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A group of moms got guns banned from a Virginia Whole Foods
One of the national chains that has chosen to post a sign banning guns in its Texas stores has been Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods.
On Jan. 1, Texas became an open-carry state, and businesses discovered that the possibility of remaining neutral in the fight over gun rights had just disappeared.
Under the new law, all of the 925,726 Texas residents with a valid concealed-weapon permit (about 4 percent of them) can now openly carry guns, so long as the weapons are secured in shoulder or belt holsters. Businesses across Texas now must grapple with the costs of allowing open carry in their stores.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of them had to take, and then publicly state, a clear position. Hospitals, correctional facilities, and some places that sell alcohol can still legally ban guns; private property owners—including stores, restaurants, and churches—also maintain this right. These establishments must give gun owners verbal notice that guns are not permitted or display signs stating rules for concealed and open carry. This is a fight nobody wanted.
As the Dallas Morning News’ Jacquielynn Floyd asked, “Did open carry backfire on Texas gun owners?” “We have lost more than we gained,” lamented a poster to the online site TexasCHLforum.com, which discusses concealed gun-permit laws in the state. “This has woken up the ‘anti’ crowd in a big way. Yet another put it even more bluntly last week on a different Texas gun rights forum: “The lid is off this can of worms and it will never go back … I hope the right to walk around looking like Wyatt Earp is worth it to the open carry folks because a lot of us are losing our right to concealed carry and it may cost some of us our lives for your privilege to play cowboy.”
One of the national chains that has chosen to post a sign banning guns in its Texas stores has been Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods.
This makes sense, as a weapon is not required to purchase your overpriced beet greens and prison cheese, and because it takes a certain leap of branding logic to associate healthy lifestyles and smart family choices with parading around weapons that are associated with (depending upon whose statistics you read) 20 injuries to children and teenagers per day across the U.S.
But what about the Whole Foods in my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia? Virginia is an open-carry state. Possibly one of the open-carry-est. Also one of the gun-deathiest. As a result, there has been some confusion.
Last November, a friend, Latifa Kropf, encountered a man with a holstered gun in line in front of her at our local Whole Foods; Kropf alerted a manager, who told her that there is no store gun policy.
Kropf wrote to a customer service representative at Whole Foods’ headquarters in Austin and was reassured that “we absolutely DO have a policy forbidding firearms in our stores—both open and concealed carry” and that management was obviously not well-versed in company policy.
The Austin branch promised to rectify the misunderstanding.
Last week, several shoppers came across another customer open-carrying at the same Whole Foods while he picked out asparagus. One shopper, Susan McCulley, spoke to the manager, who explained that Virginia is an open-carry state and that, as such, customers could bring firearms into the store.
Another friend, Katherine McNamara, called the local manager, who confirmed that the Charlottesville store’s policy is as follows: “We prefer that people do not carry openly, and we ask them to leave their weapons in their car.” Since Virginia is a “right to carry” state, the manager said, the store cannot exclude people carrying weapons.”
Under the new law, all of the 925,726 Texas residents with a valid concealed-weapon permit (about 4 percent of them) can now openly carry guns, so long as the weapons are secured in shoulder or belt holsters. Businesses across Texas now must grapple with the costs of allowing open carry in their stores.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of them had to take, and then publicly state, a clear position. Hospitals, correctional facilities, and some places that sell alcohol can still legally ban guns; private property owners—including stores, restaurants, and churches—also maintain this right. These establishments must give gun owners verbal notice that guns are not permitted or display signs stating rules for concealed and open carry. This is a fight nobody wanted.
As the Dallas Morning News’ Jacquielynn Floyd asked, “Did open carry backfire on Texas gun owners?” “We have lost more than we gained,” lamented a poster to the online site TexasCHLforum.com, which discusses concealed gun-permit laws in the state. “This has woken up the ‘anti’ crowd in a big way. Yet another put it even more bluntly last week on a different Texas gun rights forum: “The lid is off this can of worms and it will never go back … I hope the right to walk around looking like Wyatt Earp is worth it to the open carry folks because a lot of us are losing our right to concealed carry and it may cost some of us our lives for your privilege to play cowboy.”
One of the national chains that has chosen to post a sign banning guns in its Texas stores has been Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods.
This makes sense, as a weapon is not required to purchase your overpriced beet greens and prison cheese, and because it takes a certain leap of branding logic to associate healthy lifestyles and smart family choices with parading around weapons that are associated with (depending upon whose statistics you read) 20 injuries to children and teenagers per day across the U.S.
But what about the Whole Foods in my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia? Virginia is an open-carry state. Possibly one of the open-carry-est. Also one of the gun-deathiest. As a result, there has been some confusion.
Last November, a friend, Latifa Kropf, encountered a man with a holstered gun in line in front of her at our local Whole Foods; Kropf alerted a manager, who told her that there is no store gun policy.
Kropf wrote to a customer service representative at Whole Foods’ headquarters in Austin and was reassured that “we absolutely DO have a policy forbidding firearms in our stores—both open and concealed carry” and that management was obviously not well-versed in company policy.
The Austin branch promised to rectify the misunderstanding.
Last week, several shoppers came across another customer open-carrying at the same Whole Foods while he picked out asparagus. One shopper, Susan McCulley, spoke to the manager, who explained that Virginia is an open-carry state and that, as such, customers could bring firearms into the store.
Another friend, Katherine McNamara, called the local manager, who confirmed that the Charlottesville store’s policy is as follows: “We prefer that people do not carry openly, and we ask them to leave their weapons in their car.” Since Virginia is a “right to carry” state, the manager said, the store cannot exclude people carrying weapons.”
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