Target’s Non-Ban Gun Ban

Covington VA –-(Ammoland.com)- Target has followed Starbucks’s and Chipotle’s lead and is “asking” gun owners not to carry in their stores.

That is totally different from banning guns.

It’s meant to shut up the Lying Moms Demand Action (LMDA) members (all 30 of them), while leaving everything else status quo.

** For gun owners, it really means nothing has changed at all. **

What’s happening is really pretty simple. Starbucks, Chipotle, and Target are in the business of selling things. They were not formed to either protect, or to hurt, the Second Amendment or any of the other Amendments for that matter. And they certainly don’t want to be in the middle of a battle over those rights. They just want to sell things regardless of their customer’s religion, politics, race, gender, or any other status.

So the LMDA starts whining (and they are really good at that!) and the corporation tries to figure out how to extricate themselves from the controversy, while keeping as many of their customers as they can. They aren’t anti-gun or anti-self-defense, they just want out of the middle.

The solution is what we are seeing now. It goes like this: in a soon-to-be-forgotten press release, they announce that they are “asking” gun owners not to bring guns in their stores. And, in the same press release, they make it clear that they are not actually banning guns. No gun-buster stickers on the doors, no one asked to leave if they do carry.

A Target spokesperson specifically stated that this policy is NOT a gun ban.

Some gun owners want to boycott places like Starbucks, Chipotle, and Target because these stores ASKED that guns not be carried there. Far be it from me to tell any of you how or where to spend your hard-earned cash. But for me, it’s life as usual. I will continue to go to Starbucks and Target and I will be carrying. If they didn’t want me there, they’d TELL me, not ASK me.

If Target were to start kicking gun owners out of their stores, that would change everything. But there has been no hint of any such thing happening from either Starbucks or Chipotle and I don’t think it will happen at Target either.

This question has been coming up: if the LMDA attacks stores like Target to ban guns, shouldn’t we counter them?

That’s a good question without an easy answer. Gun owners DID lobby Starbucks heavily and in the end we got a non-ban ban. We did NOT lobby Target and we got a non-ban ban.

From a store’s point of view the non-ban ban is a great way to resolve such an issue. It’s hard for us to argue and win against a ban that does nothing but stop some loud whining from grown women.

We could try to punish the stores in question, but why? They said we can still carry and that we are still welcome there. What is it we would be fighting to accomplish that we don’t already have?

I say we hold our ire for a store that actually ends up banning guns. THEN VCDL will kick into high gear with protests, email, mail and robocalls against those stores. They will be lit up like a deer in the headlights, for our numbers are vastly superior and our members are much more dedicated and articulate than anything LMDA could ever hope to muster.

For now we have a non-event.

There is one caveat, however: if you hear the media saying that Target has instituted a gun ban, do not let that pass. They are probably parroting something they heard elsewhere without actually investigating what was really said by Target. Make sure everyone understands the truth about these non-ban bans.

Again Target SPECIFICALLY said there is NO gun ban, just a polite request.

About:
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right. Visit: www.vcdl.org