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Newtown Action Alliance logo (courtesy courantblogs.com)

August 23, 2013

Dear Mr. Schultz,

As members of the community of Newtown, Connecticut, we are writing you today because during our search for solace in wake of the events of last December it has come to our attention that your company continues to allow guns to be carried into its stores. Although we here in Newtown love our Starbucks, we are very concerned that your policy undermines the safety and wellbeing of our citizens . . .

As the tragedy that befell our community last year demonstrates, and as you well know, guns are dangerous. Starbucks itself prohibits guns in its corporate headquarters and other companies, such as PEET’S Coffee, IKEA, and Disney, have exercised their legal right to ban guns on their private premises. Since your company has been a champion of admirable causes in the past, such as LGBT rights and environmental sustainability, some gun owners in this country cite Starbucks’ stance on this issue as justification of the reasonableness of their choice to carry guns anywhere and everywhere, even into a place as unthreatening as a coffee shop. Your core customers are not such people; your core customers are people like us who have come to understand how guns jeopardize the stability of any environment. They are people who have come to understand that to prevent another Sandy Hook, we as a society must prioritize the sanctity of human life over the individual’s “right to carry.”

While we thank you for preventing gun carriers from senselessly inflicting further emotional trauma on our town by closing your Newtown location early last Friday, August 9th, we ask you this question: what about tomorrow and the day after that? What do you say to your customers in Wyoming, Texas, and Florida; where guns have injured three innocent people at Starbucks in the past two years? We ask you to—once and for all—give Starbucks customers everywhere the same protection that you afforded Newtown last Friday. If you make the decision to ban guns, your company has the chance to honor the 26 innocent lives lost here in Newtown and the 32,000 Americans lost annually to gun violence by becoming a leader in educating the public about firearm safety. We know by having observed and admired your continuing advocacy that your company not only understands but takes pride in its responsibility to promote the growth of a safe and just society. That is why we would like you to invite you to join us for a cup of coffee at our Starbucks in Newtown at a time and date of your convenience so we can talk about your company’s policy and gun violence in America. For the sake of your company, customers and employees across this country, please help us foster a culture of peace and ban guns from your stores.

Sincerely,

Newtown Coalition For Corporate Responsibility

Signatures (as of 8/23/13):

Gilles Rousseau (Father of Lauren Rousseau, Teacher and Starbucks Barista Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Joyce Rousseau (Stepmother of Lauren Rousseau, Teacher and Starbucks Barista Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Matthew Rousseau (Brother of Lauren Rousseau, Teacher and Starbucks Barista Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Andrew Rousseau (Brother of Lauren Rousseau, Teacher and Starbucks Barista Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Erica Smigielski Lafferty (Daughter of Dawn Hochsprung, Principal Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Danielle Vabner (Sister of Noah Pozner, 1st grader Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Donna Soto  (Mother of Victoria Leigh Soto, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Carlos Soto  (Father of Victoria Leigh Soto, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Jillian Soto   (Sister of Victoria Leigh Soto, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Carlee Soto  (Sister of Victoria Leigh Soto, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Carlos Soto  (Brother of Victoria Leigh Soto, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Jane Greene Dougherty (Sister of Mary Sherlach, Teacher Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Sarah D’Avino (Sister of Rachel D’Avino, Behavioral Therapist Murdered in The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting)
Patricia Llodra, First Selectwoman of Newtown
Elizabeth Esty, United States Representative for Connecticut’s 5th district
Richard Blumenthal, United States Senator from Connecticut
Chris Murphy, United States Senator from Connecticut
Dannel P. Malloy, Governor of Connecticut
Newtown Action Alliance
Jr. Newtown Action Alliance
Emma Iannini, Sandy Hook resident and Field Director at National Gun Victims Action Council
Kara Baekey, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Chapter Leader of Fairfield County, Connecticut
United Physicians of Newtown
Team 26 Inc.
Darren Wagner, Sandy Hook parent
Rabbi Shaul Praver, Congregation Adath Israel in Newtown
Rev. Matthew Crebbin, Senior Pastor at Newtown Congregational Church
Rev. Kathleen E. Adams-Shepherd, Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown
Rev. Mel Kawakami, Senior Pastor at United Methodist Church in Newtown
Rev. Jane McCulloch Sibley, Associate Pastor at United Methodist Church in Newtown
Deacon Norman Roos Jr., St. Roses’ Catholic Church in Newtown
Myriam Woods, Principal at the Fraser-Woods Montessori School in Newtown
Abbey Clements, 2nd grade teacher at the Sandy Hook Elementary School

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165 COMMENTS

  1. Oh, I see. We’re entitled to give these pinheads “solace” for the rest of their lives? Whatever they want? Don’t they at least have to pick Door number 1, Door Number 2, or Door Number 3?

    There is no entitlement that says the entirety of life must be to one’s liking. Maybe the parents should have been killed instead.

    • When are we going to honor the memory of those brave who tried to stop the killer when he entered the school.

      They had the mindset but not the tools to prevent the tragedy.

      • Don’t you see? We honor those killed by guns in a gun free zone free fire zone by… wait for it… making Starbucks another shining example of a “safe” gun free zone. Here’s food for thought, the letter has to dig up 3 instances of gun injuries (ND’s no doubt) over the last two years in every Starbucks around the country, while the “gun free zone” at Sandy Hook had 26 murdered…. in an hour. Anyone want to do the math on all the people killed in free fire zones over the last two years?. My head hurts from the absurdity of this letter.

      • yeah. the part of the newtown story that falls flat, is the fact that the teacher was brave enough to stand up and protect those children – but, because we insist that teachers cannot even have a can of mace, this sort of thing is just destined to happen again.

