Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer

Dear Fellow Americans,

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’s why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.

From the beginning, our vision at Starbucks has been to create a “third place” 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.

We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America’s gun laws, and we recognize the deep passion for and against the “open carry” laws adopted by many states. (In the United States, “open carry” 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.

Our company’s longstanding approach to “open carry” has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don’t 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—not by Starbucks and our store partners.

Recently, however, we’ve seen the “open carry” 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 “Starbucks Appreciation Days” that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of “open carry.” To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.

For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas—even in states where “open carry” is permitted—unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.

I would like to clarify two points. First, this is a request and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request—and 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 “open carry,” we believe the legislative and policy-making process is the proper arena for this debate, not our stores. For those who champion “open carry,” 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.

I am proud of our country and our heritage of civil discourse and debate. It is in this spirit that we make today’s request. Whatever your view, I encourage you to be responsible and respectful of each other as citizens and neighbors.

Sincerely,

Howard Schultz

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“When will enough be enough?” Feinstein said in a statement Monday evening.

“Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country,” she said. “We must do more to stop this endless loss of life.”

The FBI confirmed Monday afternoon that 34-year-old Aaron Alexis is the suspect in Monday’s massacre at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Alexis died at the scene. Authorities are still looking for other potential gunmen in the rampage that has killed at least a dozen people.

“I mourn those killed today at the Navy Yard in Washington and send my thoughts and prayers to those families grieving the loss of loved ones,” Feinstein said.

“There are reports the killer was armed with an AR-15, a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol when he stormed an American military installation in the nation’s capital and took at least 12 innocent lives,” she said.

Feinstein has long been an anti-gun rights activist. After last year’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, she unsuccessfully pushed to ban more than 150 types of firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns.

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Just hours before, Maketa attended a rally where he lent his voice “to citizens fighting for their constitutional rights through the recall process.”

Speaking to Breitbart News, Maketa made it clear that he understands Coloradans’ frustration with the new gun control laws: “If you look at it from the macro-level, these laws did not deliver what was promised.”

“Number one–they were passed under the promise that they would prevent another Aurora or Sandy Hook but there is no validity to that statement,” he explained.

“Number two–these laws were not born in Colorado. Rather, they are just a copy of what NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others are trying to do all around the country,” Maketa said. “Number three–the laws are unenforceable. They ban ‘high capacity’ magazines purchased after the laws went into effect on July 1, but provide no mechanism for knowing which magazines were in fact owned or transferred prior to that date.”

“Also, the rules of possession at a length of 72 hours mean that if your firearm is out of your possession for more than 72 hours you have to do a background check to get it back,” Maketa revealed. “I have a friend in Special Forces, and what this rule means for him is that each time he’s deployed and leaves his gun with this fiance, she has to have an initial background check and then another background check every 30 until he returns in order to keep possession of the firearms.”

“This is just one more burden on a man who is fighting for our country,” Maketa said.

“Number four–the mandated background check on every gun sale requires that the check be done with an Federal Firearm License (FFL) holder,” he said. “But as the name suggests, these are federal license holders under federal guidelines, not under state guidelines. Yet the state wants to mandate their actions?”

When Breitbart News asked Maketa what he thought of the recall efforts, he said: “I firmly believe that if voters think their representatives are not representing their views fairly, then they ought to be able to fire them.”

“Constituents should be able to fire representatives who ignore constituents,” Maketa stated. “Voters think the two senators currently being recalled dismissed their opinions–literally said they did not want to hear from them–and when a representative shows that kind of arrogance, that kind of tyranny, the people ought to be able to fire them.”

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“Empty shell casings are considered ammunition in Washington, D.C., so they are illegal to possess unless you are a resident and have a gun registration certificate,” pens Emily Miller in her investigative book, “Emily Gets Her Gun: … But Obama Wants to Take Yours.”

Under the law, live or empty brass and plastic casings must be carried in a special container and unavailable to drivers. Having one, for example, in a cup holder or ash tray is illegal.

She told Secrets that the police are “under orders to arrest tourists or other legal gun owners from out of state who wouldn’t think to empty brass and plastic from their cars or pockets.”

In her newly debuted book about the difficulty getting a gun in Washington, known for tough anti-gun laws, D.C. Police provided Miller with a copy of a recent “roll call” advisory that tells cops to overlook spent casings in the cars and trucks of city residents who have their gun registration certificate with them when detained, despite the law.

