Here’s the press release from the National Gun Victims Action Council:

CHICAGO, Jan. 23, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A nationwide boycott of Starbucks stores and its products will be launched on Valentine’s Day 2012. Its goal is to eliminate the risk of guns in public places and ultimately to bring sane gun laws to the U.S. This boycott is being called by the National Gun Victim’s Action Council (NGAC), a network of 14 million gun victims, the faith community including the: Episcopal Peace Fellowship, United Church of Christ, Fellowship of Reconciliation (46 peace fellowships and 43 affiliate fellowships), secular groups working to reduce gun violence and many of the organizations that support passing sane gun laws. WHY STARBUCKS?  . . .

Currently, Starbucks allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states) (See Photos). Starbucks’ compliance with the National Rifle Association’s Pro-Gun Agenda was exposed in 2010 when members of the “open carry” movement began meeting in popular chains, such as California Pizza Kitchen, Peets, IKEA, Disney and Starbucks openly carrying their handguns and assault rifles. (Types of Guns)

To protect their customers and employees, all of the retail chains—except for Starbucks— banned guns from being carried in their stores.

“Starbucks allowing guns to be carried in thousands of their stores significantly increases everyone’s risk of being a victim of gun violence,” says Elliot Fineman, CEO of the NGAC. “Open and conceal and carry are among the reasons there are 12,000 gun homicides each year in the U.S.  If we had England’s gun laws we would expect 375 gun homicides each year—97% less than we have. England’s gun laws are based on protecting public safety, ours on maximizing sales for the gun industry.” Non-Sane Gun Laws

Starbucks has the legal right to ban guns but despite having been petitioned by thousands, asked at a shareholder meeting, and a direct appeal made to their Board, Starbucks clings to this policy that puts millions of Americans at risk every day and encourages the spread of guns being carried in public.

IMPACT OF STARBUCKS BOYCOTT:  Fineman says, “Starbucks steadfast support of the NRA’s lethal pro-gun agenda damages its ‘socially conscious company’ brand. Further,” adds Fineman, “Monte Carlo Simulation risk analysis indicates that 90% of the time, our boycott will reduce Starbucks stock price by an amount no rational company would allow.”

According to NGAC, the boycott will end when Starbucks rejects the NRA’s Pro-Gun agenda by banning all guns from their stores and committing to be an Aggressive Corporate Advocate for sane gun laws.

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STARBUCKS BOYCOTT: http://gunvictimsaction.org/starbucks-boycott/

ABOUT NGAC:  The National Gun Victims Action Council (NGAC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit network of 14 million gun victims, survivors, their families, supporters, the faith community, secular organizations working on gun violence reduction and ordinary people leveraging their economic (buying) power to change America’s gun laws.  NGAC can be found atwww.gunvictimsaction.org

Follow @GunVictimsAct and find us on Facebook.

Available Topic Expert: For information on the listed expert, click appropriate link. Elliot Fineman

SOURCE National Gun Victims Action Council

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

84 COMMENTS

  1. This is the reason I support Starbucks even though there are plenty of other coffee chains with better tasting coffee. They practice liberalism in the true sense of the word.

  2. Now I have to go buy something at Starbucks, I hate them with all the passion of a pacific northwest coffee snob but some things are more important. Each bitter swallow will remind me to do more to protect our second amendment rights.

    • Same here, I find the quality of Starbucks bad to be kind in my description. I live in Portland and the coffee here is great among the local coffee shops who often use locally roasted coffees. I’ll go to Starbucks and buy one of their over-priced pastries.

  4. May I suggest that anyone opposed to this boycott say the words “Thank you for supporting my Second Amendment rights” when purchasing coffee from Starbucks?

    • I think we need to send our support both to corporate and locally. If they hear it from both their front line employees and from consumers alike it will merely reaffirm their decision to support individual rights and liberties.

  5. Do these people actually manage to function in the real world? Because not only do they seem to think someone walking into a Starbucks intent on mass murder would turn away because a sign says his guns aren’t allowed, but:

    Monte Carlo Simulation risk analysis indicates that 90% of the time, our boycott will reduce Starbucks stock price by an amount no rational company would allow.

    They actually think they can predict the effect of their boycott on stock price.

  6. I wonder if a BUYcot of Starbucks by the armed intelligentsia would be appropriate starting on this date. I for one will be going there for my triple tall americano with creme from here on out. GBFSC, gun bloggers for Starbucks Coffee. I hope the cute barista who just made my coffee has her CWP and carries at work.

