Been thinking again about this issue!!

[bersaguy]

Gun Buster signs!!!  As we walk up to a store or restaurant that displays these signs and are legally carrying according to the laws of the state what is the first thing that runs through your mind. Mine is the business does not want me and my family to do business with them. Is that really what that sign means? Now I have been wondering why many of those signs are really in play? Is it because the company or Small Business store owner is really against guns and people with guns or is it because a few and I mean just a few of his customers are the ones that asked the company or small business owner to do it and he has not been approached by law biding gun owners that do carry to ask the company or the Small Business owner why they actually posted their business. I bet most small businesses owners never gave it any thought because they probably never saw anyone that was carrying a gun doing business or eating in his restaurant. My guess is it was a few and like I said a few, maybe even just one anti gun person that planted that seed in their ear. I also wonder if that particular business big or small realizes the impact it may be having on their business. There are over 300,000 plus HCP people in Tennessee and that is growing every day. 300,000 + people can have one heck of an impact on anyone's business big or small. As that number grows it causes even more impact on these businesses. Now except for the few baboons with the black rifles being pure stupid and should be taking to the wood shed for an educational experience how many times has any one heard about an real carry issue in a business that was negative. Yes I know that Starbucks did post but their reason was open carry and not because they are against people legally going armed. They also did re-post stating that concealed carry was allowed so they are not totally an anti gun business. I think what I am going to do is a survey of all the businesses I can find here in my town that have gun buster signs up and i am going to ask each business to give me the exact reason that they chose to put the sign up. I am truly interested in learning why the signs are up in many businesses that 90 days ago were not posted. As I mentioned in an earlier post about a local meat & 3 restaurant here that learned real quick how his customers felt when he bought the business of 40 years and posted it about 3 or 4 days later. It almost put him out of business had he not reversed his decision and he still lost quite a few customers that never returned. The Anti Gun folks don't mind speaking to the business owners so why should the Pro gun folks not do the same. Sure, we are not going to get all the signs but I bet we can get some and some is better than none. Next time you see a Gun Buster sign make it a  point to politely talk with the owner/manager and find out why the sign is up and whose idea it was to put it up in the first place. We are not going to get all the signs but some is better than none and lets not blame the wrong people for why many of the signs are up...............jmho

[Jonnin]

The majority of the answers you will get for "big name" stores will simply be "company policy".    And most of those won't openly admit to being anti-gun so much as against the negatives that come with guns: they don't want liability when ppl shoot each other on their property, they don't want heroes shooting thugs on their property, they don't want accidents ("It jus' went off, I dunno what happent"), and they don't want morons scaring people with open carry etc (not saying open carry makes you a moron, but I am saying that scaring people unintentionally has consequences and scaring them on purpose is even worse...).   There may also be insurance policy riders for it -- insurance may give em a break for posting the sign; that may only be some states but bigger places span many states and use a common set of rules for all stores.

 

My advice is to save your time and only hit local stores, not big names.   Which you sort of implied by saying small businesses but I thought I would toss out the primary "excuses" used by nameless faces in charge of big operations.

 

Some of it is self inflicted by gun people being stupid (take the recent example of chipotle ).   Some of it is guntardedness, which is mostly restating the fear of the above lawsuit causing scenarios.   Some of it is practical:  we don't want them here in this bar that is already in a rough part of town...   and some of it, the vast majority, will be from "the owner don't like guns so much he is willing to give up some business over it".   

 

 

Here is my take on it.   Its not legal advice, its my opinion only.  IMHO the signs, and the weight of the law, are there to enable charges against criminals.  That is, if you are creating a disturbance, robbing the place, or generally doing something that requires the presence of a LEO, this law allows them to arrest you for something.   If you were doing something non-gun related that got you searched, they get to add charges hoping to put you in jail longer or that something will "stick" when you are prosecuted.   Again, IMHO, the most likely scenario if you are well behaved and "made" is simply being asked to leave by the employees, and if you comply, nothing more.   The employees can't detain you without making a citizen's arrest which few are inclined to do without a) thinking to do it bx) feeling the need due to your behavior and c) willing to deal with the aggravation of doing it (paperwork, possible court date as witness, etc).   So you leave, and it ends there, in the case of an honest, well behaved, law abiding citizen.   

Edited May 27, 2014 by Jonnin