Erik88

  Do you remember the woman who was carrying a gun in her purse at starbucks and had a ND? She shot someone standing near her.   SHE WAS CARRYING CONCEALED!    I'm not sure what we are even arguing about. All I'm trying to say is that I'm sure there were more discussions in the board room other than open carry. I agree with you guys that the open carry of AR's and AK's only made things worse.     Here you go...damn concealed carry idiots.    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/gun-in-purse-starbucks_n_3268652.html

  Most of the people around me are men. The one girl buy me is essentially "one of the guys" so I wouldn't care if I crapped in front of her.

I work in a cube. I feel horrible for those around me when I fart but I'm not going to hold em in.

  The same could be said as to why he didn't write a one line statement saying "no open carry allowed".   If this was ONLY about OC and nothing else they would have stated that.

LMAO. I was wondering when you were going to respond Mike. You were gone so long I should have known you would find something good.   That actually has me laughing out loud. Which I needed.

      So that's in then? Open carry and nothing else caused this? I agree a select group of D bags made things much much worse by bringing AR's and shotguns into the store but there were other considerations as well. That I'm sure of.

  I understand the issue fully Brad. I'm just responding to everyone in this thread who has bitched about open carry when that's only part of the issue here.   As I said, the timing of this statement coming right after the events in DC leads me to believe this is more about guns in general than it is people only carrying in their stores. The fact that yourself and many others automatically starting complaining about the OC crowd is somewhat humorous. It would have made more sense to acknowledge that there were probably a variety of factors that lead to this decision. Rather than talk through those issues all I saw was a knee jerk reaction from everyone here.   What I'm trying to say is that throwing your hands up and claiming it's all the open carry crowd's fault is a very simplistic way of looking at this. If this was ONLY about open carry they would have asked everyone to conceal from now on.   If I haven't made myself clear by now I give up.

Now now Mike...I've tried not to judge you.. :cool:

  Not sure I follow? Are you suggesting that carrying concealed also provokes the libs?

  Why is everyone trying to split hairs on this? Saying they don't want guns in the store is no different than posting signs. Both send the same message.   I completely agree with your 2nd sentence about OC being a symptom and you're right, it wasn't the entire issue.      I have a question, let's say that no one had ever OC'd into Starbucks but instead carried concealed and thanked the employees like many people did. Do you not think Starbucks would have eventually reached the same conclusion?   My guess is that the events Monday in DC had as much to do with this as anything else(notice the timing) and they would have released the same statement.

  Great post Mike.     Let me be clear, the people in the article bringing long guns into the store is a completely different issue which I don't agree with. To be honest, I wasn't aware it happened that many times.   What is annoying to me is the fact that people here are lumping all the OC crowd into one group which really isn't any different than what the bed-wetters due in regards to gun owners.

Since you guys are hell bent on blaming open carry why are not not lobbying to have the law changed to concealed only?    If this was about open carry Starbucks would have asked that we only carry concealed. They could have simply banned open carry.

How in the world does that happen? Someone missed the "share the ammo with others stores" memo. Just stopped by my local WMT, the shelves were empty with shotgun shells being the only exception.

  What are you basing this on? That hasn't been the experience for most people.

  Nice mature response Robert. You've added a lot of value to the topic.   I'm sure every post on Open Carry.org is made up by the members there. It's all a giant conspiracy to promote the cause. That's essentially what you're saying.

    How is this so difficult to understand? I may be welcome but my firearm isn't. Since we're a package deal it makes perfect sense to me.     I'm not going to lose any sleep over it though.    

  Neal, have you spent any time on the OC forum or subfoums of other websites? Teere are hunders if not thousands of examples where people had a chance to educate others about open carry laws while doing so. It's actually very common.   Most people don't even know the driving laws in their state let alone gun laws. :rofl:

  Seems pretty clear to me that they are taking a side. I'm not longer welcome in their store. How could that be any more clear?   I understand the point you are trying to make but the bottom line is that they went from honoring state laws to now saying guns are no longer welcome.   The anti-gun crowd got their wish.   Starbucks reasoning for this decision doesn't matter, the point has been made.

  So how do you differentiate between some guy carrying openly because it's more comfortable or he just feels like it vs. someone trying to stir the pot? It seems to be that Starbucks certainly doesn't care what reason someone is OCing, they don't want it in their stores.   But again, this is about more than just open carry. Putting all the blame on that crowd is not what we should be doing. We need to stick together as a community rather than drive a wedge between us.

I guess I have a different take on this than some of you. They clearly said they don't want guns in their stores regardless of whether it's carried openly or concealed. Open carry may have certainly played a role in their decision but I doubt it was the only consideration. I really doubt open carry of long guns was the final straw since that's such a rare occurance. You guys seem to be taking the default approach and blaming open carry when what you should really be doing is seeing this for what it really is. Starbucks is a store that caters to hipsters and yuppies, they don't give a damn about us.   If we stop shopping there it will be a drop in the bucket.   Their coffee sucks but my GF likes it so I've supported them in the past. I'll go to Dunkin from now on.

  We had the director of zero harm(safety) get canned last year. Ironically he apparently made some remarks that justified having armed guards outside our building for a few days.

Maybe I'll get an AK since it's a bigger boolet and cheaper to boot.

Maxpedition makes great bags but I'm beginning to realize there are others out there far more comfortable.   Has anyone actually hiked with their Maxpedition or used it for longer than a few minutes to and from your car? Their shoulder straps are extremely uncomfortable after a short period of time.

  I feel the same way about Bass Pro and Dicks. It's the place to go for the uninformed.   At the Bass Pro in Orlando they make you take a number and wait just to look at the firearms in the case or get some help.    Academy is the only one worth visiting most of the time.

  Thanks for clarifying. I'm sure it won't stop Feinstein and Obozo from calling for more gun control.