      • “even into a place as unthreatening as a coffee shop”. I’m pretty sure every place a mass shooting has taken place is a very unthreatening location. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it is for that reason the psychos chose the locations that they did to go on a spree. Ask those dead kids how effective the gun free zone signs worked in keeping them safe. Oh wait…

    • Here’s the proper solution for these turds: Door #1, Starbucks agrees that the Starbucks location in Newtown, and ONLY that location, will be a gun free zone, okay so far. Then Door #2, Starbucks opens ANOTHER Starbucks in Newtown on the same block WITHOUT the restriction on either concealed or open carry. Let the public of Newtown decide which of these two locations they want to patronize and leave the rest of us alone!

      • We tried to offer up the same solution to the Church of Antismokerism back in the 1990’s, but they were having no truck with such nonsense. “No, you can’t smoke because your second-hand smoke might give some innocent diner lung cancer!” (which is a bald-faced lie.)

        I say, “Well, hell, if you don’t like cigarette smoke, just stay outside in the nice healthy car exhaust!” Or better yet, find a place that’s already antismoking. But alas, no dice.

        And the Useful Idiots™ keep using the same tactics. It seems like we’re headed for the day when everything that isn’t mandatory will be forbidden.

    • Except I have a dead 6 year old cousin. You can argue about who did it or why but don’t say he’s not really dead.

      One responsibly armed person could have ended it promptly. But the kids were left vulnerable on purpose by naive policies. The kids are dead. With more “gun free” schools Newtown will happen again somewhere else. Just don’t dare say it didn’t happen.

      • It would have definitely gone down differently, imo, if one or two of those three faculty members would have been armed when the 1st shots were heard.

        Your little relative may still be with us today.

        As it turned out, lanzas’ fate was that he’d still be deceased.

      • I’m not pushing some FEMA false flag conspiracy theory. This is about punching back twice as hard. If the mainstream media is going to ignore study after study that extols the virtues of guns to make our country safer, if they’re going to ignore the detriment to our character that comes with an erosion of freedom and responsibility, if they’re going to ignore every DGU and benefit of firearms ownership, then I shall use the same techniques against them.

        Until they tell the whole truth, any event they use to push their agenda never happened.

        • to Paladin

          “sinking to ……. ” is #2 for moronic nonsense

          #1 is “violance” never solved anything.

        • Being stupid doesn’t solve stupid. It just makes people think your side is just as bad, so they tune out altogether.

        • “Until they tell the whole truth, any event they use to push their agenda never happened.”

          That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. You can’t deny an event just because you don’t like how some people are reacting to it. That would be like denying that 9/11 happened because it was used to push through the Patriot Act.

    • -sigh- The only people worse than those who try and deny us our rights are the nutjobs like you, Blehtastic, who give the opposition the ammunition and desire to do so.

      I don’t care if you have psychotic opinions. Just, for the love of all that’s good and holy, keep them to yourself.

      • When you abuse the memories of the dead in an attempt to destroy our great nation, then whatever you’re using as ammunition never happened.

        • Blehtastic,

          You embarass gun right advocates such as myself and other fine people here onTTAG when you say that Newtown never happened. My preference is that you keep those thought to yourself. If Scotlac is telling you about his loss, you need to re-evaluate your flawed stance ASAP. Abandoning reality does not help our cause.

        • I see what you’re getting at, Bleh, but it’s not a very good way to get the point across.

          Let the gun grabbers be the only ones to deny reality; they’ve had a lot more practice at it than us.

    • Yep, Newtown never happened, Neil Armstrong never walked on the moon, 9/11 was a conspiracy with super dupper thermite and all of the families that lost loved ones are somehow willfully complicit in said conspiracy, Kim Kardashian’s ass really isn’t that big, and Lindsay Lohan is a virgin that has never touched illegal drugs.. missing anything? Oh yeah, you’ve just gone full retard; you never go full retard. Everyone knows that.

      • Please don’t impugn retarded people. Most of the retarded people I’ve met have been loving, responsible people. Well, at least not irresponsible. You can have an astronomical IQ and still be as stupid as a bag of rocks. I know Sheldon Cooper is fictitious, and harmless, but he can’t hold his own in an ordinary day-to-day conversation involving ordinary people.

  2. In a way I feel bad that Starbucks has gotten dragged into this. They’ve taken a neutral stance on this issue, and I find that to be an admirable move in this era of political correctness and special interest ass-kissing. I hope they stand by their policy.

    • The majority of retailers “allow” guns in the free(r) states…mostly because they’d never know if one was carrying concealed or they know that a sign banning them means nothing. I think it’s just that many gun-grabbers believed Starbucks’ stances on other issues (LGBT, environment, etc.) meant somehow that Starbucks was their place. Instead, they found out that Starbucks maybe, just maybe, believes in being (wait for it…) “inclusive” and selling coffee to people of the gun and hoplophobes alike. Both groups pay with greenbacks, after all. And you don’t become a successful business by turning away business and they know there are more of us than of them.

      • Starbucks policies, like many in big corporate America, tend left-libertarian. Other than emoting about Somalia being a libertarian paradise, leftists (who tend to hive together more than others) have a very hard time understanding how someone can be both pro-choice and CCW.

      • Well, I don’t go to Starbucks because I don’t like their politics. I will not knowingly do business with a company that sides with the people that try to violate my constitutional rights. And I don’t like their coffee either.

    • I agree. It’s the way I wish everyone would behave. “Does your behavior affect me? Affect me in a literal, tangible way, not just ‘I don’t like it’? No? Then carry on.”

  3. Please explain to me why you think a criminal, who is already prepared to break the LAW, and use a gun in a crime like murder or robbery, will be stopped by the sight of a SIGN that says “No Guns”?
    For example, Peets and IKEA still experience gun crime. Peets has been the site of a murder/suicide, despite their “No Guns” policy.

