amendment defenders marching into a Starbucks with guns on their hips and scaring the poor, weak, trembling Democrats sipping grande somethingorothers. If the armed self-defense advocates had kept their guns in their pants there never would have been a problem.
Now … the other side.
Starbucks was a unique situation. They had been targeted by people I guess we can call “demonstrators” who wanted to display their weapons. Almost all of the permit holders that I know --- and you would be surprised to know who some of them are --- would never do that. The statistics clearly show that people with carry permits are some of the least likely, if not THE least likely people to ever use a gun in the commission of a crime. The very fact that these people obtained a permit to carry the firearm shows that they are and consider themselves to be law-abiding. Now I’m not going to say it hasn’t happened, but I cannot remember ONE single instance where a person with a concealed weapons permit walked into any retail establishment anywhere, pulled the gun out and robbed the joint … or shot an innocent person during the commission of a crime.
Let me share two stories of gunplay in restaurants.
First, Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. This happened in 1991. A man names George Hennard crashed his truck through a window of the cafeteria and began shooting. He shot about 50 people, and killed 23. He had to pause and reload a few times. There was not one person in that restaurant with a gun that could have made an attempt to stop the massacre. One patron, Suzanna Hupp, was having lunch with her parents. She left her gun in the car because Texas did not, at that time, allow concealed carry. She sat there in a booth while Hennard shot and killed both of her parents. Her gun was 100 feet away. As a result of this massacre the Texas legislature passed a concealed carry law that was signed by then Governor George W. Bush.
Now, the second restaurant. This time it’s a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Alabama. It’s December of 1991, just a few months after the Luby’s shooting in Texas. Two robbers entered the restaurant with stolen pistols. Note, please, that they did not have permits, did not buy the guns legally, and didn’t give a damn about magazine capacity. The two thugs rounded up 20 Shoney’s customers and herded them to the back of the store and started robbing the place. Thomas Perry was in that restaurant at that time with a .45 caliber pistol. He had a valid concealed carry permit. He hid under a table while the others were being shoved into the back of the restaurant. One of the robbers noticed Perry and pulled his gun on him. Perry immediately put five bullets into the robber, killing him instantly. The second robber shot at and grazed Terry. He fired back and critically wounded the robber. Threat over. Customers freed. One bad guy dead, the other wounded, and not one innocent person hurt. Why? Because Terry had a concealed weapon and Shoney’s had not asked him not to bring it into the restaurant.
Now I have a simple question for Starbucks CEO Schultz. If you were sitting in one of your coffee shops sipping your overpriced cup of burnt coffee, and a thug walked in with a gun and started robbing the customers – you included – at gunpoint, would you sit there and pray that nobody else in your shop has a gun and knows how to use it?
I would truly love to hear your answer to that.
I have never been inside a Starbucks. If someone offered me $1000 I would think about it for a minute but I would walk away. When Starbucks was new it impressed me as insufferably pretentious and I promised never to go into one. I would not want anyone I know to see me in a Starbucks. It would be as embarrassing as to be seen in an Aztec.
Hear! Hear!
Just like a bakery or florist has every right to refuse service to “same-sex” couples.
I doubt, however, that local governments will back efforts by law-abiding gun owners to drive Starbucks out of business.
I do not know who was doing what in the restaurant.
was it more than mere presence, was there loud and vocal boisterous activity.
I have seen people asked to leave if they did not maintain civil discourse. These were young white people with too much energy or perhaps substances in their system.
perhaps those folks who were asked to leave would do better to not spend their money there. It is a free country and the owners of the restaurant made a decision. Now the offended party and all their friends and like minded folks can make a decision to withhold their business from the owners.
As a lawyer, Boortz should know the difference between "brandishing" and open carry.
I'm afraid that this type of hyperbole put me off reading the whole article. Screw Boortz and Starbucks.
Not sure what your point is.
“... would you sit there and pray that nobody else in your shop has a gun and knows how to use it? ...”
Same question I asked a liberal gun grabber. If you were trapped in a movie theatre with someone shooting the patrons, what would you give to have at least one person with a gun, even if carrying it was illegal?
Hemmed and Hawed and couldn’t answer the question.
I think he is just a wus. He doesn’t have the cajones to proudly and openly exercise his rights to bear arms.
He wants to keep them in the closet... or equivalent.
I really do not mind if he wants to carry concealed, in the fear that someone might be offended by his constitutional rights.
Just do not try to say it is the right choice for everyone, because *he* thinks it is bad politics.
Here is a case of an open carrier in Starbucks, and the reaction that occured:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/09/nharmed-citizen-confronted-at-starbucks.html
His statement to the effect that if you dont’ support gay marriage, don’t patronize Starbucks was enough for me to never set foot in one ever again. Just shut up and make coffee!
Two cups there are cheaper than one large at DD.
I agree. I'm tired of people who complain about Starbucks "burnt coffee". It's only burnt if it is left in the pot on the burner too long. IMO, those folks like flavorless weak coffee (kinda like the people who drink ultra-light beer because they don't really like the taste of beer).
Exactly. They don’t have the right to stop you from doing something they can’t detect anyway. If they can’t detect it, then it must not be affecting them, in which case it’s none of their business. If it were affecting them, then they’d know you were doing it.
WHOA!!! Hold on there, Nellie!!! I drive an Aztek! They may get a bad rep, but my baby has been the best vehicle I have owned in the entirety of my life (and I've owned several decent vehicles). 180k miles and still purring like a kitten...(and very little money spent on repairs)
If you haven't owned one, don't dog one...:-)
Aztek- It is not merely an ugly car, it is a supremely silly looking car. I would expect the driver to have a big red nose, be in whiteface, and sport a huge polka dotted tie.
Well, I am most definitely NOT a clown, sir. I would take my maligned Aztek over most others’ vehicles more often than not.
I am happy your driveway is not on my block.
You have a bad experience with one at some time in your life or something?
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