@ awnuts: I am not being critical of what you wrote or attacking you personally, just taking a 75% (or so) different view. So, I wanted you to know "no offense intended" -- so please don't track me down and hurt me! ;-)
That said, let me continue...
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IMO, it's quite the contrary as I think these "bans" are good: The pansy in-the-closet anti-gun liberal business owners are "outed" as being what they truly are. They didn't mind prostituting their "Liberal Values" (yeah, right) to take "gun people's" money -- NO problem with that at all up until now -- but NOW they have a problem with it. Good...come out and say so, no more fence-sitting/hiding like the cowards most Liberals are on the issue -- choose your side in the Culture War. Stand up for what you believe in...whether the pansies wanted to or not. Draw a line in the sand...make people choose.
So, NOW we know where NOT to spend our $$ at, yes?
And that includes people who CC only and still intend to go to these places anyway -- like the ones who STILL go to Starbucks. You know, the clueless, shallow "thinking" gun-owners among us (and there'd be legions of them) who just look on the surface of an issue. After all, no one SEES they are carrying so they can patronize anti-gun businesses anyway, right? It also includes EVERY HUNTER out there (what 30-33 million of them, the same people who don't bother to join the NRA or some other pro-gun org of their choice), and target-shooters, too. ESPECIALLY the "self-defense people," like us here in this Forum. EVERY so-called (but serious) "gun-owner" out there. Isn't Amerca supposed to have 70 million or so gun-owners? Wouldn't THAT put a dent in anti-gun businesses' customer base?
But why are so may "gun-owners" doing nothing, and some even so willing to continue making anti-gunners richer by patronizing their businesses, even "secretly" by CC-ing?
So WE ALL need to note who the enemy is in this corner of the "Culture War" battlefield -- and DO something about it, even if it's simply NOT GOING to such businesses anymore.
And so far we have these
eateries:
-- Starbucks (who started this kind of response)
-- Wendy's
-- Jack in the Box
-- Applebee’s (?)
-- Chili's
-- Chipotle
-- Sonic
...and let there be more. Let them out themselves...if they want to be like politicians and be forced to state their REAL positions, so be it.
It's a lot harder in ANY conflict (whether it be a Hot War or Cold War) to deal with the enemy if you can't identify them. The above businesses have finally put on a uniform. Treat them accordingly: Don't go there.
I'm not at all worried about what the OC people in Texas are doing, mainly because all they CAN carry OC-wise is a long gun (as you already noted). I DO believe, however, they should not POSE with their "scary" long-guns (like guys in combat zones tend to do, yes, even today...I know I did back in the RVN) -- but any Public Relations damage already done by people posing with said "scary" guns can't be UN-done. It's over. So I'd suggest in the future such people just leave their "scary" guns @ sling arms and like those of us who OC a handgun, don't HANDLE it -- but otherwise, I am not one to second-guess what the people of the OC movement in Texas are doing or critics MOST of them. And MOST of them are behaving responsibly -- like those 2 guys in Galveston (I lived there 5 years) a while back walking down Seawall Blvd. with their "scary" black rifles (@ sling arms, IIRC) as seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3XAwMcLAc
It takes a whole lot of GUTS (most gun-owners & even most CC-ers need not apply as they don't have the grit) to get out there and OC a long-arm in Texas, considering how UN-used to it people are there -- cops included -- even though it's been legal for how many years? Maybe it's about time people GET used to it -- or at least know it IS legal (they probably didn't even KNOW)? Kudos to those 2 guys that day (and other people on other days) for taking such "risky" action.
If the Great State of Texas (and the so-called "talking head" pro-gun and pro-OC "Republican" governors we've had recently) -- yes, especially that SORRY excuse for a Republican Governor Perry -- had been a LEADER way back when (I even WROTE the guy to LEAD) and ACT on his talk to get an OC bill passed & signed, instead of merely a follower (Florida blazed the trail for many states re CC at least, TX had jack then) AND, not (apparently) be UN-embarrassed that ALL the other states around TX TODAY have some form of OC (but Texas still does not), then we wouldn't be having these "banning issues" in TX as they exercise their right to carry long arms. And we wouldn't have the above businesses in an anti-gun list and finally OUTED, would we. Texans carrying handguns -- like the rest of us in the Free World -- might be less "scary" than those long black guns.
I mean, if sorry Democrat 1990s TX Governor Democrat Ann Richards was clearly anti-gun, and did all she could to prevent even CC in TX, so couldn't "pro-gun" Governor Perry have been at least as active FOR the cause as Richardson was AGAINST it?
Whatever, at least my moral support goes out to them-there OC folks in TX. ;-)
As for anti-gun people coming across armed people, and feeling helpless, well they SHOULD because they ARE helpless! It just reminds them they are prey and that makes them feel "uncomfortable." It should. Josey Wales would have told them to "arm themselves."
I would, too. ;-)
In the meantime here in Colorado, I will OC everywhere I go...EXCEPT the private businesses coming out as anti-gun. Even if they are "anti-gun only in TX," I won't go to their stores here (if any) in CO. Whether they will miss my $$ or not, don't care, I just won't go there, period.
So for ME, "The No Guns List" is important.
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P.S. I feel "qualified" to speak on "What's Up in Texas" (even though I now live in Colorado) since I lived in TX most of my life, and only moved here to the Great State of Colorado in 2013, AND was part of TX's effort to get OC before I moved. My present "duty" here in CO is to help vote our sorry anti-gun Democrat Governor (and some others) out of office this coming election, get the anti-gun he & others got passed repealed, and to help get CO back on the "right" (conservative) track.