  4. Right, because banning guns stopped the killings at Columbine, Pearl High, Appalachian Law, Virgina Tech, Sandy Hook, Kileen, and Aurora.

    Nobody’s trivializing their pain, but if they seriously think keeping guys like me from carrying in Starbucks is going to protect them from guys like the ones who committed the above massacres, then they can F*ck Off And Die.

    • You’re almost there Lucas, that really is the part they don’t get. You’re not there to shoot up the place, just for coffee but the antis really can’t see that. The seem to really thing that once a person has a gun it’s inevitable they will shoot someone (or a bunch of someone’s) whether or not the have a reason.

      It’s not rational in anyway, yet they persist in asserting their fears. This is what happens when a society reaches the point where it’s impolite to point out when someone is acting foolishly. They get to go on and on essentially speaking straight from the deep well of their ignorance about the subject and the resulting irrational fear. Such people have always been around, it’s just that we’ve only recently arrived in a time where adults are willing to insist on curbing the liberties of others due to their irrational fears. Not so long ago such people would have been shouted down and humiliated for being the immature and irresponsible people they clearly are.

      • “The seem to really thing that once a person has a gun it’s inevitable they will shoot someone whether or not the have a reason.”

        I think that that’s because, having no self-control, they’re afraid that they would act in such an irrational way, and simply assume that everybody else is just as sick.

  5. Signed by the relatives of 6 of the 26 victims. And then a bunch of politicians and political activists. I have never thought victims of crime should have more influence or any special sway on this issue, but 6 of 26 is kind of telling.

  6. “A place as unthreatening as a coffee shop.” The families of 4 brave police officers, who were gunned down in a Lakewood, WA coffee shop would beg to differ. Evil can happen anywhere.

    • The Starbucks down the street keeps trying to jack my wallet and fondle my wife… Guess I’m gonna have to shoot it next time.

  7. The same protection as last Friday in Newtown? In other words, to close all ’em, all the time? Hard on business, that.

    I do hope that the Starbuck’s offices remain a dumbass-free zone.

    • EDIT:

      A far greater number of holdups are foiled by armed customers in the businesses of America than are customers/staff injured by a negligent discharge.

      Most businesses should encourage their customers to carry.

      • Problem is, when the would-be perp is chased away by someone just showing his/her gun, no crime gets committed so there’s nothing to report, so nobody hears about it. And the LSM probably puts a really really low priority on the ones that do get reported.

  8. “guns are dangerous”

    You know what? They’re right. All guns should be banned from Starbucks. Including police. No, don’t give me that old line about how cops are better trained: as this letter points out, its the GUNS that are dangerous, not people.

    /sarc

        • My Colt MT .22 draws blood every damn time. I don’t clean it as often now, I think it likes that.

        • JeffR says:
          August 25, 2013 at 20:15

          That’s better than my Ruger 22/45. During reassembly, it crushed my soul.

          ….and knocked a whole in my wall when I threw it across the room

        • 1911 hammer bite, and the occasional (only once so far if it knows what’s good for it) case to the forehead….

      • I burned my back with hot brass from an M-249 after it kept bouncing off of a tree and right down my BDU top. It was painful and dangerous to my tender back.

        • My track commander scorched my back with .50 cal brass bouncing down into the turret from his cupola on the Sheridan I was gunning. And yet, as Morpheus said, I’m still here… 😉

        • When I was in the USAF, we had to qualify on the M-16 once a year. The guys who shot left-handed consistently got burned on their right cheek by hot brass, so they modified all the ’16s by adding a little deflector plate over the ejection port, and when we policed up the brass, every single one was dented. I guess it didn’t matter, because they didn’t reload them, just sent them to the foundry for remelt. But the point was the left-handed shooters got hot brass in the face every shot.

          AR-15’s don’t do that, do they? Or today’s ’16s? This was in the late ’60s-early ’70s.

    • That logic always boggles my mind. If a cop kills someone in cold blood they get a paid vacation, their name in the paper in a half-hearted apology from the department, and are back on the job in two weeks to a month, possibly with a promotion to make up for any fines levied. If a citizen rightfully kills someone their life is still over as they know it due to legal strife, legal fees, the fear of retribution, being ostracized from the community, and the mental anguish. Zimmerman is a recent example, he was acquitted (not held “not guilty” as the majority of misinformed believe) and his life is still changed for the worse forever.

      Why people trust cops with guns over everyday citizens I will never understand.

      • This is why I think criminals who kill cops that then get the automatic death penalty is wrong. No cops’ life should be heald to a higher level than another person.

        • Youre right A-Rod the death penalty should be automatic for all murderers. And child molestors

      • They’re programmed to. From the time they’re old enough to toddle, everybody tells them that the cops are the good guys and you should respect them and bow down and kiss their feet.

        I think that explains why killing a cop, even a dirty cop that’s engaged in some heinous crime, is deemed to somehow be worse than killing an “ordinary” person, like they’re somehow special or supposed to be placed on some kind of pedestal or something. But even when I spent the night in the drunk tank, I realized that they’re just people whose job is cop. And, admirably, through the whole thing (DUI bust) they were very polite and respectful to me. This was in Minnesota; I don’t know if “Minnesota Nice” entered into it.

    • I once got my thumb/forefinger web abraded by the slide of a Lorcin .25 auto, but I think either it was a ladies’ model or I have unusually large hands.

  9. Thing is, Starbucks has been a target of the Brady bunch et al since at least late 2009. They saw it is a soft easy target, whose reputation for promoting liberal policies would all but insure that a gentle nudge would result in them banning carry, concealed or otherwise. As Starbucks is one of the largest chains in the country, that would have been quite the victory for them. However, it obviously hasn’t worked out that way, and 4 years later, the antis are still kicking and screaming and trying every old trick in the book to get their way.

