Archived Target Waffles on Guns in Stores

[redeye58]

Had a couple guys with their guns slung over their shoulders come up to my counter & order coffee. While I was ringing them up, one asked my opinion about open carry.
I looked him straight in the eye & said, "Number one, Target doesn't pay me to have an opinion. Number two, there's nothing to differentiate a 'good' guy vs a 'bad' guy except, perhaps, a uniform or badge so seeing you all strutting around with your guns does NOT make me feel safer."
He nodded a little, saying I had a 'good point' before leaving with his coffee.

 

[TiedAndDropped]

Yeah I have sort have learned from life experience, if the guys with guns are not in uniforms of Law Enforcement or Military(US or Canadian) I am going the opposite direction in a pretty big hurry.. The odds of the random guy with a gun being a good guy - not all that good in my experience.

Uniformed military (US) are very rarely allowed to carry weapons off base. About the only time you will see them is if they are traveling as a unit to a field exercise at a nearby base and they make a pit stop at a gas station. 90% of the time, they are required to hand their weapon off before going inside. In the rare event that the CO authorizes them to keep their weapons slung, it will ALWAYS be unloaded.

A big problem with these gun activists is that open carrying a rifle is going to do nothing for self defense even though they claim thats why they are carrying them. A long gun strapped to your back is going to be very hard to bring to bear in closed quarters such as the lego aisle. Also even if they go to the range to learn to shoot most people do not have the training to safely and accurately use a gun in a self defense situation. So even if they are able to bring their gun to the ready, the chances of them being able to hit their target among other panicked guests and TMs is very small.

Pretty much this. Most gun hobbyists I've known like to practice military airsoft shooting techniques which have 0 application in the civilian world. Things like suppressive fire don't work when it's 1-2 targets with a dozen innocent bystanders nearby .

Generally, open carrying a weapon makes you the first target if a criminal is going to rob/shoot up the place. Most criminals will scout the area first before carrying out their plan (after all you don't want to rob one register only to find out there's a uniform cop in the lane behind you). When someone is obviously armed, the criminal is more likely to just shoot him in the back of the head and eliminate that threat immediately.

Case in point: In 2011, 72 cops were murdered on duty, the majority of which by firearms. Only 17 of them were able to shoot back. (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/uc...eloniously-killed/officers-feloniously-killed).

In the recent Las Vegas shooting after killing the two cops the shooters (a man/wife couple) went into a WalMart and told everybody to leave. A "good guy with a gun" stayed, drew his gun, and tried to sneak up on the guy. He walked right past the wife, who then came up behind him and put a bullet in the back of his head. Some called him a hero, I call him a fool. Leave law enforcement to law enforcement officers - they are actually trained.

 

[Guest]

I think it has to be an all or nothing type of ban on weapons. If you ban guns, gots to ban everything else. I think the gun control enthusiasts change their mins when their lives are at risk. I mean if you are being chased in your house by a rapist that has a gun, don't you have the right to defend your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? And what if you are in the wild and there is a wild animal trying to kill you, don't you have the right to defend yourself?

 

[oath2order]

I think it has to be an all or nothing type of ban on weapons. If you ban guns, gots to ban everything else.

 

[Red Master]

You might be able to outrun someone with a knife, but you'll never outrun a bullet being shot at you.

More people are killed with knives than with guns every year in the U.S.

 

[Guest]

I stand by what I said. Put yourself in the situation and tell me if you would want to be left with nothing but your bare hands to defend yourself from danger. People have the right to live and be happy.

 

[oath2order]

You might be able to outrun someone with a knife, but you'll never outrun a bullet being shot at you.

More people are killed with knives than with guns every year in the U.S.

To ensure that all Wikipedia content is verifiable, anyone may question an un-cited claim by inserting a {{Citation needed}} tag.

 

[The Dude Abides]

Has anyone said all guns should be banned or are you just arguing against a straw man you created?

 

[Red Master]

You might be able to outrun someone with a knife, but you'll never outrun a bullet being shot at you.

More people are killed with knives than with guns every year in the U.S.

To ensure that all Wikipedia content is verifiable, anyone may question an un-cited claim by inserting a {{Citation needed}} tag.

I apologize, I got my information mixed up a little. More people are killed every year with knives than with "assault weapons", not all types of guns.

 

[oath2order]

You might be able to outrun someone with a knife, but you'll never outrun a bullet being shot at you.

More people are killed with knives than with guns every year in the U.S.

To ensure that all Wikipedia content is verifiable, anyone may question an un-cited claim by inserting a {{Citation needed}} tag.

I apologize, I got my information mixed up a little. More people are killed every year with knives than with "assault weapons", not all types of guns.

Still waiting on the citation and source.

 

[Dying Sun]

honestly I have my permit and love to shoot for recreation and sport, and would love to be able to carry at work as my store is in a questionable area I already carry my dragonstrike knife on me at all times after I was jumped walking home from work one night many years ago, my 9mm would just be an upgrade

 

[Red Master]

More people are killed with knives than with guns every year in the U.S.

To ensure that all Wikipedia content is verifiable, anyone may question an un-cited claim by inserting a {{Citation needed}} tag.

I apologize, I got my information mixed up a little. More people are killed every year with knives than with "assault weapons", not all types of guns.

