Placating The Harpies

Target released a mush-mouth statement yesterday to placate the harpies at Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors. Their interim CEO John Mulligan who, by the way, has only held the job for less than 2 months, issued a Starbucks-like statement that said, in part:

As you’ve likely seen in the media, there has been a debate about whether guests in communities that permit “open carry” should be allowed to bring firearms into Target stores. Our approach has always been to follow local laws, and of course, we will continue to do so. But starting today we will also respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target – even in communities where it is permitted by law.

That placated the harpies who proclaimed “VICTORY” in a big banner headline on their website.

Later yesterday afternoon, a spokesperson for Target clarified the statement put out by Mulligan saying, “It is not a ban,” she said. “There is no prohibition.” In other words, nothing changes.

It’s time to remember a few things about Target. They really only care about one thing – money. They have seen sales drop for the last six quarters (oops!) and are desperate to regain their footing. They think that by placating the Shannon Watts of the world that sales might rise. What they forget is that these oh-so-trendy “moms” think Walmart is icky and don’t have any other discount chain at which to shop anyway.

The other thing to remember about Target is that they don’t give a damn about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The only parts that they care about is the First Amendment protection for commercial speech and possibly the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. The Second, Fourth, and all the rest? While they might not say it out loud especially on the eve of Independence Day, they do not care. They care about the bottom line. It’s time we remember that.

UPDATE: The Stupidity and Hypocrisy of Gun Control Advocates Facebook page nails it here. I read it earlier today and then spent an hour or so looking for it again.  Bob Owens and Tam are not far behind in their snarkiness.

I really do like Bob’s rewrite of the Target statement:

How the heck did we get caught up in this mess? All we want to do is sell cheap foreign-made stuff to hausfraus who feel they’re too good to be “people of Walmart.” We don’t want to be involved in gun rights politics at all.

But thanks to some grandstanding long-gun open carry yahoos in Texas who can’t figure out basic muzzle discipline, and the response of some shrill harpies in Indiana taking orders from a bitter under-sized billionaire in New York, we’re screwed through no fault of our own.

We really don’t want any part of this… so how can we make it all go away, so we can go back to trying to make money for our shareholders?

I know! We’ll send out a non-committal yet carefully crafted press release that sounds like it’s saying something, while we actually change nothing. The little Moms Demanding Action From Illegal Mayors group will claim victory and come back to buy zinfandel and Xanax, and the retards who never passed range safety will stop muzzling each other’s feet in our parking lots and will go back to playing Call of Duty and leave us alone.

Heck, it worked for Starbucks.

Armed With Children?

Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors decided to hold a little protest at a San Antonio, Texas Target store. Jamie Addams, the San Antonio regional ambassador for the gun control group, said “they were armed with clipboards and children” but were still asked to leave.

Armed with children? Isn’t that what warlords in sub-Saharan Africa have been accused of doing with their child soldiers? Hasn’t this become an issue for UNICEF?

Rebels in Mozambique started the use of children in the early 1980s. As the New York Times notes in a story about child soldiers, they are the perfect weapon. Children are “easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless and, most important, in endless supply.” Could that be the reason Everytown Moms uses children as “arms”?

The real story here isn’t that the Target store manager told the Everytown Moms to move along which was nice. Rather it is the comments of the Everytown Mom’s “regional ambassador” regarding the organization’s use of children as tools in their war on civil rights. Children should not be used as tools or props or weapons.

UPDATE: The picture below is from an Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors protest outside a Target store in Pennsylvania. I count four “child warriors” in the picture with (what appears to be) a fifth on the way. Tell me that any of those kids is old enough to articulately explain why they are there and why they are protesting Target’s policy of abiding by local laws. While the Catholic Church may consider the “age of reason” to be 6 or 7, I doubt you could extrapolate that to protesting for gun control.

If I had to guess, the woman who is standing second from left is the leader of this little group. I wonder if she is being paid with Bloomberg money. Does anyone know who she is?