  9. I’m really torn here…..
    I truly believe Starbucks is responsible for proliferation of BURNT coffee being sold everywhere else as well !
    BUT if they can have that kind of influence elsewhere ??…maybe their clear headed thoughts on allowing the constitution to be valid in their stores will spread too…
    Yeah, I could buy a muffin there.

  10. A phone call to the corporate customer support number expressing your thanks and support of the company’s support of your 2nd amendment rights might be a good thing. Here is the number. I could not find an email address on the corporate website.

    Starbucks Customer Service
    800-Starbuc (800-782-7282)
    Mon – Fri 5 AM – 8 PM (PST)
    Sat 6 AM – 4 PM (PST)

    • None of the gun grabbers do — this is all about emotion and heart strings. The math does not work so they make stuff up and use FUD instead. FUD in general has become more popular versus math, logic and critical thinking. I blame it on our education system also driven by the liberals.

  12. These organizations are really faltering under their current leadership. They might be able to get I’m guessing at most 100-200 people to boycott Starbucks. The closest Starbucks to me will easily exceed those sales, especially on Valentine’s Day. This isn’t even a blip on Starbuck’s radar. This is the epitome of an empty gesture.

  14. Folks in the area surrounding Seattle–like those who work at and run Starbucks–don’t like anyone telling them what they can or cannot do. I don’t think that Starbucks supports the Second Amendment so much as they respect the Constitution and refuse to submit free people to the whims of those who would enslave them. (Okay, that’s pretty heavy-handed rhetoric on my part; but you get my drift.)

  15. I can count the times I’ve been to Starbucks in the last five years on the fingers of one hand. I’ll make sure to go on the 14th, though. While I find the coffee execrable, the tea is good-if expensive. I can’t open carry where I am (not that I do anyway) but you can bet I’ll have my EDC on me.

  16. Now I have two reasons to love Starbucks. Three if I count the gorgeous women that frequent the store.

  17. That article was a good laugh. I love how they claim that law abiding citizens carrying guns cause homicides and not criminals illegally carrying guns.

    • The statement they made might be technically true (criminals do carry guns after all), but they’re blatantly dishonest when they conflate criminals with the law abiding. Just like a criminal might be a ‘gun owner’, even if they’re legally prohibited from owning one.

  18. I question this…

    requesting they ban guns from their premises…Unlike California Pizza Kitchen, Peets, IKEA and Disney (to name a few), they refused to do so.

    I don’t know what a Peets is, but I have a CPK and an IKEA within a couple miles of me, and I live in central Florida, so of course I’ve been to Disney and it’s surroundings.

    I’ve never seen a sign at any of them about disallowing firearms.

    • I think they were only including the California branches of these store.

      Plus, I think, Disney World does ban firearms… But my information may be out of date, I move away from Florida a few years ago. But I remember having to leave my firearm in the car when I last visited their parks. I also remember some court case where Disney fired an employee for having a gun in their car.

      It was an interesting case but I think they were slapped down for firing the guy.

      • The Walt Disney World Resort, in Florida, bans guns for their employees, even in their cars, in spite of 790.251 (the “Preservation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008”), because there is a exemption ((7)(e)) for companies that hold a Federal Fireworks License, and they push the entirety of Disney property through that small exemption.

        For guests, they are like any other private property owner. They can ask that you not carry, and if they catch you, they can ask you to leave. That said, I had an old ticket from ~6 mos ago in my wallet, and the fine print says nothing about firearms. Additionally, I don’t recall seeing any obvious signs the last few times I was there, and I can’t find any specific mentions of firearms (in either direction) on their website.

        • Good to know. I visited their MGM resort in the fall of 2006 and the flier I got as I drove into thier parking lot advised against bringing firearms into their resort. I hope this has changed and maybe next month I’ll visit there again.

    • The IKEA across from the Mall of America has a sign. Strangely enough I have never been asked to leave…

  19. I do not have a coffee habit (do not drink it at all), but I am a fan of the scones, I guess I will be stopping by on the 14th as well — as someone stated, nothing wrong with all the gorgeous women that frequent the store.

  20. Living in the Crook County Peoples Repulik of Illinois this does not really impact me, ’cause I can not legally carry anywhere.

    But, I will still be getting something on the 14th.

  22. If there was a Starbucks nearby, no doubt on Valentines Day, me, my gun and wifey would be drinking that overpriced gawd awful tasting coffee.

  23. drop a note to Starbucks to show support for their support of our Constitution:

    http://www.starbucks.com/customer-service/contact/company-information-form

    my short note to Starbucks:

    Read that ANOTHER anti-gun/anti-Constitution group is trying to boycott Starbucks.

