Starbucks asks customers to leave guns at home, wingnuts seethe with rage
Starbucks Asks U.S. Customers to Leave Guns at Home:
Coffee chain Starbucks Corp has asked U.S. customers to leave their guns at home after being dragged into an increasingly fractious debate over U.S. gun rights in the wake of multiple mass shootings.
While many U.S. restaurant chains and retailers do not allow firearms on their properties, Starbucks’ policy had been to default to local gun laws, including “open carry” regulations in many U.S. states that allow people to bring guns into stores.
In August, this led gun-rights advocates to hold a national “Starbucks Appreciation Day” to thank the firm for its stance, pulling the company deeper into the fierce political fight.Locations for Starbucks Appreciation Day events included Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead in an elementary school in December. Starbucks closed that shop before the event was scheduled to begin.
Chief Executive Howard Schultz said in an open letter to customers late Tuesday that Starbucks Appreciation Day events “disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of ‘open carry.’ To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores.”
The coffee chain did not, however, issue an outright ban on guns in its nearly 7,000 company-owned cafes, saying this would potentially require staff to confront armed customers.
The Seattle-based company hoped to give “responsible gun owners a chance to respect its request,” Schultz said.
The right wing response has been predictable, but what’s notable is it’s not just limited to the standard wingnut sites, it’s practically a web-wide attack on Starbucks:
Outdoor seating areas are COMMON AREAS of the strip mall the Starbucks is renting space in. They have control of their property (tables), but NOT THE AREA.
F U, Prez. Schultz, and your far left liberal agenda.
…It is my God Endowed Unalienable Individual Right, secured by Our Constitution, to take any firearm I please anywhere I please. “Shall not be infringed, means exactly what it says.
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Howard, nut up and post the gun free zone sign… you can be the coffee shop where the next massacre occurs…Otherwise, stop playing liberal emotional hack, concealed means just that- you don’t know they are carrying. Glad there’s caribou or a host of mom and pop shops, and sorry the idea of self defense makes you squeamish. Consider my coffee dollars spent elsewhere than for your overpriced dreck.
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Chick-fil-A is a true American corporation. I knew those Starbucks appreciation days were a complete waste of time. Starbucks does not support the Second Amendment. They just don’t want to lose customers. All the idiots that supported Starbucks obviously didn’t do research on the CEO Howard Schultz. If they had they would have been aware that not only is he a liberal moon bat. But more than half of his political donations go to Democrat politicians And the other portions go to Independence. He also was a big supporter of berry Sataro a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama. Perhaps next time people will research Something before they blindly support it like Sheepole.
…If my gun rights are not welcome in the store, neither am I. I can find coffee elsewhere.
…If you want me to come into a Starbacks unarmed, then Starbucks, the company, must be in a position to guarantee my safety. Starbucks, are you willing to do that?
…I can read it now, mass shooting at Starbucks, no one to fend off the crazed shooter, 13 dead. If only someone was there to stop the mad man from this horror. Carry concealed into Starbucks and they cannot tell you anything if you are licensed to carry concealed. in fact, if you believe in our 2nd Amendment, boycott Starbucks.
This is from the most Liberal City of Seattle. Yes, Howard Schultz, ban guns, but please have a security check before people enter your Starbucks stores. It cannot be fool proof unless all people go thru a metal detector.
That is the only way that a gun free environment can exist.
…ridiculous. I’m sure all the criminals and mass murderers will leave their guns home if they want to enter a Starbucks.
…I hate to tell you, but the only places that can legally “ban” guns on their premises are federal, state, and local governments. Any restaurant, bar, store, etc, that is a public business that says “we ban guns” is merely reserving the right to ask you to leave if they find you are carrying a gun. They can’t stop you from carrying a gun in, but if they ask you leave you are required by law to leave. So don’t think just because the sign says “we ban guns” that you’re not sitting next to someone like me who is still carrying legally. Oh, and you’re welcome. It’s someone like me that’s going to save your @ss when the next psycho walks through the door with gun intending to cause mayhem.
…take your liberal retarded bs and peddle it somewhere else. If you want to bitch about freedom, what would you say if a coffee shop said they were going to ban openly gay people from coming in? Oh I’m sure your pretty pink panties would get all bunched up, like a “rock”….I know..I’m being a butthead, but at least I have a point, freedom of speech baby…this is still America. uuuhhhhh huh huh huh
…Put up your signs Starbucks. Gun Free Zone, enter at your own risk
…Instead of having a backbone this guy is waffling on the right to protect yourself if a mass shooter decides to target Starbucks. I guess you could throw your iPad at him but that will probably only **** him off. Better to have a gun and not need it that to need it and not have one.
….I’ll respect his wishes by never patronizing Starbucks again. He’s a mouthy activist busybody like the Hollywood types - going WAY beyond his sphere of influence to agitate - to the detriment of shareholders.
…I’m guessing it’s alright if untreated mentally ill customers come and buy your coffee though, right? I’ve had my last cup of Starbucks coffee.
…Citizens with carry and conceal permits don’t go on shooting rampages, they stop them. The moronic Newtown folks who got this ball rolling can only wish one of the teachers there was armed.
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Twitter has been busy with response as well:
Gun Owners Plan to Respectfully Ignore Request to Respectfully Keep Guns Out of Starbucks http://t.co/RO1b5GR1W5 pic.twitter.com/C95CZkhAKM
— Daily Intelligencer (@intelligencer) September 18, 2013
Starbucks CEO Says Pro-Gun Groups Have Ruined Their Open Carry Policy http://t.co/FiZUrUnWkO #p2
— Alan Colmes (@AlanColmes) September 18, 2013
The attacks have even spread to a blog run by Starbucks itself.
DC has “gun control”.
Military bases have “gun control”.
VA Tech has “gun control”.
Most schools have “gun control”.
Notice a pattern? All those places are where mass murders have happened.
…SBX is refusing service to the 80,000,000 or so law-abiding gun owners in the USA.
Not smart to turn away the best customers they could have.
…I love how you didn’t mind us bringing our M9’s into the Starbucks at Camp Buehring. (Seriously, thanks for the coffee though.) It’s ok over there, but not stateside? Apparently, there are too many nervous Nellies here that are scared of a piece of steel that once protected their right to be ignorant and fearful.
…At least someone has some brains here. You libs keep drinking the cool aide and enjoy having your rights taken away little by little. If Starbucks doesn’t like the second amendment then I can choose not to drink their coffee. Period.
…Agree … But, since their CEO asked nicely, I won’t bring my concealed weapon near a Starbucks … or my money, or my loyalty, or my family. As a matter of fact, I’ll let my extended family know as well.
There are two key points in the actions of Starbucks that seem to be completely overlooked or completely ignored by so-called “gun rights” advocates.
1. The company is NOT actually banning anything. You can still bring guns to Starbucks, the CEO is simply stating he would prefer that you didn’t. He’s not outright saying “No one is permitted to enter Starbucks with a weapon ever again.”
2. The U.S. Constitution is meant to govern the interaction between the government of the United States and its people, NOT its people and private corporations. “Second amendment rights” do not exist in the case of a private business. If they don’t want any guns on their property, that is their call. It is not trampling over rights because no one has a right to carry a gun anywhere they want to, despite what the gun nuts would have you believe.
You might notice I didn’t even mention the “good guy with a gun” argument because that was pretty much repeated ad nauseam after the Newtown shootings and there seems little point in rehashing it yet again.
Once again, this demonstrates how ignorant many self labeled “gun fanatics” are when it comes to gun regulations and how the Constitution works.