    • I wonder if there was a hint of indignation in Starbucks’ stand on this as well, like someone was irritated by the fact that the left was so obviously using them and expecting them to roll over on this. Something like, “We may agree on a lot of things, but don’t let that fool you into thinking we’re your lapdog.”

    • …Why? Starbucks hasn’t agreed to ban guns from their premises. They decided to close one store on one day earlier than usual, probably to prevent very butthurt people from both sides of the argument from coming in contact with each other.

      Also, to be fair, their coffee is generally priced at around the standard industry price. I visit a lot of coffee shops, and not many offer coffee for very much less than Starbucks.

      The simple fact that Starbucks is keeping quiet on the gun issue makes me want to patronize them MORE. They are a company, and their concern is coffee, not politics. Goodness, that’s probably my favorite corporate policy ever.

      • Starbucks not concerned about politics? Really you must have your head in the sand. They are staying silent on this particular political issue but have been quite active in promoting a number of liberal causes. Just google ‘starbucks politics’ and you will see how they have pushed themselves in any number of political issues.

        As to this issue, it really does nothing to make me want to support them any more than any other coffee store. Actually there is a local shop that is much better around my area. Starbucks coffee is generally just crappy in my opinion. Their politics have little bearing on my patronizing them, their horrible product is a greater sin than any of their politics.

    • Have you actually been paying attention to anything Starbucks has done on this issue? I don’t think you have.

  10. Nothing is more sacred than a human life, including my own. Why do they want to disarm me and leave me unprotected? So I can be the next victim? You keep your coffee and I will keep my butt out of Starbucks and we will both be happy as long as I can CC.

  11. Has no one asked the obvious question of them?

    I will.

    How are Newtown Schools being gun free zones working out for ya?

  12. ENOUGH with the newton stuff. Can those liberal/socialist quite kicking a dead horse. Everyone has a right to go to a Starbucks and get coffee. Gun carrier or not. This crap is getting old. If your for gun carrier. Don’t stop going. If you stop than the liberals won. Keep going to show them you have the right to carry, If your weapon is concealed, than who knows if your armed. We have every right to be there same as the liberal/socialist.

  13. Why do you think this keeps happening in “Gun Free Zones”? These are acts of terrorism perpetrated on defenseless, unarmed civilians. These are a predators and should be exterminated as such.

  14. I’m sorry. I’m confused. What do guns being carried in Starbucks have to do with Newtown? What happened, did all these kids play hooky from school to go get cranked up on caffeine at Starbucks, and some licensed ccwer gunned them down because he felt his life was threatened?

    If people are afraid of seeing guns, then we’d better shut down television and the internet, and ban most movies made today. It’s just commonsense! And what are kids doing at Starbucks where they will be exposed to guns? Don’t their mothers know that coffee’ll stunt their growth?

  15. Evil came to Newton that day.  Declining to fight evil while wishing it gone will not make it stay away. 

    “As the tragedy that befell our community last year demonstrates, and as you well know, guns are dangerous.” 

    I would opine that a mentally ill minor who kills his mom and steals guns and ammunition not secured in a safe is dangerous – though he be armed with a spoon. The statistics on concealed carry holders (CCH) are not such that I feel threatened by them. 

    “carry guns anywhere and everywhere, even into a place as unthreatening as a coffee shop” 

    How many of those poor grieving people  if offered the option to fold back time and allow a CCH to have been in that school and be armed – would  decline that option? Would they on that day not wish a CCH to be in a place as unthreatening as a school?

    “your core customers are people like us who have come to understand how guns jeopardize the stability of any environment”

    Really? I project them to be people like me. But then why not disarm the police of your town and contribute to its greater stability? Did the soldiers unarmed on base at Fort Hood contribute to the stability there when evil came to visit? How many of their military family would wish that they were all unarmed if they had that option? 

    “For the sake of your company, customers and employees across this country, please help us foster a culture of peace and ban guns from your stores”

    Can an adult today truly rationalize that a sign on a door would prevent a shooter from entering a Starbucks after a host of federal and state laws didn’t stop one from entering a local school? 

    Perhaps we as a society wish to believe in the audacity of hype and spurn those offering real solutions for real problems. 

    I say the better response would be the same as to the holocaust-  never again. 

    • “‘help us foster a culture of peace and ban guns from your stores'” Of course, it’s impossible to explain to them the plain fact that a well-armed, well-trained, responsible citizenry is what actually “foster[s] a culture of peace.” Just look at Switzerland. But I’m preaching to the choir here.

    • Yeah, I too wondered where they got the idea that Starbuck’s “core customers” are left leaning hoplophobes. I though pretty much everyone drank coffee…..

      Oh, ne’er mind. Ah fergot that us’n rednek hillbillies drank only moonshine ‘n whiskey…

      • With the greenies pushing ethanol for fuel, I wonder what will happen when the bootleggers find out that the truck on the way from the ethanol factory to the gasoline refinery contains the purest moonshine?

  16. the #1 reason Starbucks is unlikely to ban guns in their stores is that its a favorite of LEOs. Good luck with a convoluted carve-out policy for off-duty police, many of whom are required to carry their weapon. Paneras seems to be a favorite of federal marshals, what is their gun policy? The #2 reason is that the gun free zone sign will become a big fat target for a crazed madman.

  17. i’m going to Starbucks on my birthday for free coffee, I plan on thanking the manager and tipping more than the value of my coffee.

  18. No one seems to have mentioned another reason the antis want Starbucks to put up the gun-free-zone signs.

    Many people visit their neighborhood Starbucks while on the way to somewhere else. If a person can’t carry his gun for one small part of a trip, then he can’t carry it for the whole trip. The anti’s can effectively disarm some people for the whole day, if those people also want to get a coffee at Starbucks some time during that day. This is much bigger than just a coffee shop company.

