Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
I think there are a few in the pro-gun camp who really don't APPROVE of open carry of any gun at all, and wish others would stop doing it. I gather that's predominately because they'd rather not have anyone "freak the squares" as member UpperAtmosphere put it so eloquently in another thread. Or maybe they just like telling people what to do. 
Small pistol, big rifle, whatever -- all have the chance of raising awareness to the wrong people in a negative way and thus harming "the cause" and all gun rights and gun folks by extension. So that's your group #1.
I think there are a few people who react in a very strongly negative way to the persons they're seeing coming out as the "poster boys" for OCT. Those who present themselves as established, upstanding, clean-cut, professional sorts who like to think of themselves as good ambassadors for RKBA and who recoil at seeing the slovenly, juvenile, buffonish caricatures (a half-step removed from what you'd see on People of Walmart) plastered all over the media as the true representatives (of the moment) of the American gun owner. I think that's who falls into your group #2.
But I think most of the posters who've expressed support for some of these stores are simply expressing something like sympathy for the untenable position many of these businesses have been hemmed into by the antics of OCT -- working hand-in-hand with the Moms, of course, to force uninvolved corporations to choose sides in a political battle they aren't involved with -- and are actually PLEASANTLY surprised at the restraint most of these places have shown in how they reacted.
Face it, if this was 1990, Chipotle, Target, etc., would have all immediately plastered their stores with "NO GUNS, UNDER PENALTY OF LAW!!!" signs and issued strict and dire warnings that guns were forbidden and you'd be eternally banned from their chain of stores if you were ever caught with a firearm. After 20 years of progress in mainstreaming the gun culture, these stores have recognized that a totalitarian edict like that (even though fully within their rights to declare) would alienate those good shoppers who happen to own guns. And they, I think, have some inkling of just how many folks that really is.
So they say, "Please, don't do that," in about the least confrontational way they could possibly come up with to do so, and many of us are really quite encouraged by such delicacy in the face of what look -- even from "our" side of the battle lines -- like extreme acts of provocation.
So we say, "good on them" for -- honestly -- being the bigger man, so to speak, and not reacting like big corporate left wing tyrants, and instead saying, "We recognize you've got beliefs and issues you want to debate in the public forum, and we're not opposing you or those beliefs, but we sure would appreciate it if you'd take that effort to some more suitable venue."
Time have changed.
Small pistol, big rifle, whatever -- all have the chance of raising awareness to the wrong people in a negative way and thus harming "the cause" and all gun rights and gun folks by extension. So that's your group #1.I think there are a few people who react in a very strongly negative way to the persons they're seeing coming out as the "poster boys" for OCT. Those who present themselves as established, upstanding, clean-cut, professional sorts who like to think of themselves as good ambassadors for RKBA and who recoil at seeing the slovenly, juvenile, buffonish caricatures (a half-step removed from what you'd see on People of Walmart) plastered all over the media as the true representatives (of the moment) of the American gun owner. I think that's who falls into your group #2.
But I think most of the posters who've expressed support for some of these stores are simply expressing something like sympathy for the untenable position many of these businesses have been hemmed into by the antics of OCT -- working hand-in-hand with the Moms, of course, to force uninvolved corporations to choose sides in a political battle they aren't involved with -- and are actually PLEASANTLY surprised at the restraint most of these places have shown in how they reacted.
Face it, if this was 1990, Chipotle, Target, etc., would have all immediately plastered their stores with "NO GUNS, UNDER PENALTY OF LAW!!!" signs and issued strict and dire warnings that guns were forbidden and you'd be eternally banned from their chain of stores if you were ever caught with a firearm. After 20 years of progress in mainstreaming the gun culture, these stores have recognized that a totalitarian edict like that (even though fully within their rights to declare) would alienate those good shoppers who happen to own guns. And they, I think, have some inkling of just how many folks that really is.
So they say, "Please, don't do that," in about the least confrontational way they could possibly come up with to do so, and many of us are really quite encouraged by such delicacy in the face of what look -- even from "our" side of the battle lines -- like extreme acts of provocation.
So we say, "good on them" for -- honestly -- being the bigger man, so to speak, and not reacting like big corporate left wing tyrants, and instead saying, "We recognize you've got beliefs and issues you want to debate in the public forum, and we're not opposing you or those beliefs, but we sure would appreciate it if you'd take that effort to some more suitable venue."
Time have changed.
