{"id":2029,"date":"2013-09-18T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T14:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2013\/09\/18\/if-i-wanted-waffles-id-have-gone-to\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:22:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:22:52","slug":"if-i-wanted-waffles-id-have-gone-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=2029","title":{"rendered":"If I Wanted Waffles, I&#8217;d Have Gone To Waffle House"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:12804,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.britannica.com\\\/EBchecked\\\/topic\\\/104904\\\/Neville-Chamberlain&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20150503083357\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.britannica.com:80\\\/EBchecked\\\/topic\\\/104904\\\/Neville-Chamberlain&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 14:18:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 20:12:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 20:12:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:12805,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.starbucks.com\\\/blog\\\/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz\\\/1268&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20170525042334\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.starbucks.com\\\/blog\\\/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz\\\/1268&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 14:18:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 20:12:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 20:12:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10437,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.constitution.org\\\/2ll\\\/bardwell\\\/state_v_kerner.txt&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.constitution.org\\\/2ll\\\/bardwell\\\/state_v_kerner.txt&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>\nHoward Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, released an open letter yesterday requesting that Starbucks&#8217; customers no longer carry when they visit Starbucks. It is a waffling statement meant to appease the gun prohibitionists while at the same time trying not to offend the gun culture too much. As Neville Chamberlain would ruefully attest, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.britannica.com\/EBchecked\/topic\/104904\/Neville-Chamberlain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appeasement is never a good policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Schultz should realize that appeasement is never a good policy when dealing with those who would seek to curtail civil rights.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starbucks.com\/blog\/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz\/1268\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Schultz&#8217;s statement<\/a> is below:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>Tuesday, September 17, 2013<\/p>\n<p>Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer<\/p>\n<p>Dear Fellow Americans,<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s why I am writing today with <b>a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>From the beginning, our vision at Starbucks has been to create a \u201cthird place\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America\u2019s gun laws, and we recognize the deep passion for and against the \u201copen carry\u201d laws adopted by many states. (In the United States, \u201copen carry\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>Our company\u2019s longstanding approach to \u201copen carry\u201d has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don\u2019t 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\u2014not by Starbucks and our store partners.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, however, we\u2019ve seen the \u201copen carry\u201d 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 \u201cStarbucks Appreciation Days\u201d that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of \u201copen carry.\u201d <b>To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores.<\/b> Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.<\/p>\n<p><b>For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas\u2014even in states where \u201copen carry\u201d is permitted\u2014unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I would like to clarify two points. First, <b>this is a request<\/b> and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request\u2014and 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 \u201copen carry,\u201d we believe the legislative and policy-making process is the proper arena for this debate, not our stores. For those who champion \u201copen carry,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>I am proud of our country and our heritage of civil discourse and debate. It is in this spirit that we make today\u2019s request. Whatever your view, I encourage you to be responsible and respectful of each other as citizens and neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Howard Schultz<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I, for one, will &#8220;respect&#8221; Mr. Schultz&#8217;s request &#8211; I won&#8217;t carry, concealed or openly, in his stores. I will even go one step further and no longer patronize his stores or his products. <\/p>\n<p>By the way, open carry has been legal in North Carolina without a permit since 1921. That is when the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.constitution.org\/2ll\/bardwell\/state_v_kerner.txt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">North Carolina Supreme Court ruled it was legal<\/a> in <i>State v. Kerner<\/i> saying that the right to keep and bear arms under the North Carolina Constitution was &#8220;a sacred right&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, released an open letter yesterday requesting that Starbucks&#8217; customers no longer carry when they&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1050,2884],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-appeasement","tag-starbucks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9458,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions\/9458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}