There’s always a risk when bringing this issue up of summoning the drama llama, but I can’t help but think Starbucks Coffee has shown sufficient resolve to follow the laws of the respective states with regards to carry that dragging the company further into this issue may very well be unproductive. I think that goes double if people start dragging AR-15s into Starbucks to show their appreciation. This kind of stuff is Folsom Street Fair for the gun rights movement, in neighborhoods across the country instead of being confined to San Francisco with all the other weird. I am not opposed to showing Starbucks some love, I’ve even encouraged it in the past, and participated myself, along with a lot of other people. I just believe if we’re going to show appreciation, it would behoove us to leave the rifles at home. To be honest, I think even pistol OC, if done to make a point (and not just because you do it) probably isn’t helping Starbucks remain comfortable with their decision.
At this point, I think if Starbucks reverses its policy, we have no one to blame except ourselves. We’re already seeing hints this may be getting pushed too far by our own side. Last year, when this issue heated up again, I thought our side was working too hard to help the antis keep the issue alive. I think the best way we can help Starbucks is not to fan the flames. Keep spending your money there, and when the antis make noise, drop a note to corporate saying you’re a regular customer, and you appreciate their decision to follow state law on firearms.
Agree….support their bus,……tell them thanks….no need to strap your AR over your shoulder though.
I second this.
Excellent post. I will stop at Starbucks tomorrow on my way to the gun show.
Just to think a bit philosophically and out loud, while making a bad analogy, a lot of people around me for a long time have been complaining how gays are “shoving their issues down our throats,” despite the fact that none of them has personally been able to give me an example of something being directly shoved down their throat. But whatever it is they perceive, it makes them hostile to the interests of the LGBT folks.
I decided that what they really don’t like is being exposed to things that make them feel uncomfortable, and that makes them politically hostile. Whether they are right to feel uncomfortable or not is not the issue; they do and they react accordingly.
So there is the analogy of, our shoving our guns down the throats of people who are made uncomfortable by guns. Don’t expect them to love us for it. Expect them to be hostile.
To emulate the “homosexual lobby,” instead try to make them less uncomfortable with us. Expect the left to scream at our efforts as loudly as the right screams about LGBT efforts.
This. We don’t do our side any favors when some of us act in a manner that causes hostility for no gain. The LGBT analogy is particularly apt.
Does anyone remember the ACT UP antics of the 80’s and early 90’s?
Very well thought out & very well worded post. I only wished more folks knew the meaning of the word “moderation”. There is a time and a place to show zeal in support of an issue. When it comes to “carry” I live by out of sight, out of mind.
I swung by after work and got a beverage. I wrote a nice letter to the general manager. It is a brand new store and I let them know that I changed my habit pattern to patronize the new place specifically because I heard about the “appreciation day” in the media.
I wrote a letter to corporate too.
No open carry or drama for me this year. Positive reinforcement is important though.
Starbucks is already “on our side”, we “won.” We need to let them live peaceably, give them business as we need their coffee, and quit forcing them back on the front lines by rubbing our “victory” in the anti’s faces.
Especially in Newton, what moron thought there was anything even -remotely- resembling a PR upside to that fiasco?
When I SUPPORT STARBUCKS … I pay with $2 Bills. They get the message load clear. Gun people spend money in their stores.
Amen to showing support *quietly.* They’re still in the coffee business, not the politics business.
My wife and I attended our first ‘Appreciate Starbuck’s’ Day last Friday. We live in a conservative little city and carried concealed, like any other day.
We do not believe in OC as it will just scare a bunch of soccer moms into “Voting For Gun Control”.
When ordering, we told the fellow behind the counter we heard it was “Starbuck’s Appreciation Day”…he just nodded.
I like Starbucks’ public statement to follow the laws, but there are several of their competitors around here that do the same thing.
The place got busy that afternoon, but we never saw a firearm, despite our OC option. We gave support without scaring anyone, just had some good coffee.
That’s another good point. Starbuck’s didn’t do anything millions of other businesses across the country regularly do to no acclaim: follow their local state laws in a non-discriminatory way.
Starbucks got notice and our appreciation credit because they are a high-profile nationwide company that simply kept their existing policy in place when the anti’s took a run at them.
That’s it really, no “noble stand for rights”, just a refusal to change a policy due to outside demand.
That doesn’t really call for annual celebrations, and Starbucks is unlikely to get “more supportive”. The only direction they can go is one we wouldn’t appreciate.
“Starbucks got notice and our appreciation credit because they are a high-profile nationwide company…”
I think too there is higher than normal appreciation, because most of us would have expected them to be on every known “liberal” bandwagon, including gun control. That they are willing to mind their own business and just obey the law probably came as a surprise to many of us.
Media is picking this up:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-12/starbucks-and-guns-four-blunt-observations#r=rss