      • I disagree. It’s one strategy the Chicago is using. If you can get even a large portion of business to ban guns, plus ideally public transportation and key public spaces, you can effectively ban CC. People that absolutely insist on CC will stay home or go elsewhere, and those who would prefer to CC will leave their weapon at home.

        The antis are not interested in Starbucks for its own sake. If Starbucks gives in, they will start putting pressure on someone else.

  19. While all murders are tragic, do these people not realize that for every psycho nut job that uses their gun irresponsibly or to harm the innocent there are many many thousands more of use who DO use them responsibly and if they day ever comes they will probably wish that us law abiding gun owners were there to save their asses.

    • You hit that nail just right.Gun free zones don’t work,but the antigun politicians won’t admit to being wrong doesn’t fit into their disarmament of everyone everywhere agenda.Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

    • Nah, you’ve got it all wrong! If you carry a gun–heck if you even OWN a gun–you are seriously deranged and paranoid psycho nut job. Therefore ALL gun uses (except by our benevolent police) are crimes committed by psychos. Do you get it now? If not, you must be seriously mentally ill also–GRAB HIS GUNS!

  20. “In the wake of the events of LAST (F*CKING) DECEMBER”
    Good lord their almost as bad as the politicians that still say were in the wake of 911.

    • Well, we are still being subjected to the results of the overreaction (NSA, TSA, the new burearcracies and new uncondtitutional laws, and etc.)

  21. I feel sorry for the families who lost children and adults at Newtown. But there is a reason that family members are not on the juries when they bring the guilty (or at least who the police think are guilty) to trial. They are to involved with the case to think rationally. So why should anyone think these people are thinking rationally about guns that people used to killed loved ones. I don’t blame them for wanting to have guns removed from the world, but that doesn’t mean I have to take them seriously.

    • And, of course, it’s impossible to explain to them that thugs and lunatics don’t obey “gun free” signs.

  22. Good bet ALL the signers voted Obuma (2008 and 2012). In other words they were leftist fools long before Dec 2012.

    WTF is “emotional tramua”? Newage psychobabble nonsense.

    • It’s like what happened to me. I was in Southeast Asia, ostensibly fighting Communism, when the US was unceremoniously booted out of Vietnam. To me, it was no big deal at the time (I was in the USAF in Thailand enjoying the ganja and five dollar hookers) other than that I wouldn’t be able to afford ganja and there are no hookers like Thai hookers, but that was about it. But now that they’ve started electing Communists to run the country, I’m emotionally traumatized. Kinda like delayed-onset PTSD.

  23. As we all know, gun owners are an intelligent group of like minded people. So, stop posting here which does no good and write a letter in response to theirs. Point out problems with their logic and show them the error in their ways. I wish the authors of this site would do such when posting articles like this instead of being all witty.

    • Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Are there any Newtowners here who want to volunteer to look up the addresses and/or emails of those idiot signatories of the Newtown Coalition For Corporate Responsibility?

      Sometimes it feels like we’re having a big intellectual circle-jerk.

  24. Dear Thumbsucking Wankers,

    Armed citizens are an important component of a safe society. If any of the murdered educators who ran to confront the spree killer who robbed the lives from so many had been armed, the tragedy you are exploiting to make other citizens less safe would have been far less of a tragedy.

    I find it hard to believe that college-educated folk such as yourself could possibly believe a policy banning guns would work any more to prevent murder in our stores than it did in the gun-free zone of your neighborhood school, but we are not actively pursuing stupidity. We recommend that you stop being actively stupid too.

    For the children.

  25. Nick MELI stopped a shooter in Oregon Mall same week as Sandy Hook ,he already killed two when MELI Drew his concealed weapon and the guy retreated when he saw MELI draw down on him.The guy had 88 more rounds but chose to kill himself .Nick MELI gets no thank,no medal no nothing for using a gun to stop a gun.In fact I’ll bet no one on this sit even knows his name either.
    Carson City NV,the Capitol of the state , 2011 a shooter walks into a International House of Pancakes with a full auto ak47 and kills Four US Servicemen and a lady in the parking lot and wounds six others ,No CCW carriers there to stop him,before he kills himself.Mentally adjudicated that the courts “Forgot ” to tell the NICS system.
    You Stupid Sandy Hook Idiots should be glad CCW carriers are in Starbucks.But that would require you to get an EDUCATION on Firearms and realize you have trained people to defend you if that were to happen again.So God Forbid you EDUCATE yourself about Firearms or go through some NRA classes,we can’t have that.We’ll just wait til it happens again.

  26. Where in the hell do these people think they’re living,…a DEMOCRACY?
    The Newtown Coalition for Corporate Responsibility? Are they serious?
    Who appointed them to be the conscience of corporate America, or anything
    outside of Newtown for that matter? Using your collective pain as a shield,
    you march about with a political agenda telling free Americans, in this case,
    American businesses, how they have to conduct their business and what
    private policy concerning firearms they must have in their establishment.
    Is bullying people with your anguish, the way to want to do things? Really?

    • I don’t know. Who told you that we are “living in a … DEMOCRACY?” The US is supposed to be a Constitutional Republic. Raw democracy is just mob rule – “Let’s all vote on what everybody’s favorite color is!” I’ve also heard of democracy being compared to two wolves and a sheep voting on who’s what’s for dinner.

  27. I work in construction. I’ve worked at Starbucks’ headquarters. I never saw anything banning weapons there. It may be their policy, but even if I had known, I would still carry there. I pocket carry at work and no one needs to know. I am not a threat to anybody, unless you attempt to harm me or the ones I love.

  28. Why is it that;
    When there is a bombing … They blame the bomber,
    When there is a auto accident … They blame the driver,
    But when there is a shooting … They blame the gun???
    Please … Someone answer that for me?

