I feel like I’m picking on Abby Spangler a lot lately, but she’s just such a deliciously easy target. She’s pretty happy about this article Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign wrote suggesting that they are just getting started with this Starbucks thing. She comments on her Facebook page:
STARBUCKS, you are making a tragic mistake allowing guns. You are on practically every block in Manhattan, in neighborhood after neighborhood across America — and somehow you think that you shouldn’t have to be in the middle of this debate. If you weren’t in the MIDDLE of every community, maybe you wouldn’t be — but you are. Is allowing guns in Starbucks the way you reward the customers who have given you so much money in our communities? WOW. We will be protesting you allowing guns next to our children eating scones tomorrow in Virginia, just as others have already done in Seattle.
I can promise you, Abby, that Starbucks is well aware they are in ever corner of every community in America, which is precisely why they are wisely not inserting themselves into this debate. There are four Starbucks locations in Bismarck, North Dakota. There’s one in Lawton, Oklahoma. Two in Moscow, Idaho. Two in Richmond, Kentucky.
Why would Starbucks want to risk offending a not insignificant part of their customer base in these areas. The vast majority of Starbucks locations are not in Manhattan. I would wager the majority of their locations aren’t even in major cities. So, Abby, gun owners and people who have licenses to carry guns are giving business to Starbucks too, and they know that. That’s why they aren’t bending.
I suspect these yahoo’s might just manage to really piss starbucks off.
I truly hope that gun owners don’t fall for this ploy and give them relevance. Let these yahoos go and protest, and let’s go about our business with honor and respect for others.
Helmke and Spangler’s strategy DEPENDS on gun owners getting riled and making this a big deal. That’s why they are doing this.
“There are four Starbucks locations in Bismark, North Dakota. ”
Sebastian tells the truth, I live in Bismarck and patronize all four locations. Most people who live here couldn’t care less if someone walks in and orders a coffee with a holstered pistol.
Find another crusade Abby, you’re on the wrong side of this one.
By the way Seb, It’s Bismarck not Bismark.
Ooops. Fixed it. I’ve only ever driven through Bismarck :)
Oh yeah, and you can’t open-carry a gun around Manhattan anyway.
If you ever plan on driving through again drop me an email and we’ll go shooting. There are five shooting ranges within a 40 minute drive of Bismarck.
Just saw her on News 4 in Virginia talking about how she didn’t want children eating scones next to guns. I’m thoroughly impressed by the balance the news station showed in airing only her side.
She conveniently left out such facts while spewing her lies like it has always been legal to open carry in VA. It’s not a new thing for Starbucks anywhere in the state. I also wonder how she squares her fear of kids near people carrying guns when one with a permit could carry them concealed and she and her kids would never know. Oh, and she brought up the evil “gun show loophole”.
She bragged about thousands of Americans across the country demanding stronger gun laws. Funny how she fails to mention the millions of gun owners that oppose her and that we spend more money.
Hopefully Starbucks will just let this one blow over. A couple more days and it will be old news and this woman will be sitting back going “WTF?”.
The small-time anti gunners really believe the majority of people think like them, don’t they? They have no idea that their communities are just enclaves in a country that isn’t _like_ them.
Granted, those enclaves have a disproportionately high population (and there may be a cause/effect relationship there), but to think that hardcore “progressives” can dictate to nationwide businesses?
You know what cracks me up… here in Ohio and 40 plus other states, law-abiding gun owners have been carrying in Starbucks for years via concealed carry and you know what has happened: NOTHING, ZIP, NA-DA. So much for their argument…
They really ARE everywhere.
In Houston, there are two Starbucks across the street from each other in one part of town, and in another there are three in the same shopping center: a stand-alone store, one inside the Barnes and Noble and a kiosk inside the grocery store.