ed
Founder's Club Member - Moderator
imported post
http://tinyurl.com/oclondon
Gun lovers in the US test law by wearing weapons to Starbucks
Christina Lamb
IT is not exactly Gunfight at the OK Corral — more like Lattes at High Noon — but Starbucks, the coffee chain, has become an unlikely battleground for American gun owners campaigning to carry their weapons openly in public.
Last Thursday morning Jim Snyder walked into a Starbucks branch in Virginia and ordered a tall hot chocolate without cream. On his left hip was his mobile phone. On his right hip was a semi-automatic Browning pistol.
The coffee bar was busy with customers, including a group of mothers with children in pushchairs. Nobody blinked an eyelid.
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t wear my gun to go to a coffee bar,” said Snyder, 59. “If businesses say you can’t bring in a gun, that’s discrimination against a person for doing something that’s legal. It’s like saying we won’t serve people with blue shirts.
“I see my gun as insurance,” he added. “Like I have life insurance to protect my family, car insurance to protect my car, house insurance to protect my house.”
Snyder never used to be a customer of Starbucks. But the past few weeks have seen gun enthusiasts flocking to the coffee chain. They are part of the so-called Open Carry movement testing the laws in the 42 states that allow gun owners to carry weapons in public.
Anti-firearms campaigners have collected 40,000 signatures calling on Starbucks to ban firearms.
Last week the chain pleaded to be left alone. “Advocacy groups from both sides of this issue have chosen to use Starbucks as a way to draw attention to their positions,” the Seattle company said in a statement.
“The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores.”
Many Americans are fiercely protective of their right to carry guns despite high-profile school shootings such as the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999, in which 15 died, and the shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007, when a student shot and killed 32 before turning his gun on himself.
“The right to bear arms is a fundamental right and part of what our founding fathers put in the constitution,” said Ed Levine, a member of Open Carry in Virginia. “That’s not for any coffee bar to decide.”
Levine, who last week went for chicken wings at the Buffalo Wing Factory in Sterling with 34 friends all packing pistols, said that “carrying a gun is like wearing socks. It’s part of your wardrobe. Like an accessory — but one that saves lives”.
Gun sales rose 39% last year and 24 states passed laws to ease restrictions on gun ownership. Arizona and Virginia recently approved bills making it legal to carry concealed weapons in bars. Tennessee voted to allow guns in playgrounds.
The Supreme Court is expected to end a 30-year ban on handguns soon in Chicago. The appeal comes 18 months after it lifted a similar ban in Washington. A wave of similar challenges is expected across the country.
Gun control lobbyists say President Barack Obama has failed to deliver on campaign promises to close loopholes that allow unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without background checks or to clamp down on the trafficking of illegal guns.
Instead, Obama has signed bills allowing guns to be carried on trains and in national parks. “He’s signed a couple of pieces of legislation that weakened the few gun laws on the books,” said Paul Helmke, president of the pro-gun control Brady campaign.
http://tinyurl.com/oclondon
Gun lovers in the US test law by wearing weapons to Starbucks
Christina Lamb
IT is not exactly Gunfight at the OK Corral — more like Lattes at High Noon — but Starbucks, the coffee chain, has become an unlikely battleground for American gun owners campaigning to carry their weapons openly in public.
Last Thursday morning Jim Snyder walked into a Starbucks branch in Virginia and ordered a tall hot chocolate without cream. On his left hip was his mobile phone. On his right hip was a semi-automatic Browning pistol.
The coffee bar was busy with customers, including a group of mothers with children in pushchairs. Nobody blinked an eyelid.
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t wear my gun to go to a coffee bar,” said Snyder, 59. “If businesses say you can’t bring in a gun, that’s discrimination against a person for doing something that’s legal. It’s like saying we won’t serve people with blue shirts.
“I see my gun as insurance,” he added. “Like I have life insurance to protect my family, car insurance to protect my car, house insurance to protect my house.”
Snyder never used to be a customer of Starbucks. But the past few weeks have seen gun enthusiasts flocking to the coffee chain. They are part of the so-called Open Carry movement testing the laws in the 42 states that allow gun owners to carry weapons in public.
Anti-firearms campaigners have collected 40,000 signatures calling on Starbucks to ban firearms.
Last week the chain pleaded to be left alone. “Advocacy groups from both sides of this issue have chosen to use Starbucks as a way to draw attention to their positions,” the Seattle company said in a statement.
“The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores.”
Many Americans are fiercely protective of their right to carry guns despite high-profile school shootings such as the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999, in which 15 died, and the shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007, when a student shot and killed 32 before turning his gun on himself.
“The right to bear arms is a fundamental right and part of what our founding fathers put in the constitution,” said Ed Levine, a member of Open Carry in Virginia. “That’s not for any coffee bar to decide.”
Levine, who last week went for chicken wings at the Buffalo Wing Factory in Sterling with 34 friends all packing pistols, said that “carrying a gun is like wearing socks. It’s part of your wardrobe. Like an accessory — but one that saves lives”.
Gun sales rose 39% last year and 24 states passed laws to ease restrictions on gun ownership. Arizona and Virginia recently approved bills making it legal to carry concealed weapons in bars. Tennessee voted to allow guns in playgrounds.
The Supreme Court is expected to end a 30-year ban on handguns soon in Chicago. The appeal comes 18 months after it lifted a similar ban in Washington. A wave of similar challenges is expected across the country.
Gun control lobbyists say President Barack Obama has failed to deliver on campaign promises to close loopholes that allow unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without background checks or to clamp down on the trafficking of illegal guns.
Instead, Obama has signed bills allowing guns to be carried on trains and in national parks. “He’s signed a couple of pieces of legislation that weakened the few gun laws on the books,” said Paul Helmke, president of the pro-gun control Brady campaign.
