Re: Starbucks no longer Open Carry (or CC) friendly.
PostPosted:Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:10 pm
MrCoolDale wrote:Plenty of you will hate my position on this when I say: we brought this on ourselves. Open carrying shotguns and AR's serves no benefit to our open carry cause. It is a shock factor that will cause more people to move against us. People who didn't care one way or another are against open carry, now that they see it applies to long guns as well.As much as I don't want to agree with you and think that the general public should just deal with it no matter what we carry I have to say that I do agree with you. This is unfortunately the world we live in. With people who are uninformed and uneducated about weapons in general and the government spiting off whatever it wants to no matter if it makes sense or not we are fighting and up hill battle. Then when you have people who "force" open carry on the public and then post it for the world to see it does work against us. Instead of going out about your business, informing people who may ask about OC but other wise act as if you are no different then anyone else walking around we gave them what they wanted. Now the hill is even steeper. While I don't agree with what Starbucks has done in response with going the complete opposite direction I can see how some people did not help the situation. So again as much as I dislike it and wont be giving Starbucks any of my money I can see what you are saying.
This is a point I've been making for quite a while, and people just say "it's our right." Sure, it IS our right, but it's not necessary to make our point. Open carrying a pistol is largely invisible to public. It says, "I'm just like you." Yet open carrying an AR says, "I'm ready for war." You guys can pick this apart, but this is what the public sees.
In this case, it's what Starbucks sees. While CSGV, MAIG, and MDA, were fighting Starbucks on their policy to follow local law, all we had to do was sit back and shutup. For years Starbucks stuck to their policy, or lack there of in ths case. The only thing that changed between then and now is a bunch of people showing up for Starbucks appreciation day. I was first upset that the left couldn't leave Starbucks alone, they had to politicize everything. When the gun-rights crowd decided to get in on the action and force Starbucks to make a decision, we all lost.
This is what the left does. They hound on a subject until they're blue in the face, the. They do it some more. They make us our own worst enemies through division, indecision, and "optics." The left tends to grab the people on the fence because they pretend to be more inviting.
We can expect to see a big push to stop open carry very soon. I can assure you that open carrying a rifle to church in Easter will not help us.