    Just wanted to drop a note to say

    “Thank You” for supporting “The People” of our great country and the right to keep and bear arms as stated in the Bill of Rights.

    I sincerely hope that Starbucks continues to follow the U.S. Constitution and supporting the American people.

    Do not allow these small, anti-Constitution groups to intimidate your company.

    Regards,
    Sean

  24. I just left the The National Gun Victims Action Council a message. I hope they like it!!

    Woo Hoo! I can expect shorter lines at my local Starbucks on Valentines Day. I might just hang out there ALL FRIGGIN” DAY!!! As a matter of fact, I’m taking all of my range buddies with me and buying them a frappacappalattamocha in y’all’s honor.
    Thanks again!

  25. I’m boycotting Starbucks because their coffee tastes like boiled sweat socks. Otherwise, I’d be tanking up there instead of Dunkin’.

  26. We don’t have CCW up here in Canadistan, but I’m still gona grab me some hot cocoa come the 14th.

  27. Sent Starbucks a message of support, and notified bleating nutbags of how I was going to go five extra times this week all thanks to them.

  29. These idiot’s have no idea how much business they just brought to Starbucks! I never knew Starbucks was so gun friendly….but now that I do…I will ensure I buy all my coffee from Starbucks! Thank you Starbucks for supporting our Constitutional rights.

  30. E-mail sent to Starbucks!

    Dear Starbucks,
    It has recently come to my attention that the “National Gun Victims Action Council” has proposed a boycott of Starbucks stores beginning on Valentines’ day. Their reasoning for this is your decision not to exercise your private property rights to remove the second amendment rights of your customers. I’m not typically a Starbucks customer, but I will take extra care to pick up some hot chocolate on Valentines’ day to show my support for your truly ‘socially responsible’ policies. Thank you for allowing this individual right to go unmolested.
    -Jonathon

  31. While this group claims “to represent 14, 000, 000 victims”, I doubt it is anything more than an office with few people. In any case my wife and I will show our support for the Second Amendment by open carrying while we have a Valentines Day coffee at our local Starbucks.

  32. Just a suggestion,

    When going into Starbucks on Feb 14 please pay with at least one $2.00 bill. They are readily available at banks but are so rarely used in “regular”currency that most cashiers rarely if ever see them. Having thousands (or tens of thousands 🙂 ) show up in their cash drawers all over the country would definetly be noticed by the worker and almost certainly management.

    Please post this in other blogs please.
    Thank you
    NukemJim

  34. (Kroger’s Stores are not ‘gun friendly’. I have boycotted them since Thanksgiving, two years ago. They banned all firearms from their stores, right after I shot that turkey in frozen foods). I like Starbucks for no other reason, than I just like to feel upper middle class ever now and then. The Starbucks’ I go to here, are usually populated by people more at ease with their computers than they would be with a firearm. Frankly, I would rather they not carry anything that go might go ‘Bang’.

  35. OK everyone, let’s have some real fun, shall we? Good! Listen up and please hear me out.

    The antis are planning a boycott. Let’s counter with a BUYcott. On February 13, 13 & 15, please make the effort to go to Starbucks and buy something. Don’t like their coffee? Get a tea, a cocoa, a pastry, anything. Thank the clerk for Starbucks’ support of the Constitution, don’t mention 2A.

    Pay with two dollar bills. Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Liberty himself. If Starbucks sees a huge influx of payment in two dollar bills, people in general, and Starbucks management in particular, are sure to notice.

    Why the day before and the day after you ask? Simply to show that we have the power ( financial, organizational and political) and the wherewithal to absolutely swamp anything that the antis can muster. Bomb Starbucks with 2A love and money. Three days in a row. What’s it going to cost you? Twenty bucks tops.

    There’s a Starbucks a block away from where I work in Cambridge. I plan on giving them a little extra business.

    Spread the word.

  36. A $2 bill buycott sounds like a plan.
    The wife and I are going to be getting some coffee for valentines day.

  37. Due to the hippie boycott, I plan on taking a day off work ( I have a job, I’m not a dirty hippie ), and openly carrying my semi-auto pistol at several Starbucks to show my support.

  38. But what pistol will I wear! D:

    Reading all this I am loving the $2 bill buycott idea, truly amazing. I am just going to do this for everything now, pay in $2 bills, but I am going to write out the whole second amendment on them, we should all do the same. Hardly anyone pays in hard cash (at least much less than used to be the norm) so a massive influx of specifically $2 would be noticed SO much. Truly a great idea! I love the guys in this thread who came up with it.