The advisory gives the example of a used .45 cartridge in a SUV’s cup holder easily seen by a cop who had pulled a District resident over for an unrelated traffic issue. “In order to comply with the law,” said the July 2012 police advisory, “the cartridge case should be stored so it is not accessible from the from the passenger compartment and the driver is, in fact violating the law and could be placed under arrest for this action.”

Because the driver had a copy of his District gun license, arrest was not recommended.

Tourists without that city license, however, don’t get the same treatment, said Miller.

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Four months after a gun control drive collapsed spectacularly in the Senate, President Barack Obama added two more executive actions to a list of 23 steps the White House determined Obama could take on his own to reduce gun violence. With the political world focused on Mideast tensions and looming fiscal battles, the move signaled Obama’s intent to show he hasn’t lost sight of the cause he took up after 20 first graders and six adults were gunned down last year in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

Vice President Joe Biden, Obama’s point-man on gun control after the Newtown tragedy thrust guns into the national spotlight, unveiled the new actions Thursday at the White House.

“It’s simple, it’s straightforward, it’s common sense,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room.

One new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons, sold or donated by the U.S. to allies, be reimported into the U.S. by private entities, where some may end up on the streets. The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.

The Obama administration is also proposing a federal rule to stop those who would be ineligible to pass a background check from skirting the law by registering certain guns, like machine guns and short-barreled shotguns, to a corporation or trust. The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks as individuals if they want to register those types of guns.

“It’s a very artful dodge to get around people who are not capable, constitutionally or legally, of owning a weapon,” Biden said.

The National Rifle Association dismissed the administration’s moves as misdirected, arguing that background checks for corporations and a ban on reimporting outdated guns wouldn’t keep criminals from getting weapons.

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Hawkins told Morgan that there were less violent crimes in America than in England and Wales per 100,000 people because women in American can defend themselves regardless of any inequality in physical strength.
“My problem is I don’t want to see all the women in America armed with guns,” Morgan said.
Morgan said he believed “where there are guns,” there is a “much higher incidence” of suicide and domestic violence with firearms.

Earlier in the segment, Hawkins told Morgan that in England and Wales, for every 100,000 people, there are 775 violent crimes, including sexual assaults—which primarily are perpetrated on women. Hawkins said that in America, there are 383 violent crimes for every 100,000 people.

“The difference is here, women can shoot back,” Hawkins said. “You chase them into an attic, they are going to shoot at you to protect their own lives and the lives of their children.”

Hawkins was referring to a story he told earlier in the segment about a woman in Georgia who, in the first week of January, shot an intruder five times when he chased her and her two children into their attic. Hawkins said the woman’s husband urged her to shoot the intruder over the phone.

Hawkins said, “I would like my wife to be armed were she in that position.” He then asked Morgan, “Wouldn’t you want your wife to be armed were she to be in that position?” The host did not reply to that question.

Earlier in the segment, Morgan said it was disconcerting that there was a “spike in gun sales” in places like Newtown, where the Sandy Hook massacre took place. However, Hawkins replied that fewer guns through gun control would amount to a “war on women,” because “it makes women who are prone to attack more prone to attack and prone to more frequent attack.”

“When you or President Obama or whoever supports forcibly disarming the American citizenry, we make the vulnerable the more vulnerable we make the weak or those prone to attack more prone to attack, and that’s especially true to women,” Hawkins argued. “Gun control never makes the vulnerable less vulnerable, it always makes them more vulnerable. For me, I want to see not just men, but women to be able defend their lives with guns as needed, and that means they need access to them.”

Hawkins and Morgan debated whether an increase in guns reduced crime, and Hawkins pointed out that an increase in guns coincided with a drop in the percentage of violent crimes and the murder rate in states like Virginia. Hawkins then asked Morgan to look at place with stringent gun control laws like Chicago, asserting that nearly 10% of the 441 people killed in Chicago in 2011 were women.

“I would prefer that those women have guns to protect their lives,” Hawkins said. However, Morgan remained dismissive.

“I would tell that to the families of the women who were killed at Sandy Hook,” he replied. “I’m not sure they would quite see it the same way.”

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It happened in the 2100 block of McMinn Street in Aliquippa.