    • Because hoplophobia is a clinical mental disorder?

      And FYI, in a lot of car crashes, they don’t “blame the driver” – they say stuff like “the car went out of control” and such.

  29. Who are these libtards (democrats) trying to stop from potentially hurting their customers and employees?
    A: Concealed carry citizens (the ones who can take out B, C, and D below).
    B: Insane individuals who don’t care about laws (or reality, for that matter).
    C: Criminals looking to make an EASY buck (easy, because they know who aint armed).
    D: Gang bangers (fine, upstanding, morally upright people).
    Liberalism is a mental condition. How else do you explain going after A.

  30. I carry anywhere I’m A) legal and B) won’t lose my job, regardless of whether or not the property owner wants me carrying on their property. Signs don’t carry the weight of law in my state. They can ask me to leave and I will comply, as required by law. A simple cover garment means that I’ve never been asked and never will be.

  31. please show me the negligent discharge statistics in coffee shops before saying CC and coffee are dangerous.

  32. This kind of head up one’s a$$ mentality from the great moronic majority of the country is no longer news; though I admire RF’s hard work in publishing everything related to firearms, this kind of story is so ridiculously common, I wonder if its worth the effort.

    • We need to know what the enemy is doing. Ideally, each of their moves should be countered. They will never stop pushing. We must push back.

  33. “senselessly inflicting further emotional trauma on our town by closing your Newtown location early last Friday, August 9th”

    You DO NOT have the right to not be offended.

    That said, anyone see the slew of pics of people open carrying at Starbucks all over Facebook today?

  34. Corporate:
    Another word for Communal?
    What a bunch of ‘Hash Tags’
    BTW I just copyrighted the heck outa that phrase.
    Please do not wake me until the apocalypse is 3/4s done!

  35. Seems to me that these cowards are using the bodies of dead children as a political lighting rod to usher in harsher restrictions on gun control and the eventual confiscation. As much as this was a tragedy for the children we shouldn’t use Newtown as an excuse to exercise harsher restrictions of law abiding citizens. This wreaks of 9/11 all over again, in reference to politicians using a tragedy to push through agendas they could not normally be able to get through. These morons only care about the green that is lining their pocket and nothing about the children who lost their lives.

  36. Having nothing much better to do on a Sunday night, I’ve slapped together this little response to their letter and I’m posting it here in hopes that someone knows how to get it into the hands, eyes, and alleged minds of the Newtown Coalition For Corporate Responsibility:
    =============================================================================
    August 27, 2013

    Dear Gilles Rousseau, Joyce Rousseau, Matthew Rousseau, Andrew Rousseau, Erica Smigielski, Danielle Vabner, Donna Soto, Carlos Soto, Jillian Soto, Carlos Soto, Kara Baekey, United Physicians of Newtown, Team 26 Inc., Darren Wagner, Rabbi Shaul Praver, Congregation Adath Israel, Rev. Matthew Crebbin, Rev. Kathleen E. Adams-Shepherd, Rev. Mel Kawakami, Rev. Jane McCulloch Sibley, Deacon Norman Roos Jr., Myriam Woods, and Abbey Clements:

    Newtown Coalition For Corporate Responsibility (NCFCR) says:
    As members of the community of Newtown, Connecticut, we are writing you today because during our search for solace in wake of the events of last December it has come to our attention that your company continues to allow guns to be carried into its stores. Although we here in Newtown love our Starbucks, we are very concerned that your policy undermines the safety and wellbeing of our citizens

    A random group of responsible gun owners who believe in supporting, upholding, and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic (RGO) responds:
    Please tell us how supporting, upholding, and defending the Constitution of the United States “undermines the safety and wellbeing[SIC] of [your] citizens.”

    NCFCR:
    As the tragedy that befell our community last year demonstrates, and as you well know, guns are dangerous.

    RGO:
    Sure, if they’re misused or used irresponsibly. So are cars. So are power tools. Otherwise, in the hands of a responsible gun owner, they’re no more dangerous than any other tool that can kill if misused.

    NCFCR:
    Starbucks itself prohibits guns in its corporate headquarters

    RGO:
    Can you please provide documentation to corroborate this claim, like a corporate statement of policy on their letterhead?

    NCFCR:
    and other companies, such as PEET’S Coffee, IKEA, and Disney, have exercised their legal right to ban guns on their private premises.

    RGO:
    Are you saying that PEET’S Coffee, IKEA, and Disney are under the purview of Starbuck’s headquarters, or are they merely red herrings, not germane to the present discussion?

    NCFCR:
    Since your company has been a champion of admirable causes in the past, such as LGBT rights and environmental sustainability, some gun owners in this country cite Starbucks’ stance on this issue as justification of the reasonableness of their choice to carry guns anywhere and everywhere, even into a place as unthreatening as a coffee shop.

    RGO:
    Can you please name one of these alleged gun owners?

    Do you disagree that it’s reasonable to enjoy the protection of the Constitution of the United States? And how, exactly, do the endorsement of LGBT and environmentalism have anything whatsoever to do with Starbucks’ decision to honor the Constitution?

    How unthreatening is a coffee shop when some lunatic intent on murder and mayhem enters it in violation of existing statutes?

    NCFCR:
    Your core customers are not such people; your core customers are people like us who have come to understand how guns jeopardize the stability of any environment.

    RGO:
    Can you show the research that tells exactly who Starbuck’s “core customers” are? How, exactly, have “people like [you]” “come to understand how guns jeopardize the stability of any environment,” when all of the observed facts show that the opposite is true? For example, Is this true of police stations? Military installations? Sport shooting ranges?

    NCFCR:
    They are people who have come to understand that to prevent another Sandy Hook, we as a society must prioritize the sanctity of human life over the individual’s “right to carry.”

