Starbucks in Spotlight of Gun Control Controversy

If the sight of a gun makes you nervous... if seeing someone legally carrying a sidearm while minding his business just causes your heart to beat faster and makes you break out into cold sweats, then one... you're a liberal gun control nut.

Two... do yourself and others a favor and don't go inside your local Starbucks for coffee tomorrow morning.

The Starbucks coffee chain has found itself unwillingly drawn into the spotlight over a recent debate on gun-control. The company currently allows its customers to carry their legally-owned firearms on their person (at least, in the states where open/concealed carry laws permit) while in their stores. Gun owners have been testing these state laws by walking into Starbucks with their weapons displayed openly.

Of course, this makes gun control advocates very unhappy, and they have launched a petition to get the coffee chain to declare its businesses "gun-free zones". The group intends to deliver at least 28,000 signatures to Starbuck's headquarters in Seattle.

"Offer espresso shots, not gunshots" was the theme of the petition.

Wow, really witty guys. They must've worked all night to come up with that clever little slogan.

However, gun rights supporters have not been standing idly by. When the gun-control crowd held a press conference near Seattle's Pink Place Market (close to where the first Starbucks opened), gun rights supporters staged a counter protest nearby, some wearing their holstered firearms at their side.

Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign complained that "they're putting people in harms way by allowing people to carry guns into their stores, especially open carry."

He added that "carrying guns intimidates and frightens people", and that he believes that Starbucks will "do the right thing".

Ok... that's it. Enough of the damn news story.

I've heard this stupid argument too many times now. As much as I hate to admit it, I used to be one of these anti-gun nuts, so I know how these guys think.

Here's a newsflash for Mr. Malte; banning guns does not prevent the bad guys from carrying them... either on their person, or in a place of business. The only thing a gun ban prevents is the ability of a victim of a violent crime to protect herself on the street, a place of business, or her home.

Only law-abiding citizens obey gun laws, criminals just laugh at them.

Let me tell you something; if I were a criminal intent on going on a shooting rampage, you know where I'd go to do it? I'd go to the nearest place of business that had a sign claiming that it's a "gun free zone".

And why not? After all, I'm the only guy in there with a gun. Who's going to stop me? Sure, the cops will get there sooner or later, but what's the average time that the boys in blue get to the scene? Five... ten minutes? You can fire a lot of rounds until then.

Now, I understand that there are places where you definitely shouldn't be packing a firearm... police stations, courtrooms, voting stations and the like. Of course, that's the difference between law-abiding concealed weapons permit carriers and your common thug with a gun... we'll actually respect those laws.

As I said earlier, I used to be an anti-gun nut too. I was the guy that claimed that only the police and military had any business carrying guns. I was the guy saying that guns were the weapons of choice for cowards.

When a pro-gun advocate would make the claim that "guns don't kill people, people kill people", I was the smartass that replied "yeah, but they sure make it a lot easier".

It also makes it easier for you to get killed if you don't have a gun too.

Guns are here to stay, and since they're not going anywhere, I figured that I may as well learn to understand how to use one if the need ever came up.

I eventually came to the realization that hating guns does not make you bulletproof.

You can call for banning guns all you want, you can vilify gun owners all you want, and you can write all the anti-gun literature and pass all the gun control laws you want, but when the time comes when one is pulled on you, not even the most powerful and compelling anti-gun messages you come up with will do you a damn bit of good when that trigger is pulled.

Links:

Starbucks Asks not to be Center of Gun Debate: Manuel Valdes and Mae Anderson, Associate Press