There is, currently, a movement afoot surrounding the second amendment to the US Constitution. (That's the "right to keep and bear arms" one, for those of you keeping score at home.)
It seems that a percentage of the population that has decided they are protected - under this amendment - to carry their unloaded firearms wherever they'd like ... movie theaters, libraries, churches, coffee houses, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. And, while there is a country regulation on this (again, that'd be the US Constitution), there is also local, state regulations that address this idea, too. And sometimes those two boards of laws don't quite mesh together.
Because while it may be alright to be carrying an unloaded gun in downtown Dallas, the folks in Des Moines may not like the idea so much. See - the problem arises when gun-toting Yosemite Sam struts into a coffee shop where Buffy and Jodie are reading with their children while enjoying double-skinny lattes on a Saturday morning. As much as Yosemite Sam has a right to wear "Ol' Betsy" so that he can prove just how manly he is, Buffy and Jodie have an equal right to not be freaked out by Sam's inferiority complex.
PLUS - what exactly is Sam gonna accomplish by wearing unloaded Ol' Betsy anyway? If "trouble" were to arise, is Sam expecting to ask everyone to just wait a second while he fiddles around in his flannel pockets for that one bullet he always carries as a "just-in-casers"?
FURTHER - that whole "trouble" thing. What "trouble" is Sam expecting to run across anyway? A barista that maybe gets an order wrong? Someone is reading a newspaper without having paid for it? Perhaps someone accidentally takes Sam's drink? Is Sam thinking that pulling out Betsy is gonna calm anyone down or maybe ... just maybe ... the sight of Betsy is what is gonna make everyone seriously go nuts?
Add to that that guns and caffeine just cannot be a sane mix, someone calls the cops, who arrive all amped up on the idea of trouble in the burbs and ah hell, ya' can just feel how much of a crappy idea this is now, right?
Sam - and all his brothers - are saying that they have a right to go into that coffee shop while packing heat - and they're right ... they do. But, as business owners are already responding, businesses have a right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time. Hopefully the reasons aren't religious or race-fueled or anything awful but yeah - that whole "no shoes, no brains, no shirts, no sales" thing applies here.
So where do I stand on this? Well, the "right to wear my gun" folks are calling for a ban on a couple of the businesses that are refusing them entry into their establishments. As for me, I plan on asking my friends and family to go to those businesses even more.
Here's a link to the blog entry that got me thinking ... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?entry_id=56281 I invite you to make up your own minds because ... well those old guys that wrote the Constitution? I kinda think that's pretty much what they wanted us to do in the first place anyway. Think for ourselves and do smart things for the population at large.
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