source :

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021850965_starbucksgunsxml.html?syndication=rss

Starbucks’ new gun policy: Please don’t bring them

Starbucks is asking customers to stop bringing their guns into its cafes, setting off a debate among “open carry” advocates and those who want more restrictions on guns in public places.

By Lornet Turnbull

Seattle Times staff reporter

Pity poor Starbucks.

In the end, the Seattle-based coffee giant says all it wants to do is sell coffee.

But increasingly, it has been dragged into the fracas between open-carry gun activists who want to be able to keep taking their firearms with them when they buy their morning lattes and gun-control advocates who’d rather the company banned such behavior.

Starbucks struck a compromise when it announced this week that guns were no longer welcome in its stores, but stopped short of an outright ban.

The company will run an ad in some major newspapers Thursday, an open letter from CEO Howard Schultz, explaining that his company is being used as a political stage and that guns in his stores make his customers uneasy.

Some are calling it a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy; Starbucks, in a Q&A for employees said deciding to make this public request was not easy.

The company said it is not asking its employees to enforce the policy, to avoid confrontations with armed customers.

Zack Hutson, a company spokesman, said Wednesday the Starbucks brand is being misrepresented in an increasingly “uncivil” debate.

“We’re not anti-gun or pro-gun,” he said. “We simply believe weapons should not be part of the coffee-house experience.

“Most of our customers and partners are more comfortable without them in the stores. Everyone is welcome; guns are not.”

On blogs and comment threads Wednesday, the announcement set off a firestorm — with open-carry supporters saying the company caved to pressure, and those clamoring for an outright ban saying it didn’t go far enough.

Dave Workman, senior editor at The GunMag, a publication of the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue, said reaction from gun-rights supporters has been mixed: “You have people who are swearing they’re not going to spend another penny with Starbucks and others admonishing some of their own for boorish behavior and practicing in-your-face politics at a private business.

“I almost feel sorry for Starbucks,” he said, “stuck in a place they don’t want to be.”

With 7,000 company-owned stores across the country, Starbucks prides itself in being a “third place” — away from home and work — where customers can sit with a cup of coffee and their laptop or have a conversation with a friend.

There’s almost an expectation that such an apparently liberal-leaning company with a ubiquitous presence would be the kind of place to ban guns outright.

But the gun issue has hounded the company since it said in 2010 that it adheres to laws in states where it operates — permitting guns in states with open-carry laws and prohibiting them where such laws don’t exist.

More recently, open-carry supporters have been holding “Starbucks Appreciation Days,” events in which gun-rights advocates show up in stores with their guns — a practice Schultz in his announcement Tuesday called a disingenuous portrayal of the company as a champion of open carry.

Kate Beck, a Shoreline mother of two and a member of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America that formed in the wake of last year’s Newtown, Conn., school shooting, was encouraged by Schultz’s announcement.

Starbucks, she said, “has tried to stay neutral and I think this is the best neutral position they can have, while keeping their employees and patrons safe.”

Moms Demand Action counts among its 100,000 members nationwide — about 900 of them in Washington state — hunters and a sharpshooter.

The group has been trying to urge change at Starbucks by staging a national boycott, “Skip Starbucks Saturdays,” and was prepared to deliver more than 50,000 signatures it gathered in recent months.

“We turned up the heat and made it a real focus since the gun enthusiasts were using Starbucks as a rallying place for their open-carry meetings,” Beck said.

“I think it shows the brilliance of Howard Schultz asking responsible gun owners to respect the policy.”

Jim Beal is a Vietnam veteran who carries his holstered .45 with him at all times — including into Starbucks throughout the region. He said the announcement doesn’t really change anything.

He’s loosely affiliated with the group OpenCarry.org, which focuses on the right to openly carry holstered handguns, and said he doesn’t condone the “showboat” activities of some enthusiasts.

The 60-year-old Beal has testified before the Legislature — taking his gun with him into the state Capitol — and has offered classes on the state’s gun laws.

He said he’ll continue to take his gun into Starbucks, something he said has never drawn negative response — even in downtown Seattle.

“A lot of people are pretty upset and I know gun owners who are planning to cash in their Starbucks cards,” Beal said.

“The way I see it, basically things are still as they were before. They say they prefer we not do it, but they won’t ask us to leave.”

Ralph Fascitelli, president of Washington CeaseFire, said while the announcement was a good first step, he accused Starbucks of “fence-sitting” by not banning guns outright and Schultz of waffling.

“He equivocated. We don’t want you bringing guns into our stores, but we’ll serve you?” Fascitelli said.

“I think they’ve handled this issue horribly; they made a bad business move (with the 2010 announcement), now they’re in this in-between place where they’re creating more problems for themselves.”

CeaseFire recently worked with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on a campaign to get Seattle businesses to declare themselves Gun Free Zones, and Fascitelli said they didn’t specifically reach out to Starbucks.

It’s not true, he said, that companies must allow guns in their stores just because state and local laws allow people to openly carry.

“Private businesses have the right to allow or disallow those carrying guns just as they can deny service to people not wearing shirts or shoes,” he said.

Ultimately, said Starbucks’ Hutson, the issue will have to be settled not by corporate executives but by lawmakers.

But Fascitelli said in the face of government inaction on the state and federal levels, companies like Starbucks should take a stand and make their stores gun-free.

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Starbucks open letter

source :

http://www.starbucks.com/blog/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz/1268

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer

Dear Fellow Americans,

Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns. In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners (employees) who work in our stores have been thrust unwillingly into the middle of this debate. That’s why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.

From the beginning, our vision at Starbucks has been to create a “third place” between home and work where people can come together to enjoy the peace and pleasure of coffee and community. Our values have always centered on building community rather than dividing people, and our stores exist to give every customer a safe and comfortable respite from the concerns of daily life.

We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America’s gun laws, and we recognize the deep passion for and against the “open carry” laws adopted by many states. (In the United States, “open carry” is the term used for openly carrying a firearm in public.) For years we have listened carefully to input from our customers, partners, community leaders and voices on both sides of this complicated, highly charged issue.

Our company’s longstanding approach to “open carry” has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don’t exist. We have chosen this approach because we believe our store partners should not be put in the uncomfortable position of requiring customers to disarm or leave our stores. We believe that gun policy should be addressed by government and law enforcement—not by Starbucks and our store partners.

Recently, however, we’ve seen the “open carry” debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called “Starbucks Appreciation Days” that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of “open carry.” To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.

For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas—even in states where “open carry” is permitted—unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.

I would like to clarify two points. First, this is a request and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request—and also because enforcing a ban would potentially require our partners to confront armed customers, and that is not a role I am comfortable asking Starbucks partners to take on. Second, we know we cannot satisfy everyone. For those who oppose “open carry,” we believe the legislative and policy-making process is the proper arena for this debate, not our stores. For those who champion “open carry,” please respect that Starbucks stores are places where everyone should feel relaxed and comfortable. The presence of a weapon in our stores is unsettling and upsetting for many of our customers.

I am proud of our country and our heritage of civil discourse and debate. It is in this spirit that we make today’s request. Whatever your view, I encourage you to be responsible and respectful of each other as citizens and neighbors.

Sincerely,

Howard Schultz

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Tell your friends that love their coffee to invest in some body armor, cuz Starbucks is the next school zone/federal building killing field, wide open to whoever the next nutcase will be.

*shaking my head*

-W

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