Another Great Washington Times Editorial

[artabr]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-stories-today


EDITORIAL: Packing a gun in Starbucks
Coffee beans and firearms stir up a strong political brew

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

If you want to have a nice, relaxing cup of coffee in a safe environment, try Starbucks. The coffee-shop chain, generally known for environmentalist chic, is probably one of the safest places to hang out these days for a reason that doesn't fit its image - Starbucks is letting customers openly carry guns in its stores. Americans thus can enjoy their rights and wash them down with a Frappuccino.

Not surprisingly, Starbucks has taken some flak for its stand. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, an organization that has supported gun bans in Washington and Chicago, wants guns kept out of Starbucks. Collecting signatures from across the country, the gun controllers announced this week that they have gathered 28,000 signatures to try to pressure the bean sellers to hang fire. What the Brady Campaign actually did is misfire.

Here is some free PR advice for those who support gun bans: 28,000 signatures from a country of 200-some million adults is embarrassingly small. The National Rifle Association, with more than 4 million members, could collect that many signatures for the opposite position in less than an hour. It's obvious which side won this duel. Despite all the harping from the left, a spokesman for Starbucks said last week that the company is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal.

From sea to shining sea, the climate for guns is changing, and the progress extends beyond Starbucks. Major retailers such as Home Depot, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble apparently also are friendly to people who openly pack heat, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Brady Campaign warns businesses that allowing customers to carry guns will scare away other customers. Yet it seems pretty obvious that the businesses themselves - despite all the pressure they face from trial lawyers and bureaucrats to ban guns - are in a much better position to know what their customers want.

Hollywood and the liberal media have skewed public perceptions to such a degree that most Americans probably don't realize that not so long ago, people openly carried guns without a second thought all the time. Up until 1969, all but one of the public high schools in New York City had rifle teams. Thousands of students carried their rifles every day on subways, buses and streets on their way to school, when they went to practice in the afternoon and on their way home. The students would store their guns in homerooms in the morning and then pick them up in the afternoon. In more normal times, no one thought it was a big deal.

Liberals claim they believe in science, but guns vividly illustrate their intellectual blinders. There is not a single refereed study by criminologists or economists using crime data from across America that shows that right-to-carry laws increase violent crime. The academic debate in refereed journals has been over how large the benefits are.

Here is a prediction: In a very short time, all the furor over Starbucks' pro-gun policy will be forgotten. The gun grabbers might not like it, but most Americans respect the right to keep and bear arms - even in a coffee shop




Art

[Trouble 45-70]

When you search for pro-gun control info, nearly all the sites go back to the Brady website and contain almost nothing but a home page and links to Brady. It is only a round robin affair. Each claiming hundreds of thousands of members but they are all the same members. On the Pro-gun side there are dozens of self-contained groups with pages and pages of content. Some of these groups contain hundreds of thousand and even millions of members. There are few members who belong to more than two groups.

We dwarf their membership even when you leave out the hunting and fishing communities. The Press just wont recognize that fact. No telling how many have our views but just aren't joiners.

The media have been scamming the public for decades. To paraphrase, "We print all the news that is fit to lie about.

[Suicide*Ride]

Here is some free PR advice for those who support gun bans: 28,000 signatures from a country of 200-some million adults is embarrassingly small. The National Rifle Association, with more than 4 million members, could collect that many signatures for the opposite position in less than an hour.

It's obvious which side won this duel. Despite all the harping from the left, a spokesman for Starbucks said last week that the company is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal.

Looks like our Brother [Hardballer] won the battle! They made international news w/ just a handful of folks who were OC'ing.

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=74990

Date: Sunday February 21st

Time: 12:30pm

Location: Meet at Starbucks in Sussex
Starbucks
N65W24950 Main Street
Sussex, WI 53089

We will be meeting at Starbucks, try to be there at 12:30 sharp. Once we meet there we will be heading over to the State Patrol Office in Waukesha to demonstrate outside the building. If you don't make the 12:30 meeting time at Starbucks in Sussex plan to catch up with us at the State Patrol headquarters around 1pm 21115 East Moreland Boulevard, Waukesha, WI

Open-Carry strongly encouraged, but not required. Out of state people may carry open. No concealed carry at all. Your firearm must be in a case designed for a gun and recognizable as such. When in the case, it must be unloaded, mag and ammo may be in the same case as the gun. Case must be out of reach (in the trunk, in the back of a mini van or SUV, etc. If you would like to carry and show your support, we are happy to have you. If you just want to be there but no carry, fine, carry is optional.

Thank you for your support.

Now, just imagine what a couple of million OC'ing firearm owners could accomplish!


Btw; thanks for posting the story Art!

SR

[pinecone70]

Hahaha! Awesome!

[artabr]

Three cheers for Hardballer!!!!



Art

[topper]

My high school had a rifle team in 1967. I was not a member of it and I don't remember how long it lasted before some whiney got it shut down. I do know the ROTC practiced aiming and manuvers on the football field and next to the auto shop, but no shots were fired. They used actual M1 Garand rifles, but unloaded.

[Trouble 45-70]

My brother was in ROTC in 64 and they had a realy great drill team, one of the best in the State. Their routine included tossing M-1s with bayonets. At a football game in Houston, Tx. The High School ROTC put on a fire and maneuver demo. using M-1s and a 30. cal. machine gun all firing blanks. The crowd loved it and gave a standing ovation as clouds of gun smoke drifted over the stadium.

They also had a rifle team.

Would love to see that again.

My #3 and #4 son were members of an ROTC drill team in S. La. and they used M-1s but they had been rendered inert thanks to Sen. Kennedy and his ilk. What a waste.

[bcj1755]

I was in an NJROTC unit at my high school and was a member of the Rifle Team for two years. We used air rifles on a 10 meter range, but at least we actually fired projectiles We had demilled M1 Garands and M1903 Springfield replicas for drill rifles.