  39. Starbucks with $2 bills, it is!

    I don’t recommend any open carry in LA or Orange County, CA. You may get a visit, gun check, and warrant search by the local PD.

    Starbucks 2nd Amendment support, and troop support, has me even more hooked as their coffee. Plus, the liberals are probably hooked on it, too, so they’ll be back on February 15. With raging headaches…

  40. I normally carry my Thunder 45 concealed but on the 14th it’ll be my baby, a Browning Hi-Power Practical carried open.On a different site’s comments to this article there was a lady that was simply adamant that Starbucks was taking sides allowing guns but couldn’t get it through her thick head that if they banned guns on premises they’d be taking a side just the same. To her banning guns is de facto but allowing guns is taking sides. If a person can’t even see that difference it’s impossible to have a meaningful debate. I relish meaningful debates but debating those folks is like pissing into the wind.

  41. Hmmmm. I haven’t been buying Starbucks since I upgraded my home beverage system but I think I will be sure to buy Starbucks every day during this boycott. Besides, the sort of people who support this boycott are the leeches who buy the cheapest drink and then camp out for hours to use the free internet,lol CRIMINALS DON’T OBEY GUN LAWS…..CONSTITUTIONAL OPEN CARRY NOW!

  42. Doesn’t the very “A Force For Sane Gun Laws” go against its 501.c.3 charter? 501 c 3 Rules and Regs
    From the above linky:
    To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.

  43. Funny to see the United Church of Christ on this list pushing for the boycott. This church is a member of the World Council of Church’s which is an anti-bible and anti-Christ organization in spite of their claims to be the opposite. This group has a very dangerous political agenda. I doubt they are doing anything in the name of God.

  44. I’ll be sure to support Starbucks with a passion, for as long as they continue to support my right (and the right of all law abiding citizens), to protect myself (ourselves), from those who will carry guns, and use them to threaten me (us) no matter what the laws are. If and when any jurisdiction outlaws my right to carry, I will be compelled to become an outlaw in that jurisdiction.

  45. I have my 2 dollar bills and will be going to Starbucks on Valentine’s Day to show my support for them refusing to bow to this small group of radical anti-gun extremists.

  46. Thank you Starbucks for allowing the public to protect themselves as the deem necessary. I will be showing my love for Starbucks on 2/14 by packing 2 guns (concealed of course) and purchasing my typical drink, with an extra “thank you” for supporting pro gun initiatives. For you anti-gun folk out there, I sure hope that you have a great hiding spot when some crazy criminal decides to let loose because your police buddies will be minutes away when every second counts.

  47. My wife, myself, and a few friends are going on a “gun date” on Valentine’s at some of our local area Starbucks. Open Carry of course. I love how they throw out the “Open and conceal and carry are among the reasons there are 12,000 gun homicides each year in the U.S.” Really? Where’s the data for that? Rarely is a good story ever printed in the media about open/concealed carry defending themselves and those around them, but if that actually happened the media would EXPLODE with those types of negative stories. In fact I’d bet they are almost praying for it. At any rate, while I think NGAC are a bunch of nuts they do deserve the right to stage this boycott. In fact, I believe in that so much that I am willing to offer my services. If they are demonstrating in Northern Nevada and are willing to compensate me for my time I will stand there, armed of course, and protect them from harm. I’ll even buy them all a hot chocolate if it is cold outside. Somehow, I doubt I’ll be busy…

  48. One more way the insane are trying to chip away at our freedoms!

    Way to go starbucks for supporting 2nd amendment rights!!!! Without the 2nd, there are NO OTHERS.

  49. Hmm, so your saying I can carry an assault rifle in Starbucks? Hmm, which one will I choose for my next outing.

  50. The idiots who drafted this statement for a proposed boycott are TRUELY IDIOTS. Do they think a posting will keep bad guys from carrying guns anywhere, banks, schools, federal buildings, it makes no difference to these jerks what the law says. If they run across a gun toting crook will they jump up and say “……that gun is not permitted here, put it away.” They would be the first victim in this tragedy. The bad guys only hope this will pass so they feel safe.
    The only thing they fear, besides the law, that will take up to 10 minutes to arrive, is an armed responsible citizen.

  51. If people really want to be safe from gun violence they will usually get educated on the laws of conceal/carry and may consider carrying depending on their experience (or paranoia). Personally, life is the most precious thing I have and I will defend myself any way necessary to survive. When my weapon is empty I wouldn’t hesitate to kick, bite, eye gouge, knee, etc. I certainly will be shouting for help the entire time but am not willing to risk my life on someone elses’ decision to intervene in a life-or-death crisis.