Still waiting on the citation and source.

http://www.examiner.com/article/fbi...hammers-clubs-fists-than-with-rifles-shotguns

 

[The Dude Abides]

Ignoring that the article you linked is a political hack job that uses one statistic and blows it out of proportion let's delve deeper into these numbers:

Yes it does indeed list that knifes, blunt weapons and fists/feet killed more people than assault rifles in the years listed. However this doesn't account for the fact that in each year roughly 2,000 gun homicides are listed as "firearm type not stated" and that in total gun deaths outnumber those other categories by more than ten times in volume.

I would also like to make clear no one in this discussion is saying all guns need to be banned, the anti-gun side is just saying openly carrying assault rifles in public should be illegal. I don't think that is an unreasonable stance.

 

[Red Master]

This whole discussion is stupid. It's as simple as this, a criminal doesn't care if a business has a no gun policy, if he wants to he will just walk right in and proceed to rob the store and/or murder the un-armed and defensless people inside. All a no gun policy does is prevent law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.

 

[Barcode]

I stand by what I said. Put yourself in the situation and tell me if you would want to be left with nothing but your bare hands to defend yourself from danger. People have the right to live and be happy.

You don't need to wave your weapons in peoples faces to defend yourself...... Almost everyone in this thread supports the right to carry a firearm, just NOT CARRYING IT AT LOW FREAKING READY / SLUNG OVER YOUR SHOULDER.............. CONCEAL & CARRY!

 

[oath2order]

This whole discussion is stupid. It's as simple as this, a criminal doesn't care if a business has a no gun policy, if he wants to he will just walk right in and proceed to rob the store and/or murder the un-armed and defensless people inside. All a no gun policy does is prevent law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.

Great, just what I bloody need, some nitwit "law abiding citizen defending myself". You work at Target, I'm sure you know the clientele very well. Target clientele is not the type of people I want to be "defending themselves" if someone tries to rob the store.

 

[Guest]

I don't even own a gun and to be honest, I don't want a gun. More drama and stress if you ask me. But if you want to own a gun and are smart enough, responsible, and trained then why not? I just laugh at extremists with the whole "let's ban every gun" mentality. I also laugh at the attention whores that brag and boast and stick their chests out with "look at my gun, it makes me a man" mentality. Yeah, you have an assault rifle hanging off your shoulder. Do you want a medal or something?

 

[Signkitty]

I don't think anyone here posted that they wanted to ban all guns.

Also it does seem thst company took the time to look at how this issue was impacting sales since they did not comment or make a move for a few weeks.

 

[Red Master]

I don't think anyone here posted that they wanted to ban all guns.

Also it does seem thst company took the time to look at how this issue was impacting sales since they did not comment or make a move for a few weeks.

The OP wants Target to ban all guns.

And you're right, this is all about sales, that's the only thing Target cares about.

 

[Red Master]

This whole discussion is stupid. It's as simple as this, a criminal doesn't care if a business has a no gun policy, if he wants to he will just walk right in and proceed to rob the store and/or murder the un-armed and defensless people inside. All a no gun policy does is prevent law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.

Great, just what I bloody need, some nitwit "law abiding citizen defending myself". You work at Target, I'm sure you know the clientele very well. Target clientele is not the type of people I want to be "defending themselves" if someone tries to rob the store.

So just because a few of our guests aren't the brightest people in the world, you think that none of our guests should be able to have the ability to defend themselves?

 

[oath2order]

This whole discussion is stupid. It's as simple as this, a criminal doesn't care if a business has a no gun policy, if he wants to he will just walk right in and proceed to rob the store and/or murder the un-armed and defensless people inside. All a no gun policy does is prevent law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.

Great, just what I bloody need, some nitwit "law abiding citizen defending myself". You work at Target, I'm sure you know the clientele very well. Target clientele is not the type of people I want to be "defending themselves" if someone tries to rob the store.

So just because a few of our guests aren't the brightest people in the world, you think that none of our guests should be able to have the ability to defend themselves?

Hey, I have a question for you. How often do supermarkets like Target get robbed?

 

[The Dude Abides]

This whole discussion is stupid. It's as simple as this, a criminal doesn't care if a business has a no gun policy, if he wants to he will just walk right in and proceed to rob the store and/or murder the un-armed and defensless people inside. All a no gun policy does is prevent law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.

Horrible argument for reasons cited before. By putting people into the wrong for open carry everyone knows the second they see a person with an assault rifle slung over their shoulder to call 911 and get the hell out of there. In addition if someone were to rob Target the last thing I would want as the GSA that's going to be handing the money over is for some wannabe hero to attempt to save the day. Chances are that person is just going to get themselves or another innocent bystander killed by turning it from a robbery to a murder spree. Look at the example from the Walmart when the concealed carry guy attempted to fight back he was killed. Now compare that to the recent situation posted in this forum about a Target being robbed in the Philadelphia area, the GSA calmly emptied the registers and gave the robbers the money. No one pulled out a gun to fight back and as a result no one was injured.

 

[IHeartCarts]

Jack's sig is perfect for every post he makes.

 

[Retail Girl]

We can disagree without resorting to personal attacks.

 

[Guest]

Please leave Ed Norton and Fight Club out of this. I am still waiting for some celebrity or hippie to demand a knife ban and sword ban.