Mike
Site Co-Founder
imported post
http://www.smh.com.au/world/go-ahead-make-my-coffee-20100401-ri2q.html
SNIP
Go ahead, make my coffee
April 2, 2010
. . .
Pro-gun activists are campaigning for the right to openly bear arms everywhere, writes Bernard Lagan.
Starbucks, the hyper-attuned marketers who persuaded Americans to pay $4 for a coffee brewed from small-farm beans to be enjoyed with indie rock and free wireless internet, suddenly has a dubious clientele: groups of middle-aged men, hanging out, guns dangling.
They are not the savvy elitists Starbucks - at least in America - likes to cultivate. Some, like Jim Snyder, a 59-year-old Virginian and retired military officer, don't even like coffee. He drops into Starbucks only because the chain lets customers bring their guns.
. . .
Like the Starbucks gatherings, the beach rally had a wider purpose - tempting US politicians to relax gun laws by trying to portray gun owners as responsible citizens.
. . .
Snyder and Swartz are in the vanguard of a newly invigorated movement spreading across America that encourages gun owners to use their right to carry their weapons in public, unconcealed.
The ''open carry movement'' has an estimated 30,000 followers. Among its logos is a drawing of monkey with an outsized gun, mouthing: ''Oops, my civil rights are showing.''
Mike Stollenwerk, a co-founder of the movement's website, told the Herald that the intent was to bring gun culture into the open.
''Open carry is just the flipside to concealed carry - in either case, we are talking about the carriage of properly holstered handguns in daily life. Open carry has the political upside of getting gun ownership generally out of the closet in America - the right to bear arms should not be treated like a dirty little secret allowed only for members of a secret society,'' said Stollenwerk, a retired army officer.
''America is a big sea of gun freedom with only a few rocky shoals of infringement of the right to bear arms in a few states.''
. . .
''Our point is to do the same thing that concealed carriers do,'' Stollenwerk said. ''We're just taking off our jackets.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/go-ahead-make-my-coffee-20100401-ri2q.html
SNIP
Go ahead, make my coffee
April 2, 2010
. . .
Pro-gun activists are campaigning for the right to openly bear arms everywhere, writes Bernard Lagan.
Starbucks, the hyper-attuned marketers who persuaded Americans to pay $4 for a coffee brewed from small-farm beans to be enjoyed with indie rock and free wireless internet, suddenly has a dubious clientele: groups of middle-aged men, hanging out, guns dangling.
They are not the savvy elitists Starbucks - at least in America - likes to cultivate. Some, like Jim Snyder, a 59-year-old Virginian and retired military officer, don't even like coffee. He drops into Starbucks only because the chain lets customers bring their guns.
. . .
Like the Starbucks gatherings, the beach rally had a wider purpose - tempting US politicians to relax gun laws by trying to portray gun owners as responsible citizens.
. . .
Snyder and Swartz are in the vanguard of a newly invigorated movement spreading across America that encourages gun owners to use their right to carry their weapons in public, unconcealed.
The ''open carry movement'' has an estimated 30,000 followers. Among its logos is a drawing of monkey with an outsized gun, mouthing: ''Oops, my civil rights are showing.''
Mike Stollenwerk, a co-founder of the movement's website, told the Herald that the intent was to bring gun culture into the open.
''Open carry is just the flipside to concealed carry - in either case, we are talking about the carriage of properly holstered handguns in daily life. Open carry has the political upside of getting gun ownership generally out of the closet in America - the right to bear arms should not be treated like a dirty little secret allowed only for members of a secret society,'' said Stollenwerk, a retired army officer.
''America is a big sea of gun freedom with only a few rocky shoals of infringement of the right to bear arms in a few states.''
. . .
''Our point is to do the same thing that concealed carriers do,'' Stollenwerk said. ''We're just taking off our jackets.''