Aliquippa police say a witness saw Cameron White walking down a street carrying what appeared to be a sawed off shotgun.

She called police, but noticed that White was heading in the direction of a group of children.

Police say she feared White was going to shoot the children, so she ran over him with her car.

White was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police believe he was actually going to rob the Circle K mini-mart down the road and that she may have prevented the robbery

They say White was carrying an airsoft pellet gun which had been sawed off to look like a shotgun, and the orange tip had been taken off.

The Beaver County District Attorney says they are not going to charge her with running White over.

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Gilberton, Pennsylvania is a small borough which is currently living under the constant threat of terroristic violence. Armed men block the entrance to public meetings. Public officials openly threaten every member of society who holds a different political view than they do, and councilmen are strip searched and arrested without cause if they don’t fall in line with prevailing opinions.

Anyone who tries to fire the Police Chief is be forced to live in fear of retaliation from a militia of armed terrorists. Pennsylvania police chief Mark Kessler is the head of a political organization which refers to itself as “The Constitution Security Force.“ Kessler was recently given a thirty day suspension, for using police property as props in a video where he threatens and insults “libtards,” otherwise known as people who hold political views which differ from his own.

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His apartment complex, the Oakwood Apartments in Castle Rock, sent out a notice telling all residents to get rid of their guns.

The 77-year-old retired US Marine Corps veteran sent a newstip to 9Wants to Know saying he’s afraid he’ll be homeless if he doesn’t comply.

The letter went out to residents on August 1 and says they have until October 1 to comply with updated “community policies.”

On page 2 is a brand new provision saying “firearms and weapons are prohibited.”

“It upsets me very much,” Dorsch said.

As of October 1, residents cannot display, use, or possess any firearms or weapons of any kind, anywhere on the property.

“I’m a hunter. I’m a licensed conceal and carry person,” Dorsch said.

Dorsch says the guns, which he keeps securely locked in a safe, make him feel secure in his home.

“They want to take them all away from me. They say I can’t live here,” he said.

Dorsh says apartment managers told him to give up the guns and stay, give notice and move out voluntarily, or be forced to move out if he doesn’t comply with the new policy.

Nobody answered the door at the apartment office on Tuesday afternoon.

When reached by phone, Brooke Young, Ross Management Group regional manager, said “It’s our policy not to comment to the news media,” before hanging up.

“The best thing this tenant can do is either move out or get rid of the guns,” 9NEWS legal analyst Scott Robinson said.

Robinson says, in most cases, courts have supported the rights of landlords to impose “reasonable regulations” on tenants.

“The question is: is an outright ban of firearms reasonable in light of the US Constitution?” Robinson said.

Dorsch says the issue goes beyond the Second Amendment.

“I’m vulnerable. I’m not safe,” Dorsch said.

If he loses his guns, Dorsch says he loses so much more.

“My freedom,” Dorsch said. “Yeah it’s emotional. Because I don’t think it’s fair.”

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Under federal and most state laws, legal gun owners lose their right to possess firearms when they are convicted of a felony or violent misdemeanor, or are judged by a court to be mentally ill. Officials tell these people they must surrender their guns, but in much of the country, authorities don’t ensure they do. Instead, people who are prohibited from having guns are left to get rid of them on their own.

Now some officials are accelerating efforts to seize those firearms. In recent months, the sheriff of Cook County, which includes Chicago, launched a gun-confiscation program; California began adding agents assigned to take away firearms; and New York enacted a law that paves the way for such a program.

On a recent Wednesday here in the rundown suburbs south of Chicago, five police officers with bulletproof vests and Glock handguns knocked on doors and tried to talk their way into homes of felons and mentally ill residents who, according to records, held gun licenses.

In its first six months, the unit has confiscated nearly 200 guns, but it has almost 5,000 more names to check.

“It’s beyond absurd that no one takes it to the final step and makes sure these people don’t have guns,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a former Democratic state lawmaker who says he launched the gun-confiscation program in February after recognizing the lack of enforcement.

Critics say such programs sometimes also confiscate the guns of people convicted of crimes unrelated to firearms, such as drunken driving or tax evasion. George Mason University law professor Joyce Lee Malcolm, a Second Amendment scholar and gun-rights advocate, said laws on who can’t possess firearms are too broad. “People that have committed a nonviolent crime are not a danger to the community,” she said, “so it seems wrong to seize guns from them.”

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