Buzz and bullets: Gun fans cheer Starbucks' policy
AP
 
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 28, 3:28 pm ET

Dale Welch recently walked into a Starbucks in Virginia, handgun strapped to his waist, and ordered a banana Frappuccino with a cinnamon bun. He says the firearm drew a double-take from at least one customer, but not a peep from the baristas.

Welch's foray into the coffeehouse was part of an effort by some gun owners to exercise and advertise their rights in states that allow people to openly carry firearms.

Even in some "open carry" states, businesses are allowed to ban guns in their stores. And some have, creating political confrontations with gun owners. But Starbucks, the largest chain targeted, has refused to take the bait, saying in a statement this month that it follows state and local laws and has its own safety measures in its stores.

"Starbucks is a special target because it's from the hippie West Coast, and a lot of dedicated consumers who pay $4 for coffee have expectations that Starbucks would ban guns. And here they aren't," said John Bruce, a political science professor at the University of Mississippi who is an expert in gun policy.

Welch, a 71-year-old retired property manager who lives in Richmond, Va., doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't bear arms while he gets caffeinated.

"I don't know of anybody who would provide me with defense other than myself, so I routinely as a way of life carry a weapon — and that extends to my coffee shops," he said.

The fight for retailers heated up in early January when gun enthusiasts in northern California began walking into Starbucks and other businesses to test state laws that allow gun owners to carry weapons openly in public places. As it spread to other states, gun control groups quickly complained about the parade of firearms in local stores.

Some were spontaneous, with just one or two gun owners walking into a store. Others were organized parades of dozens of gun owners walking into restaurants with their firearms proudly at their sides.

In one case, about 100 activists bearing arms had planned to go to a California Pizza Kitchen in Walnut Creek, Calif., but after it became clear they weren't welcome they went to another restaurant. That chain and Peet's Coffee & Tea are among the businesses that have banned customers with guns.

Just as shops can deny service to barefoot customers, restaurants and stores in some states can declare their premises gun-free zones.

The advocacy group OpenCarry.org, a leading group encouraging the demonstrations, applauded Starbucks in a statement for "deciding not to discriminate against lawful gun carriers."

"Starbucks is seen as a responsible corporation and they're seen as a very progressive corporation, and this policy is very much in keeping with that," said John Pierce, co-founder of OpenCarry.org. "If you're going to support individual rights, you have to support them all. I applaud them, and I've gone out of my way personally to let every manager of every Starbucks I pass know that."

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has responded by circulating a petition that soon attracted 26,000 signatures demanding that Starbucks "offer espresso shots, not gunshots" and declare its coffeehouses "gun-free zones."

Gun control advocates hope the coffeehouse firearms displays end up aggravating more people than they inspire.

"If you want to dress up and go out and make a little political theater by frightening children in the local Starbucks, if that's what you want to spend your energy on, go right ahead," said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady campaign. "But going out and wearing a gun on your belt to show the world you're allowed to is a little juvenile."

The coffeehouse debate has been particularly poignant for gun-control advocates in Washington state, where four uniformed police officers were shot and killed while working on their laptops at a suburban coffeehouse. The shooter later died in a gun battle with police.

Ralph Fascitelli of Washington Ceasefire, an advocacy group that seeks to reduce gun violence, said allowing guns in coffeehouses robs residents of "societal sanctuaries."

"People go to Starbucks for an escape, just so they can get peace," Fascitelli said. "But people walk in with open-carry guns and it destroys the tranquility."

Gun control advocates have been on the defensive. Their opponents have trumpeted fears that gun rights would erode under a Democrat-led White House and Congress, but President Barack Obama and his top allies have largely been silent on issues such as reviving an assault weapons ban or strengthening background checks at gun shows.

Gun rights groups are looking to build on a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban, and cheered legislation that took effect Monday allowing licensed gun owners to bring firearms into national parks. Obama signed that legislation as part of a broader bill.

Legislators in Montana and Tennessee, meanwhile, have passed measures seeking to exempt guns made and kept in-state from national gun control laws. And state lawmakers elsewhere are considering legislation that would give residents more leeway to carry concealed weapons without permits.

Observers say the gun rights movement is using the Starbucks campaign to add momentum and energize its supporters.

"They're trying to change the culture with this broader notion of gun rights," said Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University government professor who has written a book on the politics of gun control. "I think they are pressing the notion that they've got a rout going, so why not just get what they can while they're ahead?"

Locked, loaded, and ready to caffeinate

By Ian Urbina / New York Times

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 08, 2010

For years, being able to carry a concealed handgun has been a sacred right for many gun enthusiasts. In defending it, Charlton Heston, the actor and former president of the National Rifle Association, used to say that the flock is safer when the wolves cannot tell the difference between the lions and the lambs.

