Brady Campaign Wants Guns Out of Starbucks

National Gun-Control Organization Circulates Petition After Gun-Carrying Group Holds Demonstrations in California

(CBS)  A national pro-gun-control organization wants Starbucks to take a firm stance on whether it allows customers to carry unconcealed firearms in its stores.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wants its members to sign a petition telling the international coffee company to keep guns out of its locations, according to The Seattle Times. The petition has more than 15,000 signatures, the newspaper reported.

The petition serves as a response to recent demonstrations organized by a group called OpenCarry.org, which describes itself as "a pro-gun Internet community focused on the right to openly carry properly holstered handguns in daily American life."

The group has held demonstrations at California Pizza Kitchen, Peet's Coffee and Starbucks locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, a Brady spokesman told the newspaper. California Pizza Kitchen and Peet's Coffee told the San Francisco Chronicle that only law-enforcement officers may carry guns in their stores.

Starbucks hasn't taken a definitive stance on the issue. In a written statement, the company told The Seattle Times, "For Starbucks, the safety of our customers and partners is our paramount concern. We have existing security protocols in place to handle situations related to safety in our stores. We will continue to adhere closely to local, state and federal laws and the counsel of law enforcement regarding this issue."

Washington state, the Times notes, allows residents to carry unconcealed weapons, so just adhering to state law would allow Starbucks regulars in the Evergreen State to carry guns in its stores.

[Wolf1944]

Starbucks just lost my business. I won't even buy their Frappuccino anymore in the grocery store.

[jmiller4369]

Wow it always amazes me how ignorite people are when it comes to guns,Law abiding gun owners are among the safest, We are not the people you need to be afraid of it is the criminals who obtain guns to be used in crimes,We only want to protect our family and friends against the criminals.

[Wolf1944]

Really?

Just last spring a man in Heathrow, Florida, killed his wife, his two children and himself. He had a license to carry from the state of Florida.

Last July, a woman in Tampa with a handgun license dropped her gun in a public restroom. It went off and wounded the woman in the next stall.

The Brady Campaign posts a 35-page document at http://www.bradycenter.org/xshare/pdf/facts/ccw-crimes-misdeeds.pdf listing the crimes of misdeeds of legal gun packers. It includes murders, assaults, robberies, accidental shootings, use of guns to intimidate people, drunken shootings, drunken shootings, you name it. My favorite: the creep who took his legal gun to a kids' Halloween party and wound up shooting a 10-year-old girl in the stomach.

[Wolf1944]

If you think other people are "ignorite," you might want to learn to spell "ignorant."

[Stewart3III]

NewsBusters: Coffee and the Second Amendment Don?t Mix, According to AlterNet
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/sarah-knoploh/2010/02/11/coffee-and-second-amendment-don-t-mix-according-alternet

[ed_lepps]

How dare the Brady Bunch try to intimidate a company into bowing down to their demands. I applaud Starbucks for simply saying they feel the state and federal laws are sufficient, and leaving their trust in law abiding citizens to go about their business. The constitution lives.

The Brady Bunch should go back to fabricating facts and lying about guns and gun owners. Listen up you big group of babies, when your temper tantrum is over, take your ball and go home... forever. I'm going to have some coffee at Starbucks. They have a new customer!

[noloyalisti]

It's a fact that guns don't kill people, they just make it real easy.

I am not against owning weapons but why do I want to go out for a relaxing visit to the cafe and see a bunch of scary, macho yahoos out trying to intimidate people. What if they don't like my T-shirt or bumper sticker?

[OOWnis]

Oh please .. do you know how silly that sounds .

show me one incident of someone legally carrying a firearm shooting someone else over a t-shirt or bumper sticker

[erasmus111]

OOWnis

That doesn't sound silly at all. It's the American way.

Surely you heard about the guy who walked out on his porch and shot the neighbour for letting off fireworks, right? What about the guy threatening to shoot another for sweeping snow?

[troutfishyman]

Gotta have a gun in Starbucks. Otherwise, what to do if they get your coffee wrong?

[erasmus111]

I don't know why anyone would even drink coffee anyways. : )

Rotgut.

[consciousnes]

Tell the Brady bunch to quit picking on guns and start working on the people that use them. Even if ALL guns were destroyed "PEOPLE" would find a way to "Kill" other people, whether it be with a knife, sword, lazer gun, hammer, pencil or credit card.
Yes, you can be killed or cut with a credit card just as easy as a knife. So that means that ALL Credit Cards should be destroyed too. Oh my, how would we live. : -)
Give it up, there will always be weapons and there will always be people who kill other people, whether they have money or not. Like the 10 year old who stabed another student for trying to help him with his math problem.

[OregonJames]

I have carried guns for more than thirty years now without incident. You can be certain that if you see me in public that I will be well armed, because it is better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have one.

[HGOODGUY]

OregonJames
Spoken like a true guneee

[erasmus111]

"An armed society is a polite society"

posted by ken1dall



No. An armed society is a SICK society.

It just blows my mind that someone would actually need to carry a gun to Starbucks or anywhere else.

The sad thing is that people think it's FREEDOM to be able to carry a gun. No, it's freedom when you don't feel the NEED to carry a gun.

[Mortar_29]

There will always be a need to carry a gun. Both for protection against attack from a criminal...and protection from overreach by the government. The reason we have a 2nd Amendment in the U.S. has nothing to do with hunting or criminals. It has to do with the ability of the citizenry to defend their rights from a government that has exceeded its bounds.

[erasmus111]

If someone had have shot those idiots that first wrote the "2nd Amendment", you wouldn't have the problems that you have today.: )

Growing up with guns, changes the way you think.

Where I live, we didn't grow up with guns. And we don't have to have a gun to protect ourselves. We feel safe on our streets. And that's because not every mentally unstable fool is running around with a gun! I don't have to worry that my neighbour is going to come out and shoot me because he doesn't like the fact that I am letting off fireworks or sweeping snow. And don't even bother telling me that they could use a knife or whatever, because it would be unlikely that they would have the guts to get their hands dirty. It's just too easy and clean to stand and fire. No guns, less people dying. That's a fact.

[element51]

Personally, I don't own any guns of any sort. But that is a personal choice. My grown sons all have guns both hunting and hand guns and are responsible adults who follow all the safety rules. As far as people who are responsible citizens carrying guns I must admit it makes me a little nervous but if they are legal I have no quarrel with them. The only thing that bothers me is if there is an incident it is very possible that an innocent bystander could get killed. My oldest son is a cop and has received extensive training in what to do if something happens and there are civilians present. But in todays world I can understand why there are folks who feel justified in arming themselves. This is a sad commentary on society but it seems that we will never learn to love and respect one another.