Starbucks and Guns

How would you feel if you walked into Starbucks one afternoon with your children, and right before you is standing a man with a pistol hanging from his belt? Is this the kind of environment you would feel safe to be in? Well this has been happening multiple places in the United States. This is known as the "Open Carry" movement. It is a movement enforced by gun right extremists to voice their interpretation of the second amendment. They interpret this as their right to carry handguns around with them in public. While basically all states have at least some small restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons, few states do anything to regulate the "open carry" of guns. The people for the "Open Carry" movement see this as "normalizing" their self-defined right to carry guns with them whenever and wherever they would like to.

In Northern California, "open carry" believers have been gathering in Starbucks and other coffee shops and restaurants with their semi-automatic pistols and revolvers out for all to see. "Studies show that the more guns there are, the more gun violence there is in that location." Also 80 percent of the people who do not possess a gun say that they would feel much less safe if more people in their community had guns.

"Starbucks put out a statement saying they don't want to be in the middle of this fight. Well, they are. They are the middle," Brian Malte, director of federal and state mobilization at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a national gun-control group, told reporters at Victor Steinbrueck Park at Pike Place Market. Starbucks is not doing making anything be done about guns in their franchises. They are allowing this to continue even though it is not in the best interest of their customers. Starbucks' efforts to maintain an ethical buying practice is a reason to expect it would ban guns from its stores. Starbucks calls itself a "socially responsible" company, so doesn't that mean Starbucks should do the "socially responsible" thing?

By allowing people to openly carry guns in their stores, Starbucks is violating the public's trust. However, few even cared about Starbucks' gun policy, until January, when word was spread that gun carrying followers of open-carry laws were meeting in coffeehouses and restaurants in California's Bay Area. This is when all the commotion began. This forced Starbucks to make the decision on whether or not to ban firearms from their stores, they chose not to. By making this decision has come a lot of hardships among Starbucks clients, but they are standing tall with their choice.

In my opinion, i believe that Starbucks made the wrong decision by choosing to not ban firearms from their stores. They are putting the safety of their customers in harm. They are also losing some respect from customers. I think that by allowing this they are sending out an open invitation for more violent acts to take place in their stores. They are in a way putting their customers in harms way. If just anyone is allowed to bring in a handheld gun, how will they be able to control what is happening in their stores. For example if a man brings his pistol into a Starbucks location and he "accidentally" drops it, and it goes off and fires a bullet that kills an innocent bystander, what can be done? Will Starbucks be to blame or will it be the man's fault? Why should we have to wait until this or an alike accident happens? The smart thing would have been to ban the firearms from all their locations. All we can do now is watch and see how this unfolds.

Go to this site to make your voice heard and take a stand against allowing firearms in Starbucks.

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