    A cop carries a gun to protect himself, not you. Any weapon is a tool, similar to a officer’s taser and body armor, that allows them to enforce the law on criminals without being a victim also.

  52. It is obvious to me that the allowing guns corporate policy is a political move to hide their Zionist new wold order agenda (masked by ‘Jews’ running the company). Sorry, but I am a single attractive woman who has been raped and home and business defiled BY Zionist criminals. I think I will push for gun rights!!! Til the day I die. I am weary of the fearmongering and transparent campaigning to take our guns away while we are reduced by their bankers into an internment camp. And it’s closer than you think. My gun rights keep me feeling SAFER in this country! The article quotes above are arrogantly transparent of their brainwashed elitist thinking that we are too stupid to SEE.

  54. Uh…. what? Let me try to get this straight:

    1) You claim that some unnamed entity is “allowing guns corporate policy”… just what the heck does this mean anyway? A person can’t “allow” a gun anything, at is a non-living object… do you think i should “allow” my coffeemaker to brew up Sumatran-Redeye blend in addition to my usual Kona-French Roast blend? I disagree, lmao. The beans for my Kona-French blend are custom imported and roasted by conservative gun-owners, and i just won’t stay loyal to a coffeemaker unless it’s as patriotic as I am 🙂

    2) You also claim that: Starbucks is “run” by “Jews”, that you’ve been raped by “Zionist criminals”, that you are attractive, that bankers are “reducing” people into “internment camps”, and that you “will push for gun rights”… please show us evidence that any or all of these last 5 claims are true in any way, shape or form. Also, if you could do so by typing coherent sentences showing proper grammatical structure and an educated adult’s grasp of basic English comprehension, i would greatly appreciate it. That way we won’t have to all become a paranoid lunatics and conclude that you are a trolling provocateur of foreign birth (evidenced by your poor grasp of English), with absolutely nothing of originality or tangible value to contribute here.

    By the way, my first name is really “Nathaniel” which originally meant “gift of God” in HEBREW. You have a problem with that? If you do, please have some of your redneck skinhead pals drop me a line so we can all sit down and have a civil chat about it next time they pop into my neighborhood in Lutz, FL 🙂 I think the results would be well worth uploading to youtube and discussing here on TTAG 🙂

    If you don’t feel like explaining yourself further, don’t worry… we all understand. However, please consider contacting your doctor and having your medications switched, i think your mind has fallen victim to the International Zionist Pharmaceutical Conspiracy and your braincells need the rest. Or not 🙂

    Just my 2 and a half cents… have a nice day.

  55. Why is “Kim’s” incoherent Zionist Conspiracy rant posted twice, with the same timestamp? The second one is below my response to her first post, and i’d like to make it easier for other people to notice my response and contribute their own. This kind of thing needs to be fixed or the off-topic word garbage is going to start gumming up the works like it does on other sites…

    • The time stamps are two minutes different, which means she hit Post, refreshed the page, didn’t see her post because it loaded from her cache instead of reloading fresh, so she posted it again. It happens all the time.. It’s kinda how you can tell a “new poster,” because the people who have been around a while know to “shift-click” or force refresh the page.

      Something about this site makes it prefer the cached copy to the new one. I think it’s something to do with the server not updating that there is a “new version” of the page fast enough, so your browser compares what it has cached to what the server has, and they match, so you get the cached copy back to save bandwidth and time.

  56. “If we had England’s gun laws…” –Elliot Fineman

    Well, then, what if we had Jamaica’s, which are older and tougher than England’s? Then we’d have 180,000!

    Jamaica has 12 times the homicide rate we do, and guns are 25% more likely to be used in them there than here. (Indeed, the English are even more peaceful than Mr Fineman lets on– a large portion of their own murders are the work of Jamaicans as well.)

    Also, Scotland has several times the homicide rate of England and Wales, even though Scots are subject to the same law.

    Don’t let them slip these bogus stats into the argument. Bat them down.

  57. I’m a bit late to this, but here is a link where you can enter a “Pledge to Boycott Starbucks”. You can enter the amount you will stop spending there in a month. This way, I guess, they figure they can find out how much much Starbucks is losing from the boycott and inform them.

    http://gunvictimsaction.org/tell/

    On to my question, if any IT folk can help me: If I enter a negative number, to indicate that I intend to buy (or buy more) at Starbucks, will that work out well in the final total for my non-boycotting purposes? I’m guessing it depends on how they have it coded.

    • Oh, and can you reply to this comment if you do reply? I’m clicking the “notify me” box this time. Thanks guys. 🙂

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