Dateline: July 4, Ikea, College Park, Maryland. “Takoma Park Police Chief Alan Goldberg had stopped in with his daughter. Goldberg was in uniform because he had worked that morning at the city’s July 4 parade,” nbcnews.com reports, “and would be back on duty that night for fireworks. In between, he stopped at Ikea to shop for furniture for his daughter’s new apartment. And that’s when a loss-prevention officer at the store approached him . . .
“He says we have a no firearms policy, and you’re either going to have to leave or you can lock your gun in the car,” Goldberg said.
The store has signs posted on the front door that read “Weapons Free Environment.”
Neither of those options seemed a good one to the officer. “It isn’t the most prudent thing to do to walk around the store in uniform with an empty holster,” he said. “And I am not going to lock my gun in a commercial parking lot, with people watching me put it in there. That’s just ludicrous.”
While I appreciate the “cop as target” issue – especially after the Las Vegas LEO assassination – what’s so different about Chief Goldberg’s dilemma than that of any other armed American who wants to shop at IKEA whilst exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms?
Uniform or no, nothing. Not a damn thing. A cop carve-out is just ludicrous.
Needless to say, IKEA backpedalled furiously after the story hit the wires. “We regret that there was a misunderstanding of our weapon policy in our College Park Store. Our weapon policy does not apply to law enforcement officers. We are taking steps to ensure that this is clear for all our co-workers.”
And now it’s clear for all the rest of us, too, who have options when it comes to buying furniture while mentally noting the old adage — concealed means concealed. [h/t FP]