Paging Alanis Morissette: Endangered Species
By Mitch Berg
Joel Rosenberg notes a cruel, capricious irony in a brutal local crime:
Thom Pham, the owner of Azia, was mugged on Tuesday. There were apparently six to eight attackers; fortunately, he only was “hospitalized with blunt force trauma to the head, lacerations to the skull and face, broken orbital (eye socket), concussion and severe bleeding.”
Azia’s a nice place. Had a date there once. But I doubt I’d go back – and not entirely because of the prices. No, I noticed the same thing Joel did:
I’ve never eaten at Azia; it’s one of the very few restaurants in Minneapolis that still has those silly No Guns signs up, and I prefer to spend my money where there’s no formal or informal suggestion that either the customers or the staff have been disarmed for the convenience of garboons.
For those of you from out of state: Minnesota’s “shall issue” law was accompanied by a requirement saying that stores or businesses that wanted to exclude the law-abiding gun owner from their premises needed to post a sign to that effect on their doors. The first months after the passage of the Personal Protection Act saw a number of stores get posted, but the custom withered away pretty quickly; most proprietors realized that the law-abiding gun owner was both a non-risk and a pretty good customer; others responded to the reactions of long-time customers who, it turned out, were getting permits and donning concealed holsters and libertarian scruples.
Mr. Pham’s place – marooned in the deepest, darkest, dankest DFL-sodden part of The Wedge neighborhood in Minneapolis – no doubt earned the odd kudo from the occasional frumpy “the state is my mother”-type local resident.
So I wonder if the irony is lost on Mr. Pham?
Hey, Thom? I’ve got an offer: take down the silly signs, buy Felicia and me dinner, and the class is on me.
Mr. Pham: Joel’s class is as good as Azia’s food. And that’s saying something on both counts.
Go for it.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Nice to know you gun nuts basically think crime victims have it coming. The guy didn’t have the good sense to be heavily armed at all times? Screw him.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:31 am
The “No Guns Allowed” signs are basically a political message. Like if I ran a business and would put up a “No Abortions Allowed” sign in my front window. And yes, I do avoid those, not because I feel in danger (although armed holdups did occur last year at a series of bars in St Paul with those signs), but because I vote with my dollars.
Example, I always shopped at National Camera. Even though they are pricey, I wanted to support a local business and get expert help. I got tired of reading the anti-gun signs everytime I entered so have decided to give my business to the big camera stores in NYC instead.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Nice to know you gun nuts basically think crime victims have it coming.
You’ve been working on your biking, haven’t you?
Because you need some bodacious leg muscles to make the leap from “we believe people should be empowered to defend themselves” to “they got it coming”.
The guy didn’t have the good sense to be heavily armed at all times?
Er, not quite the point (and I know, it’s a strawclown, yadda yadda). No, it’s just the irony we’re going for here.
Chuck’s right, though; there was a rash of robberies of posted bars in Saint Paul right after the MPPA went into effect. Just like in the seventies when the National Coalition to Ban Handguns distributed “Gun-Free Home!” stickers to their members – and then noted that homes with the stickers were an order of magnitude or two more likely to get burgled or robbed.
Screw him.
Nah. His philosophy is doing that for him.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:05 am
I’d probably want to ask somebody a little — well, a lot — more rational than angryclown what the hell more I’m expected to do for Thom Pham. I worked — twice, and pretty hard — to get carry reform passed; I’ve put quite a few people through training, and publicized that soon, upwards of 50,000 Minnesotans will have carry permits, enabling them carry handguns in most public places to protect themselves and their families against attack; I’ve offered to put Pham through the TCCarry class, in return for a him putting on dinner for my wife and myself and him taking those stupid signs down . . .
. . . what more would anybody want me to do? Feel sorry for the poor guy? Done.
September 10th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Nice description of the assailants by the Strib:
“Young men in their 20’s”
So, you know, if you, like, see any young men in their twenties, you’ve been warned.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Oh God! My son is a “young man in his 20s”. We’d better have a talk.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Shoot first, talk later.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
ok, now we know why clown shouldnt have firearms.
September 10th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
AC, you know I’m a 2nd Amendment Wingnut that doesn’t own guns. I just want to preserve that liberty on the off chance a family of clowns moves into my neighborhood and starts parking their little cars on my front lawn.
September 16th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Sign, Sign everywhere a sign…….
When the Minnesota Conceal Carry law went into effect, one of the concessions to the liberals in Minneapolis and St. Paul was the provision that establishments be allowed to post signs declaring that handguns were “not allowed on the premises”. One…..