But a grass-roots effort among some gun rights advocates is shifting attention to a different goal: exercising the right to carry unconcealed weapons in the 38 or more states that have so-called open-carry laws allowing guns to be carried in public view with little or no restrictions. The movement is not only raising alarm among gun control proponents but also exposing rifts among gun rights advocates.

The call for gun owners to carry their guns openly in the normal course of business first drew broad attention last summer, when opponents of the Obama administration's health care overhaul began appearing at town hall-style meetings wearing sidearms. But in recent weeks, the practice has expanded as gun owners in California and other states that allow guns to be openly carried have tested the law by showing up at so-called meet-ups, in which gun owners appear at Starbucks, pizza parlors and other businesses, openly bearing their weapons.

"Our point is to do the same thing that concealed carriers do," said Mike Stollenwerk, a co-founder of OpenCarry.org, which serves as a national forum. "We're just taking off our jackets."

The goal, at least in part, is to make the case for liberalized concealed weapon laws by demonstrating how uncomfortable many people are with publicly displayed guns. The tactic has startled many business owners like Peet's Coffee and Tea and California Pizza Kitchen, which forbid guns at their establishments. So far, Starbucks has resisted doing the same.

The open-carry movement is a wild card in gun rights advocacy and in some ways is to the NRA and other mainstream gun rights advocacy groups what the Tea Party movement is to the Republican Party.

Newer, more driven by grass-roots and the Internet than the NRA, open-carry groups are also less centralized, less predictable and often more confrontational in their push for gun rights. In the last year, there have been at least 140 formal and informal meet-ups at coffee shops and restaurants in California alone, organizers say.

Some gun rights advocates see risks in the approach.

"I'm all for open-carry laws," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights advocacy organization in Washington state. "But I don't think flaunting it is very productive for our cause. It just scares people."

Robert Weisberg, a gun law expert and a criminal justice professor at Stanford University, described the open-carry activists as "a liability" for the NRA, in particular.

While the NRA is almost always going to support the increased deregulation of guns, Weisberg said, the organization keeps its distance from open-carry advocacy because it does not want to distract attention from its higher priority of promoting the right to carry concealed weapons.

"Add to this that the NRA is a very disciplined, on-message organization," he said, contrasting the NRA's approach with the freewheeling nature of some open-carry advocates.

Asked to comment on the open-carry movement, Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, said the organization "supports the right of law abiding people to exercise their self-defense rights in accordance with state local and federal law." He declined to comment further.

Gun control advocates have raised particular concerns about open-carry laws because under these laws in many states, gun owners are not required to have a permit or any sort of training or testing.

The first meet-ups by open-carry advocates started nearly a decade ago in Virginia, but they became popular more recently in California because the law there makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

"It is a discriminatory issue in California," said Paul Higgins, 43. a software engineer who runs a Web forum called CaliforniaOpenCarry.org. "If you are politically connected, if you're rich, if you're a politician, if you're a celebrity, you get a permit. Otherwise, you don't."

Higgins said the meet-ups were not meant to be confrontational. The hope, he said, is that if other restaurant or cafe patrons are uncomfortable with guns being displayed so conspicuously, pressure will increase on lawmakers to consider changing the law so that weapons can be carried more discreetly.

Stollenwerk, the co-founder of OpenCarry.org., who is a retired Army officer from Fairfax County, Va., said the meet-ups were also meant as chances for gun owners to exercise and advertise their rights in states that allow people to openly carry firearms. More than 27,000 members are registered for his group's online discussion forum, he said.

Gun control advocates say the open-carry movement's real aim is to push the envelope and to force companies to take a public stand on the issue.

"You have to wonder where their next frontier will be," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Will gun owners start trying to carry firearms openly into banks, on subways and buses, in schools?"

For Starbucks, the debate has become a headache.

After California gun owners began holding meet-ups in January at Starbucks, the Brady Campaign began sending out petitions to pressure the company to forbid weapons. Starbucks released a statement saying it would not turn gun carriers away from its cafes, and would instead continue to comply with local laws and statutes.

"The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores," Starbuck officials said. They said the company did not want to be in the middle of the controversy.

Other businesses have taken a different tack -- and are embracing the movement.

The East Coast Pizza Bar and Grill in Walnut Creek, Calif., about 25 miles east of San Francisco, invited gun owners to host open carry meet-ups. At least 70 people attended one last Sunday, many carrying firearms, said the owner, Jessie Grunner, 30. And over a dozen returned Thursday night for more.

"Frankly, I wasn't sure how I would feel in that type of situation, and it really turned out to be a total nonissue," Grunner said.

"The families were great," she said. "These were very gracious people." The fact that customers wore sidearms, she said, "just faded into the background."

For years, being able to carry a concealed handgun has been a sacred right for many gun enthusiasts. In defending it, Charlton Heston, the actor and former president of the National Rifle Association, used to say that the flock is safer when the wolves cannot tell the difference between the lions and the lambs.

