Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Stopped at Pep Boys on South Robert to buy epoxy for a cracked bumper. Pep Boys Bans Guns In This Store. I asked if that was a franchise decision but the counterman said no, all Pep Boys stores are corporate. So I went up the street to O’Reilly Auto Parts instead.
No, I wasn’t carrying. But if they don’t want my business on my terms, I’m happy to take it elsewhere.
Joe Doakes
Como Park
As everyone should.
I haven’t voluntarily patronized a posted business since 2003. I’ve specifically thanked businesses that took down their idiot signs.
Now is no time to let old habits die.
I know those stores well, and choose O’Reilly’s. I was just in there the other day to get a flasher relay for my ’98 Dakota (only 80k miles!). Simple enough, until you try to figure out where the unit goes. The kid at the counter and I looked all over and – sure enough – found it in the most difficult to reach and work in space possible. The kid was a lot more limber than me but it still took him nearly 15 minutes to work the old relay free and seat the new one – all the time with a pleasant attitude and not a single complaint. When he finished he was just about to go on break, so I gave him $2 and told him to have a cold one from the pop machine on me.
I went to the county fair last week. We went up to the Lutheran food shack to get burger baskets until I noticed the “no guns” sign as we were about to enter. I looked around and we all went over the Knights of Columbus and got brat baskets — problem solved, and I even remarked to the guys manning the stand why we switched. One smiled and remarked that, as a deputy sheriff, he approved of our decision.
“But if they don’t want my business on my terms, I’m happy to take it elsewhere.”
I agree. Also, No Gun zones, in my opinion, are more likely to be targeted by armed criminals than are entities who do not ban guns. I’d hate to find myself in the middle of a criminal act due in part to a silly politically correct policy …
I try not to patronize those that post, or I just walk past the sign, they’re unlikely to know if I’m carrying or not. Funny though I just read this article on a business in TN that encourages carry to deter the robberies that have occurred at other posted places.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/22/restaurant-owner-says-business-exploded-since-welcoming-guns/?intcmp=latestnews
Same with me. Unless the place offers a unique service or product that I cannot get elsewhere, I pass by any business with that sign. Half Price Books is a unique store so I still shop there. National Camera offers products that I can get on line, so I do that instead.
I always wonder……are the store owners that stupid that they think a CC person will come in with a firearm and start shooting, or are they making a political statement? I suspect its that latter.
This also shows the difference between liberals and conservatives. We don’t start an internet (and use lap dog media) to try to boycott these places and try to put them out of business. We just chose to siliently spend our dollars elsewhere.
Well said. I should re-develop the habit of sending a polite note to such stores that I might like to patronize noting that if they want my business, they will kindly refrain from telling criminals that I am not armed and am thus more or less defenseless against them.
And maybe get my kids some pepper spray for when they ride to the library. Pretty safe town I’m in, but just in case.
I believe that the sign and its being posted prominently is the main objective. Not unlike keeping the Wellstone sticker on the bumper long after the election and Senator Wellstone passed, or Michelle Obama’s “Bring Back Our Girls” tweet.
I don’t believe that any of the actors in these examples have the slightest expectation that the action will result in what the actions literally symbolize. They’re just a show of coolness, solidarity, and membership in the progressive mindset; more for the benefit of the poster, not for those who see or are supposedly expected to act on the message.
ps … I didn’t mean to be flippant about the late senator’s death. I believe that he personally was a kind and decent guy. But someone I’d never vote for …
Of course it’s symbolic with no intent to actually prevent anything. I remember when the signs first went up. I had friends telling me how they would definitely support the businesses with the signs and how safer they felt. I asked, “Why?” As far as I can tell, the business has a sign. Great. How are they preventing anyone from actually entering with a gun? No metal detectors, no security guards checking people at the door, etc. A sign means nothing to a criminal, which is what I told my friends who supported this lunacy.
“This also shows the difference between liberals and conservatives. We don’t start an internet (and use lap dog media) to try to boycott these places and try to put them out of business. We just chose to siliently spend our dollars elsewhere.”
Chuck, I agree. It’s always been sufficient for me that a specific business with which I have a beef just not get my money. I don’t feel the need to attempt to put them out of business.
I had just mentioned this afternoon to a friend…that it seems the signs were all over the place shortly after shall issue was passed.
I don’t recall an instance of a business that had the sign one day then not the next.
But it certainly seems there are far less of them than there used to be. Maybe a fad, like the “Baby On Board” placards?
The reason you don’t see ’em much is simply because (a) they’re ugly and deter even non-RKBA activists and (b) RKBA activists tell their friends that “no guns” means “welcome criminals, your victims are disarmed for your convenience.” My wife used to work PR for Oldsmobile, and one thing she learned is that the happy person tells three friends, but the unhappy person about a dozen. Do the math; 2% permit holders more or less deter 25% from patronizing your shop.
So it takes a politician or HR director to put ’em up anymore.
For as liberal as my company is (big emphasis on being green and engaging in community volunteering opportunities), I’m very surprised that they haven’t enacted a “no guns on premises” policy corporate wide. I don’t carry (because I haven’t gotten a permit yet, but I applied a couple weeks ago), and likely still won’t carry at work (building has multiple layers of security and it’s in a safe suburban business park).
They DID ban smoking. Not just the usual 35′ from entrances, but completely off property, including parking lots, and including sitting in your own car and smoking in the parking lot. You have to literally walk or drive off the property if you want to smoke (well, if you’re going to follow company policy to the letter, that is…if someone drove up to the top floor of the parking ramp and sat in their car and had a cig, unless the periodic security patrol happened to walk by and see it, that person would probably get away with it)