    RGO:
    How do you explain the fact that the existing gun restrictions at Sand Hook failed to prevent the violence there? The sanctity of whose life? Armed criminals and lunatics who are in flagrant violation of the law, or the children that they murdered in spite of the existing gun control laws? And exactly how does such a nebulous concept justify violation of the Constitution of the United States?

    NCFCR:
    While we thank you for preventing gun carriers from senselessly inflicting further emotional trauma on our town by closing your Newtown location early last Friday, August 9th, we ask you this question: what about tomorrow and the day after that?

    RGO:
    Why do you insist on saying “gun carriers” when what you actually mean is lunatics and criminals?

    We (responsible gun owners in general) would certainly hope that tomorrow and the next day the Constitution of the United States remains the Supreme Law of the Land.

    NCFCR:
    What do you say to your customers in Wyoming, Texas, and Florida; where guns have injured three innocent people at Starbucks in the past two years?

    RGO:
    Probably something like “We deeply regret your loss, but due to unconstitutional gun restrictions, there was no one to come to the aid of those victims.”

    NCFCF
    We ask you to—once and for all—give Starbucks customers everywhere the same protection that you afforded Newtown last Friday.

    RGO:
    How? What “protection?” Go out of business?

    Sincerely,
    A random group of responsible gun owners who believe in supporting, upholding, and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic
    ========================================================================

    Again, I’d like feedback on improvements and ideas on how to get it to that group.

    As an aside, I was flabbergasted to see the names of rabbis and temple congregations on their list. Haven’t they ever heard of that infamous gun confiscator, Adolph Hitler? (and please don’t throw Godwin’s Law at me, I think that would be a little bit counterproductive.)

  37. To be sure, the good people of Newtown suffered an unimaginable emotional trauma and are in the process of healing, which will take a lifetime for most. Their entire world view has changed tragically. Eventually they must understand that the entire world isn’t going to change to help them heal, and even if it did, it wouldn’t resolve their pain. I applaud their sense of unity which will go a long way to help them adjust to a new future. Their pain results from a relatively rare event which doesn’t represent a pressing threat to every school and town in America. God help them, and God bless America.

  38. So sorry, NCCR, but my Second Amendment right to self protection, which is in writing, trumps your non-existent right to “feel safe”.

    And if Mr. Schutlz chooses to accept your invitation to discuss the company policy, I hope you will be able to explain to him exactly how a law-abiding citizen who chooses to legally carry a firearm while sitting in a Starbucks drinking his/her coffee is a threat to anyone.

  39. I think Starbucks has clued in on one perennial truth about the gun grabbers: they’re not willing to give up anything – not for the sake of “saving the children”, not for the sake of “public safety”, not for the sake of anything. They consider any imposition on gun owners to be worth it, no matter how minimal (or fictitious, or negative) the benefit for safety, because their entire purpose of their movement is to impose on gun owners. But ask them to pay more taxes for security in schools, or even give up their favorite cup of morning coffee, and suddenly the lives of children fade into irrelevance.

  40. GAFC (Get A xxxx Clue), you idiots!

    Gun Free Zones are Victim Rich Zones.

    The reason Mr. Lanza chose an elementary school to shoot up is because HE KNEW THERE WOULD BE NO ARMED RESISTANCE!!!

    How stupid can you people be! Is there a stupid gene than runs through population in Newtown? (You know who I’m talking to.)

    If they ban carrying in the coffee shops such as this, I won’t go. Oh, no, not because I’m mad at them for doing something so stupid as prohibiting guns. (…and certainly not because “I can’t carry in there”, because, you can bet I will carry ANYWAY…) but, simply put, just because I’m wearing a suit of armor, I don’t walk out into traffic without looking.

    These coffee shops will create a hieghtened DANGER ZONE for nutcases who think like Lanza. “Hey! They prohibit guns! I won’t get shot and will be able to murder more people before the cops get there and kill me! Woo! Hoo! Lock and load.”

    The dasterdly thing that is happening is that if they do prohibit guns and then something happens, they will use that incident to further gun control saying it proves there needs to be more regulation. (There really is two Americas. I’ll get to that in a minute.)

    Its akin to giving an addict free drugs and watching his life spiral out of control and then writing an article that says: SEE!!! Those drugs are bad! We need to [outlaw|regulate|prohibit] them!

    Our government has so dumbed down a vast section of the American population to the point that they can’t think and they can’t understand what is going on here. I’m embarrassed by these people that claim to be Americans. 2004 Vice Presidential Candidate and adulterer John Edwards said, “There are two Americas.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Americas ) …and he was right! Not the two he was talking about but where one American can think and will do accordingly and one American that is unthinking and simply follows the dictates of a stupified society and any suggestion they hint at regardless of how much it works against themselves and for the state.

    Zombies, I tell you! They’re already here!

    • About the only difference between this and “The Marching Morons” is that in the book, the “3,000,000 highbred elite” were all fine, upstanding, morally pure “good guys” without an avaricious bone in their body. I guess that qualifies it as “Fantasy.”

  41. I find it odd that you have a much higher probability of getting shot by a cop than a nutcase gun owner, yet, the people that advocate keeping guns out of schools nearly always advocated having more cops around.

    Two Americas, people! Two! One unthinking. One thinking.

    There are way more instances of cops going “off the handle” and killing people than even nutcase Lanzas, yet, not one of these people are advocating fewer cops. On the contrary! When crap goes down, they call people with guns! …and they moronically assume that if they have a badge, they’re okay.

    Two Americas!

    America has “moronic disentary”. We’re bleeding out the butt yet they keep feeding us more diseased information. The reset can’t come soon enough.

  42. How presumptuous to assume they can speak for Starbucks’ “core customers”. I’d put what I spend at Starbucks per week up against any of those idiots and probably most of them combined.

