Here's my thoughts on it (reposted from my blog and another forum).
Background: I am a veteran combat medic with lots of infantry time, a combat deployment, I've shot a human being and I'm a paramedic in a busy urban system. Not squeamish or afraid of guns, but not comfy with these cretins either.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/20/news/companies/chipotle-guns/
So, here's my thoughts on the Chipotle gun policy.
They did the right thing, both for their business, for their patrons and for the gun-owning community. Hear me out.
These gentlemen are exercising their "rights" in exactly the same way as those who manufacture K2 do. Just because something isn't technically illegal does not make it smart, intelligent or even safe to do. When someone goes out in public, openly-armed, there is a massive difference in perception between a holstered, non-threatening weapon and one that has hands on it. There's a MASSIVE difference in perception between a handgun and an assault rifle (and yes, these are assault rifles: they were literally designed and built to specifications that optimize them for close and midrange rapid-fire during the course of an assault in built-up terrain with a wide variety of possible engagement ranges, ie an assault in its classic military sense). A handgun is a near-universal defensive weapon in a holster as far as perception goes, I don't perceive a man with a holstered handgun as a threat nor do the overwhelming majority of people. I do perceive a degree of threat from anyone that walks in with a long rifle dangling, because quite frankly, this is not a combat zone. It's the USA, and it's pretty damned safe, and no, I don't need a thirty-round 5.56mm magazine hanging out of a rifle designed to effectively arm assaulting troops in urban combat, presumably loaded, with a sling system designed to facilitate rapid deployment of said rifle. It's a nonverbal aggressive stance. It's an escalation of force to present a weapon. (Incidentally, cops don't draw their guns before traffic stops for this reason, soldiers don't generally fondle their rifles when in polite conversation with the locals, and we certainly don't walk around our hometowns at the low-ready). Trust me- there is a difference between a holstered handgun and a hanging long gun. (best answer is for no one to know you're carrying, but that's a whole different spiel).
Anyways, so these gentlemen come into a Chipotle for a delicious meal, exercising their rights and either blissfully unaware of the four-kilogram firearm they're tactical-carrying that's on full display, waving around and in an unknown state of readiness (presumably round-chambered, safety off, and mag in, because I'm a paranoid person and I don't trust idiots). Seriously, there's no way to not know that this was going to cause a reaction, but I digress.
Most people don't associate long-rifle toting young men in civilian clothes with safety and freedom. We see Bad Things, rows of dead kids and news helicopters and explosions and SWAT teams. We see young men trying to get on CNN, and the best way to do that is often with a mass shooting. That's what I see when I see this picture- I see two young, indiscreet men with weapons designed for urban infantry combat looking like self-righteous *******s, cheesing for the cameras, and I worry. If I'm sitting in there, I'm forgetting right about that burrito because someone is coming with a very serious weapon and presumably knows how to use it. That's not PTSD or meddling, that's awareness of a threat. Am I in the middle of political theater or the next Aurora? I am now committed to one thing and one thing only- escape from the threat. That means that my wife and I are immediately leaving, and if that's not an option, I am very uncomfortable. If Sunglasses there is in the low-ready, it's a very quick transition to "blazing away" at people, and I'm seriously considering my own handgun's deployment or verbal deescalation- but if these people are too dumb to understand that they're setting off mass panic, I have no idea of knowing how they're going to react to being told to drop their rifles. So we're back to square one- running like hell. Most people think along similar lines and have the sense to not be around the fat, non-uniformed, neckbearded weirdo and Crazy Sunglasses toting assault rifles. So, we have Mass Panic as a matter of course, with a side of Mexican Standoff and Too Dumb to Listen To Reason with a side of I KNOW MAH RIGHTS! Tasty!
Chipotle, predictably, doesn't want people fleeing their restaurants in droves every time an "Open Carry the most obnoxious, dangerous, people-killing friendly firearm you can carry because Freedom and 'Murica" decides he wants to make a statement. They probably didn't have a problem with dudes wearing holstered pistols, but those aren't four-kilogram assault rifles either and it's a lot harder to kill a lot of people really fast with a pistol (hence why they're not primary weapons). Sadly, those people have started to push the limits of public acceptance of firearms, and they're eventually going to blow it for us all.
Chipotle just wants people to come, spend money on a good burrito, and feel safe enough to come back. I have an appetite for burritos, I have money and I like Chipotle. I don't see where guns tie into this, because frankly, Chipotle isn't strip-searching me and I don't see a need to unconceal a firearm to buy a burrito. Up until recently, they probably didn't see a need to care. Its good business to keep Neckbeard and Sunglasses out of the store, because no one wants to be the guy that the Chipotle Shooter hit first and mass panics are bad for business (and most people are not so rabidly open-carry that they are going to accept abstract rights over immediate safety). Neckbeard might be fat, but he's not going to eat a lunch rush of food and Sunglasses is clearly watching his figure, so yeah...it's better business to alienate two than two hundred.
As for the gun-rights community? I think that we need to police our own. We need to realize that our rights do not stop at us, and that discretion is a must. Firearms are not cars or phones. They are weapons, and should be treated with respect and discretion as to how to carry them, how to use them and how to manage our perception with them. Carrying openly as part of an organized rally with a clear message and a coherent point is one thing. Carrying for defense is another. Carrying assault rifles "just because" in public is just plain stupidity that makes us ALL look dumb, indiscreet and untrustworthy. Don't believe me? Look at California's ban on doing this- passed after idiots carried openly in Hippytown. If we let Neckbeard and Sunglasses be the public face of gun rights in the United States, we will lose our guns.