In a single-sentence statement Thursday, pharmacy giant Walgreens joined Walmart, Kroger, CVS and others in asking customers not to open carry in their stores.
Walgreens Statement Regarding Open Carry in Our Stores
05 September 2019We are joining other retailers in asking our customers to no longer openly carry firearms into our stores other than authorized law enforcement officials.
Obviously, asking customers is not the same as forbidding it. At the same time, anyone open-carrying in a Walgreens will probably be asked to either conceal their Roscoe or take it out to the car. That would no doubt go double for anyone slinging a long gun or a braced AR pistol that the average Joe/Jane would call a long gun.
Is this sudden and very public change by prominent big chains a direct result of open carry “activists” doing “Second Amendment audits?”
I’m talking about the boneheads who open carry their long guns in public places. These imprudent people say their purpose is to test police knowledge of the law and acclimate everyday people to seeing other folks carrying firearms out in public. In reality, they freak out Suzie Soccermom and their soy latte-drinking spouses. They scare children. And they alienate the general public from gun rights and gun owners alike.
For example: An “auditor” in Edmond, Oklahoma scared some families while open carrying his 9mm “pistol” in a park there. Of course, concerned folks with their kids called 9-1-1 and guess who responded….
The screen grab above is the backup. Below is the first first responder.
Here’s the video from that incident.
Videos like these are all over YouTube. And these folks don’t always do their “audits” in public parks.
Others have garnered mainstream media coverage of their antics. And more often than not, they aren’t doing gun owners any favors.
From the Kansas City Star:
The sun had long set when the two men trudged up to the justice center in Shawnee and peered inside. They pulled open the door and entered the modern brick building that houses the police department and city offices, filming the scene with their cellphones.
No one approached them as they walked around, filming various items in the building. Then Patrick Roth turned the camera on his cohort, Tim Harper, who was wearing an orange shirt and a “Make America Great Again” ball cap and toted a gun in a holster on his right hip.
“Guys, he’s got four mags,” Roth said on the video he later posted on his YouTube channel, News Now Patrick, zooming in on the magazines that hold extra rounds of ammunition. “We’re in a police department. He’s open carrying.”
“Seventy-six rounds,” Harper said of his magazine capacity.
The two continued filming in the building for nearly 4 minutes before heading to the adjacent fire station to shoot more video.
And another from the Enid News & Eagle:
Garfield County was brought into the spotlight this week after video of an incident at the Garfield County Court House between Garfield County Sheriff’s Office officials and a “First Amendment auditor” gained widespread attention online.
The sheriff’s office issued a public statement on its Facebook page Thursday.
“The incident began as a call of a suspicious person filming courthouse employees counting large quantities of money. Those employees, fearing for their safety and unsure of this person’s intentions, called courthouse security deputies,” part of the posts reads. “We would also like to assure the public that the issue has been addressed, and extra training will be conducted to ensure any similar situations will come to different conclusions. We are not perfect, but it is always our first goal to serve and protect the public.”
In the video posted Nov. 13 on the YouTube channel “News Now Patrick,” self-described First Amendment auditor Patrick Roth filmed the courthouse, displays, signs and courthouse employees on the first floor before going to the second floor where deputies were.
And from KWCH:
Videos of confrontations with public officials making their way to the internet is nothing new, but a newer trend in videos called “First Amendment audits” has some concerned and others just annoyed.
“Don’t touch the camera,” Patrick Roth can be heard saying from behind the camera. In the video, he and a friend, are visiting and videotaping a nuclear facility in Kansas City, Missouri. A security officer asks Roth why he and his friend are there and a confrontation ensues. It all unfolds in what’s called a “First Amendment Audit.” One of many Roth has posted on his YouTube channel, News Now Patrick.
More recently, there was gentleman who walked into a Springfield, Missouri Walmart with a slung braced pistol and a handgun less than a week after the El Paso massacre.
A man reportedly pulled up to a Walmart Neighborhood Market store in Springfield, Missouri, this afternoon, put on what appears to be load bearing equipment, armed himself with what looks like an AR pistol and walked into the store.
According to ky3.com, he then . . .
…began pushing [a shopping cart] around the store. Police say the man was recording himself walking through the store via a cell phone.
The store manager at the Neighborhood Market pulled a fire alarm, urging people to escape the store.
Police say the man then made his way out an emergency exit where a firefighter held the man at gunpoint. At that moment Springfield Police arrived on scene and detained the man.
That stunt went above and beyond the call of brains. It made international news. Even Drudge had it as a headline for hours. Would any reasonable and prudent person think that carrying a long-gun in a Walmart a week after a mass murder spree at another Walmart by someone similarly attired and armed be a wise and prudent idea?
Of course, every state has different laws relating to open (and concealed) carry (Missouri is a constitutional carry state).
But the bottom line: open carry activists toting long guns (or guns that look like long guns) around in public spaces don’t do gun owners or gun rights any favors. These misguided folks may think they are advancing the cause of gun rights, but they do not. To the contrary, their activism has no doubt contributed to these decisions by big companies to ban open carry in their stores.
Nice job, fellas.