Macho jerks, wired and loaded for bear
by digby
Open carry groups are holding “Starbucks Appreciation Day” rallies across the country on Friday, including in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 26 people eight months ago.
Starbucks currently allows customers to carry their guns in states with open carry. Gun advocates have taken this move as encouragement to stage “appreciation days,” like the one on Friday.
As many as two dozen gun advocates have stopped by the Newtown coffee shop so far today.
Across the country, many of the participants have posted “Appreciation Day” photos to Facebook where they hold their coffee and guns, and even occasionally children:
These guys are making a point and they’re making it loud and clear: If you don’t like our politics, think twice about saying so. Who knows which one of us might just be a little bit wacky and decide to take it personally.
On the other hand, at least they’re letting people know they’re armed instead of concealing them. Those guys can stalk you and if you confront them they can kill you on the spot — in “self-defense” and you’ll never know you’re dealing with a gun toting freakshow. At least with these guys you know to steer clear and have absolutely nothing to do with them. If I see someone openly carrying a gun in Starbucks — even in California where they’re not allowed to load their weapons — I just leave. It’s happened. It’s always a couple of loud mouthed white guys and they’re always talking about how they’ve been persecuted for being a gun owner. That’s a little too fanatical and weird for my taste.
Too bad for the Starbucks workers who are forced to deal with them though. I wonder if a case could be made along the lines of second hand smoke? Workplaces don’t allow smoking anymore because the rates of cancer are higher for people who are exposed to tobacco even if they don’t smoke themselves. I’m fairly sure that workers who are exposed to macho civilians with loaded guns and an ax to grind are also at a higher risk for death.
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