In the OP’s hypothetical, apparently the staff feel they are in imminent danger of death at the hands of their customers. I’m a customer, so apparently they think they’re in imminent danger from me. I’d give the staff a chance to relax by shopping elsewhere.
IMO it wouldnt bother me …
i would return …
i mean, i have not seen anyone get injured at a gun show ( expect if your stealing something )
people just have a negative view on this subject because of all the situation(s) that have been happening in recent year(s)
the more people that carry they know that an incident will not happen. because they will know the out come. preventative measure(s) ( and not metal detectors, or mental history records ) can prove anything, it just delays. a gun is a tool. like any object, like a knife, lamp cord, plastic bag, etc …
i guess you can say, a bad guy with a gun can be stop by a good gun with a gun. i do not want to be in a situation at where no one has a gun ( and that is not including police, military, etc … ) for someone being unsteady. they seem to not start anything at when they are around because they know that they are packing …
again this is my opinion …
Re-reading the OP, I’m not sure what “discreetly armed” means. Open carry is not specified, and in the places I’ve seen it, it has not seemed to me to be particularly discreet.
In everyday settings, guns are the nuclear option. I wouldn’t like being in a setting where everyone but me has the nuclear option and I certainly don’t want to be in a place where everyone thinks that option is likely to be needed.
In everyday life, I expect a few people to be armed. A little old lady might have a small gun in her purse, that military looking guy with the short hair might have a concealed carry permit, and of course, security guards, police and such carry openly. But normal, everyday folks with open sidearms are is no different to me than if everyone walked around with baseball bats with spikes or with swords. I wouldn’t visit that business again.
This for me as well. If the people who work there feel unsafe unless they carry a gun, it must be a very dangerous place, so I’m outta there. I feel the same way when I am in areas of the US where carrying guns around is common. I go to Houston all the time, and am always nervous. If everyone is so scared about something happening that they need to carry a gun, it must be horribly dangerous there.
ETA: Sorry, just realized this question was directed at Americans. I am not an American, so you can disregard!
That’s how I feel when I see one of those signs at a door indicating that guns are not allowed. Thank you for telling me I am not welcome. I’ll take my business elsewhere, thank you very much.
As for the OP, it kind of depends on the store. If it’s a gun store, I’m used to seeing staff with pistols on their hip. Not so much at other stores, but I can’t say it would bother me, though it would be a curiosity.
USAmerican here. I would be out of there in a flash.
I don’t care if someone’s trying to make some nebulous political point. I will not give them any business.
I will shop where the employees/owners are not paranoid, frightened ninnies.
Being born with a gun attached to you is a really weird congenital defect, Orwell.
Either they anticipate needing to use those guns, or they don’t. If they don’t anticipate using the guns, but got them anyway, then they’re irrational. If they do anticipate using them, then I don’t want to be there, because being in places where guns are used is dangerous. Either way, I leave.
I think they would probably need to shoot a well-wisher, a close friend, or a good customer. For the life of me, I can’t think of anybody else that a business that has cash on property would need to shoot.
I’m also curious as to whom the local PD expects that they need to shoot; many, if not all of them, even have their weapons on them for 8 hours at a time!
Per the OP, I would see if their prices would accommodate my making a change to taking all of my business there. Kindred spirits, and the like.
See, to me this is the perfect scenario. Both sides recognize the rights of the other side.
Shop owners are free to to run their businesses as they see fit and shoppers are free to patronize stores they feel comfortable in regardless of what their individual views are.
I guess I’d bring a gun next time so I did not stand out as the only unarmed person in the room.
As long as the people were not LEOs, I would be okay with it I guess. If they were, I’d shop elsewhere, as I do not like the gun/badge combo and accompanying attitudes.
Yeah, I would assume that the store is in a dangerous neighborhood and I would quietly leave.
Sole purpose? Cite please.
In 2011 there were 10.8 firearms purchased in the US. Doing some rough addition, 80 MILLION sold in the 10 years 2011 and prior. They are really really ineffective if injure, maim, or kill is their sole purpose.
I find the scenario in the OP to be a bit inflammatory, but ok, I will bite. I would be curious, but not concerned. I grew up around guns. It has never been “weird” to see someone open carry.
The greatest harm done when these random crazies go on a shooting rampage is when the citizens are unarmed and they have to wait for Johnny Law to arrive. When someone on scene is armed, the situation is generally ended much more quickly, with less loss of life. And the perp leaves in a bodybag.
Okay, I have to ask. Why do you feel the need to walk around with a gun? Seriously. Do you feel so unsafe in your daily life that you believe it is necessary to be armed, or do you just because you can?
America’s fetishization of guns has become not only ri-goddamned-diculous but crazy. I am trained in the use of small caliber firearms, although I do not currently own a gun, and probably never will again. In fact, if I ever believe my environment has become so unsafe that being armed is an option to contemplate, then I will move. I am not against guns, per se; there are legitimate reasons to own a gun, but I am against the politicization of guns and its outsized and increasingly crazed lobby.
Of course people can use, handle, and carry arms safely, the operative word being ‘can’. I simply have no confidence that the increased and increasing proliferation of people carrying deadly weapons (a) is warranted on such scales, (b) are in the possession of those mentally equipped to make appropriate decisions in critical situations, (c) are in the possession of those who are properly trained in their use and marksmanship, or (d) is in any way safe, for the carrier or those in the carrier’s proximity.
Yeah this. I really have no negative feelings re: guns per se, but if everyone at a business felt the need to be armed at all times, then they must feel something really dangerous could happen at any time and that is not a place I want to be.
If everyone was carrying, I’d think it was a little odd. I also might feel I am not really welcome, since I don’t caryry (and probably never will). But as long as it wasn’t a political statement, I’d be fine with it.
If it was some sort of political statement, I’d be way more annoyed. Can’t I just get my damn cheerios without being lectured at? It is just the same as religion, keep it to the appropriate venue.
I would leave. Range time doesn’t replace life experience or good judgment. One can assume that employees with guns are expected by management to use them, exercising their own judgment as to when it’s necessary. I’ll trust a cop in that situation, but a minimum wage clerk who will likely panic and just start banging away? No fucking way.
I think it’s a bit ridiculous to pretend that there are other justifications for the existence of guns. Even if you want to stretch the ancillary utility of the THREAT of injury or death, the crux of the utility hinges directly on its ability to easily and effectively injure/kill somebody.
It’s as if you’re asking for a cite that food exists solely to provide nourishment when in fact many people use food as an aphrodisiac, coping mechanism, et. al.
I guess the easiest cite would be definitively:
Gun, as defined by the OED: a. A weapon consisting essentially of a metal tube (massive enough to require to be mounted on a carriage or a fixed substructure) from which heavy missiles are thrown by the force of gunpowder, or (in later use) by explosive force of any kind;
Weapon, as defined by the OED: a. An instrument of any kind used in warfare or in combat to attack and overcome an enemy
Note, the definition doesn’t include its aesthetics, historical value, sentimental value, or use as an aide to hone hand-eye coordination. Guns shoot projectiles at things at a high speed because projectiles being shot at high speeds hurt people. When those projectiles hit a body part fast enough, it kills that person. What else is there to discuss?
I smile nervously, make sure my hands are where everybody can see them, and making as few sudden movements as possible, get my ass the hell out of that store.
I do not go back.