I have always considered Best Buy to be a valuable resource for many of my IT needs, both personally and professionally. Personally, I have purchased several thousand dollars worth of items from various Best Buy stores across the state of Wisconsin, everything from laptop computers and wireless routers to network cables and ends. As IT manager for a local fortune 100 company, I have purchased multiple laptop computers, all-in-one copiers, and untold amounts of memory, network equipment, and other computer (hard drive, cd/dvd drive) related items.
On June 4, 2009, I was in The Best Buy store #1052 in Plover Wisconsin. I was in the store for only a few minutes when a Best Buy employee approached me, informed me that, “Best Buy has a policy restricting firearms in the store,” and requested that, “I leave the firearm in my vehicle in the future.” As there have been numerous break-ins into vehicles in Wisconsin as of late, leaving my firearm in an unattended vehicle poses a greater risk to public safety than carrying it, holstered, on my person. I would prefer to continue to patronize Best Buy but as a matter of practice and principle will be unable to do so in light of this stated policy. I would also point out that there is not a single documented case of a holstered firearm discharging much less harming another individual.
Wisconsin, like forty-four (44) other states (Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, to name a few) allows private individuals the right to carry holstered firearms for the purposes of security and defense and I would like to verify the Best Buy policy before passing along this information to our eighteen thousand (18,000) member on-line gun-rights community. If this is not Best Buy's official policy please let me know at your earliest convenience as I and the thousands of members of our gun rights organization would like to patronize establishments who support the rights of law-abiding citizens.
Sincerely,