  43. It’s not about Startbucks, it’s not even about safety. These people just want to feel like they ‘did something’. I suppose getting a coffee chain to put up a meaningless sign would be ‘something’.

    These aren’t rational people. What we have here are immature, emotionally stunted over grown children who are essentially threatening to have a collective temper tantrum if someone doesn’t ground some other innocent child in retribution for something bad that happened to them.

    There is no reason behind it because, like children they tend to act on emotion first and often only. They cannot work out concepts like fairness or utility since they aren’t even accessing the parts of the brain that do that way over on the other side of the skull from the parts they’re using.

    When children act like this they’re usually put down for a nap until they can reason a little again. Sometimes when they act like this they spend a little time in timeout or catch a spanking until they readjust their attitudes and at least give lip service to things like fair play, sharing, not taking their emotional turmoil out on their parents or playmates.

    When adults act like this for a few minutes or an hour we’re usually seeing a person struggling with bigger issues than those they bring to the surface. You can’t spank them, can’t put them down for a nap. . . I suppose that many people who did not learn to control their emotions as children to end up in the big adult time out, prison. In fact, failure to learn emotional control and basic lessons like property rights and non violence as a child is likely the root cause of criminality as an adult, but I digress.

    The point is that when adults act like children all we can do for the most part what we sometimes do with children. We ignore their bad behavior as much as we can so as not to reinforce it, and simply reward them as soon as they begin to behave better.

    • Say what you want. I will gladly spank Shannon Watts if she thinks she might need it. She might need a nap afterwards, too.

  44. The search for solace, eh? More like the struggle for submission to party diktat. Their lost kin does not equate to me losing the right to carry.

    These scumbags are really putting the screws to Starbucks. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to convince some baristas to strike or resorted to protests soon… but I guess that is unlikely considering their total lack of popular support in this collective madness of theirs. Still, in this age of well compensated fake protesters you never know.

  45. I boycott Starbucks for one very simple reason – they have the worst coffee I’ve ever had in my entire life, and I started drinking espresso at 12.

    Over-roasted burnt beans = bad coffee.

  46. Mr. Schultz
    If you ban gun owners from carrying in your stores, then you also ban us from spending our money there as well.

    Respectfully, KDB

  47. What an arrogant and entitled bunch of pricks.

    When, and where, did any of those folks get the idea that they could tell others what to do? I am sorry for their loss, but that doesn’t give them an extra vote in the process of life.

  48. I live in Michigan where we recently passed a SUPER drunk driving law. If you’re more than double the legal limit you’re now SUPER drunk and subject to heftier fines.

    Maybe we need SUPER gun free zones, you know, where guns would be really, REALLY banned. That would make us safer, right?

  49. I don’t understand these people! Why expend so much energy to persecute a business for obeying the local laws, instead of changing the local laws? Its textbook tyranny, and they think they are being democratic.

  50. In an effort to assist in the championing of causes at least equal to LGBT rights and environmental stability; contribute to the safety and well being of the citizens; promote the growth of a safe, just society; foster a culture of peace & etc…& etc.;
    Recommendation as follows:

    “Every person will hereafter conduct themselves in such a way as to avoid intentionally violating the ‘Rights’ of another person or persons.”

    Thank you for your cooperation toward achieving this most admirable goal.

  51. The dead signing up a document… I tough that kind of practice was reserved for electoral frauds in third world countries and other especial occasions. Might as well go full retard and do it with the living as well, never mind their consent, we know what is better for them.

  52. One line in their letter really stood out to me. It’s the line that states that “If you make the decision to ban guns, your company has the chance to honor the 26 innocent lives lost here in Newtown and the 32,000 Americans lost annually to gun violence by becoming a leader in educating the public about firearm safety.” Three things about that:
    1) Funny, I didn’t realize it was Starbucks’s responsibility to be a leader in education about ANYTHING, much less firearm safety. Pretty sure they’re a business and their only real responsibility is to make coffee that tastes good enough that people will buy it.
    2) How can you educate anybody about firearm safety if your only statement on the matter is a sign that says “We don’t allow guns here”?
    3) Eight months have passed since Newtown. Eight. Months. That’s plenty of time to go through even the most tedious corporate decision-making process and implementation. Starbucks has already made their statement on the matter by NOT posting gun free zone signs. Why is it these people think they’ve only made a decision if they hang the signs, and not when they don’t?

  53. IKEA has banned guns, news to me, I have mine everytime I shop at IKEA. Psst- that is why it is called conceaeled carry, noone can or should see it.

  54. I’m pretty sure that every single Starbucks location as a collective whole was one of the safest places on Planet Earth this weekend with Pro-gunners everywhere stopping at Starbucks in rebuttal of the MDA boycott. Any injuries/accidental discharges/deaths?? Didn’t think so…

  55. How are there signatures of DEAD people that died before this letter came out? Having a dead relative does not give one the right to speak on their behalf. I hate to sound cruel, but this letter is a travesty.

  56. What I see is a list of people whose views are LEAST worthy of consideration when it comes to firearms legislation &/or restrictions on where firearms can be carried.
    Their standpoint is inevitably based on emotion rather than hard facts, which will never produce rational or reasonable results.
    Go back to mending your lives people, as continuing in this manner will only guarantee unhappiness & despair.
    Gun owners DO feel for your loss but unlike gun grabbers, we don’t see using you for political gain to be either right or moral.

  57. We in the gun community would invite you ignoramuses to attend a Real gun safety course put onby licensed professional firearms

    instructors or A CCW course put on by same so you can know how Ignorant you really are to firearms, legally owned and operated by responsible United States Citizens who have the RIGHT to carry and drink coffee any where you can.
    Until you are at our level of firearm knowledge and experience we will NEVER listen too or respect your opinions.

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