TechnoWeenie
Regular Member
imported post
After the whole crap at Safeway in Olympia, which I STILL haven't recieved a call from the district manager about, I wondered about possible steps to prevent such things from happening, such as us going OUT to stores to educate management, employees, etc. Granted, it won't stop managers wanting to push a personal agenda onto an unwilling customer, but it would give those workers a better undrestanding of the hows/whys of what we're doing.
In that light, I went to the Safeway in Hawks Prairie, and talked to a manager there, explaining the situation (while I was carrying concealed). She knew I wasn't a threat, and acknowledges that she sees me all the time, and some employees have asked her about me, and she's always given them the 'he's fine' speech.. She did NOT know, however, that open carry was legal in WA, wether she meant 'legal without a permit' , or PERIOD, I'm not too sure about.. But she was very receptive, acknowledged that it was a good idea to have employees educated on it, even if it wasn't something that was a frequent occurance, and agreed to take some pamphlets on WA gun law and put them in the break room..
NOW.. My question is...
WHY aren't we doing things like this more often? Maybe work with a police department to put out a 'this is legal' brochure, and offer tips from an officer on what to look for in terms of suspicious behaviour, and have a firearms instructor to lend a little bit of credibility to our cause.. The fact is, people listen to titles, they'd be a lot more willing to listen to joe officer or joe firearms instructor than John the rights activist carrying a gun.. Know what I mean?
I think we need to go on the attack, approach businesses in a friendly manner, with a 'hey, you might not understand everything, but we want to educate your employees on WHY we do this so there's no misunderstandings'... and if we get a 'NO! I don't want guns in my store!' then we put them on the do not patronize list and be done with it...
Even with one store a day, we can VERY quickly weed through those that support our rights, and those that don't.. and further educate the public about our rights, and reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings (and angry managers demanding ID and papers, hehe).
After the whole crap at Safeway in Olympia, which I STILL haven't recieved a call from the district manager about, I wondered about possible steps to prevent such things from happening, such as us going OUT to stores to educate management, employees, etc. Granted, it won't stop managers wanting to push a personal agenda onto an unwilling customer, but it would give those workers a better undrestanding of the hows/whys of what we're doing.
In that light, I went to the Safeway in Hawks Prairie, and talked to a manager there, explaining the situation (while I was carrying concealed). She knew I wasn't a threat, and acknowledges that she sees me all the time, and some employees have asked her about me, and she's always given them the 'he's fine' speech.. She did NOT know, however, that open carry was legal in WA, wether she meant 'legal without a permit' , or PERIOD, I'm not too sure about.. But she was very receptive, acknowledged that it was a good idea to have employees educated on it, even if it wasn't something that was a frequent occurance, and agreed to take some pamphlets on WA gun law and put them in the break room..
NOW.. My question is...
WHY aren't we doing things like this more often? Maybe work with a police department to put out a 'this is legal' brochure, and offer tips from an officer on what to look for in terms of suspicious behaviour, and have a firearms instructor to lend a little bit of credibility to our cause.. The fact is, people listen to titles, they'd be a lot more willing to listen to joe officer or joe firearms instructor than John the rights activist carrying a gun.. Know what I mean?
I think we need to go on the attack, approach businesses in a friendly manner, with a 'hey, you might not understand everything, but we want to educate your employees on WHY we do this so there's no misunderstandings'... and if we get a 'NO! I don't want guns in my store!' then we put them on the do not patronize list and be done with it...
Even with one store a day, we can VERY quickly weed through those that support our rights, and those that don't.. and further educate the public about our rights, and reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings (and angry managers demanding ID and papers, hehe).
