Hey, gun owners.
If you want a caramel frap or one of those delicious, godly and seasonal pumpkin spice lattes, you have to do one thing and one thing only: Leave your gun at home.
In the wake of yet another mass shooting in America, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is asking gun owners to leave the firearms at home, even though Starbucks policy was to ignore local gun laws, which allowed gun advocates to carry firearms into their stores.
And because of the policy, gun owners would flock to Starbucks chains to push their own political agendas. Back in August, gun-rights advocates held a national “Starbucks Appreciation Day” to thank the company for its stance on gun laws – a move that no doubt pulled the coffee giant into the controversial gun control debate.
Starbucks, not usually one for the political fight, closed shop at locations in Newtown, Connecticut when local gun advocates wanted to participate and promote “Starbucks Appreciation Day” in a town where 20 children were shot to death by Adam Lanza.
Schultz said in an open letter to customers that Starbucks Appreciation Day events “disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of ‘open carry.'”
“To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores.”
“We’ve seen the ‘open carry’ debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening,” Schultz wrote, noting that “some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction,” at times soliciting and confronting employees and patrons.
“We found ourselves in a position where advocates on both sides of the issue were using Starbucks as a staging ground for their own political position,” said Schultz, who in the past has willingly waded into the public debate over the U.S. national debt and gay marriage.
Schultz said more people had been bringing guns into Starbucks shops over the last six months, prompting confusion and dismay among some customers and employees.
“I’m not worried we’re going to lose customers over this,” he told Reuters. “I feel like I’ve made the best decision in the interest of our company.”
Starbucks didn’t offer an outright ban on guns in their stores, however.
But this is a start, right?
SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Facebook