But a grass-roots effort among some gun rights advocates is shifting attention to a different goal: exercising the right to carry unconcealed weapons in the 38 or more states that have so-called open-carry laws allowing guns to be carried in public view with little or no restrictions. The movement is not only raising alarm among gun control proponents but also exposing rifts among gun rights advocates.

The call for gun owners to carry their guns openly in the normal course of business first drew broad attention last summer, when opponents of the Obama administration's health care overhaul began appearing at town hall-style meetings wearing sidearms. But in recent weeks, the practice has expanded as gun owners in California and other states that allow guns to be openly carried have tested the law by showing up at so-called meet-ups, in which gun owners appear at Starbucks, pizza parlors and other businesses, openly bearing their weapons.

"Our point is to do the same thing that concealed carriers do," said Mike Stollenwerk, a co-founder of OpenCarry.org, which serves as a national forum. "We're just taking off our jackets."

The goal, at least in part, is to make the case for liberalized concealed weapon laws by demonstrating how uncomfortable many people are with publicly displayed guns. The tactic has startled many business owners like Peet's Coffee and Tea and California Pizza Kitchen, which forbid guns at their establishments. So far, Starbucks has resisted doing the same.

The open-carry movement is a wild card in gun rights advocacy and in some ways is to the NRA and other mainstream gun rights advocacy groups what the Tea Party movement is to the Republican Party.

Newer, more driven by grass-roots and the Internet than the NRA, open-carry groups are also less centralized, less predictable and often more confrontational in their push for gun rights. In the last year, there have been at least 140 formal and informal meet-ups at coffee shops and restaurants in California alone, organizers say.

Some gun rights advocates see risks in the approach.

"I'm all for open-carry laws," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights advocacy organization in Washington state. "But I don't think flaunting it is very productive for our cause. It just scares people."

Robert Weisberg, a gun law expert and a criminal justice professor at Stanford University, described the open-carry activists as "a liability" for the NRA, in particular.

While the NRA is almost always going to support the increased deregulation of guns, Weisberg said, the organization keeps its distance from open-carry advocacy because it does not want to distract attention from its higher priority of promoting the right to carry concealed weapons.

"Add to this that the NRA is a very disciplined, on-message organization," he said, contrasting the NRA's approach with the freewheeling nature of some open-carry advocates.

Asked to comment on the open-carry movement, Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, said the organization "supports the right of law abiding people to exercise their self-defense rights in accordance with state local and federal law." He declined to comment further.

Gun control advocates have raised particular concerns about open-carry laws because under these laws in many states, gun owners are not required to have a permit or any sort of training or testing.

The first meet-ups by open-carry advocates started nearly a decade ago in Virginia, but they became popular more recently in California because the law there makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

"It is a discriminatory issue in California," said Paul Higgins, 43. a software engineer who runs a Web forum called CaliforniaOpenCarry.org. "If you are politically connected, if you're rich, if you're a politician, if you're a celebrity, you get a permit. Otherwise, you don't."

Higgins said the meet-ups were not meant to be confrontational. The hope, he said, is that if other restaurant or cafe patrons are uncomfortable with guns being displayed so conspicuously, pressure will increase on lawmakers to consider changing the law so that weapons can be carried more discreetly.

Stollenwerk, the co-founder of OpenCarry.org., who is a retired Army officer from Fairfax County, Va., said the meet-ups were also meant as chances for gun owners to exercise and advertise their rights in states that allow people to openly carry firearms. More than 27,000 members are registered for his group's online discussion forum, he said.

Gun control advocates say the open-carry movement's real aim is to push the envelope and to force companies to take a public stand on the issue.

"You have to wonder where their next frontier will be," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Will gun owners start trying to carry firearms openly into banks, on subways and buses, in schools?"

For Starbucks, the debate has become a headache.

After California gun owners began holding meet-ups in January at Starbucks, the Brady Campaign began sending out petitions to pressure the company to forbid weapons. Starbucks released a statement saying it would not turn gun carriers away from its cafes, and would instead continue to comply with local laws and statutes.

"The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores," Starbuck officials said. They said the company did not want to be in the middle of the controversy.

Other businesses have taken a different tack -- and are embracing the movement.

The East Coast Pizza Bar and Grill in Walnut Creek, Calif., about 25 miles east of San Francisco, invited gun owners to host open carry meet-ups. At least 70 people attended one last Sunday, many carrying firearms, said the owner, Jessie Grunner, 30. And over a dozen returned Thursday night for more.

"Frankly, I wasn't sure how I would feel in that type of situation, and it really turned out to be a total nonissue," Grunner said.

"The families were great," she said. "These were very gracious people." The fact that customers wore sidearms, she said, "just faded into the background."