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Posted: 3/3/2010 7:20:43 AM EDT
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This is a letter from Washington Ceasefire to Starbucks. Starbucks supports open carry in its stores. If you don't have time to read the whole thing just find the part about the Lakewood Police Officers. SHAME ON WASHINGTON CEASEFIRE!
Mr. Howard Schultz Founder and CEO, Starbucks Inc. 2401 Utah Ave S. Seattle, WA 98134-1435 Dear Mr. Schultz Washington Ceasefire is a statewide citizen activist group dedicated to reducing gun violence in Washington State. Gun violence remains an issue of epic proportions as more Washingtonians were killed by gun violence in the last decade than all U.S. combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan combined during the same period. As you are aware, there is an ongoing petition that solicits Starbucks’ consent to deny open carry firearms in your coffee outlets. We understand you and your company are giving this matter the utmost consideration and wanted to weigh in on this critical public safety and public health issue. We want you to know that guns do kill people despite contrary claims from gun rights groups. Well documented books such as Private Guns, Public Health written by Dr. David Hemenway, Director of the Harvard Graduate School of Public Health, clearly show that gun violence directly correlates with the number of guns in society. Indeed those states that have the lowest percentage of gun ownership have as little as one sixth the level of gun violence as those states that have the highest percentage of gun ownership. The gun rights groups like to say that guns protect people and reduce violence. These claims are often based on tainted studies by a Dr. Kleck of Florida State University, a well known “gun lover” who carries his bias into his so called “research”. Sadly the recent tragedy in a Lakewood, Washington coffee shop illustrates that guns do not protect people if one is intent on doing harm. If four brave, highly trained, police officers carrying firearms couldn’t hold off one individual, what chance does one average citizen have in defending himself in a moment of crisis. Indeed in popular locales like Starbucks, “High Noon” standoffs between untrained, open carry, gun aficionados are more likely to result in additional casualties. There is a famous study that shows the level of violence is roughly the same in Seattle, as it is in Vancouver B.C. (i.e. rape, burglary, assault etc.). Seattle however has over four times the level of lethality because we have over four times the number of handguns. What is merely a heated argument or perhaps fisticuffs in Vancouver is much more likely to end up being a funeral in Seattle because of the presence of guns. Already several of your direct competitors have taken a leadership stand on this issue. We understand given your size this is a more involved decision for Starbucks. The gun rights groups can be intimidating yet they represent less than 2% of the population. It’s worth noting that recent polling by Mayor Bloomberg, shows a plurality of NRA members favor reasonable common sense restrictions. The vast majority of gun owners are in agreement with Supreme Court justice Anthony Scalia who explicitly stated that Second Amendment rights are not void of reasonable restrictions. We are asking Starbucks to take a stand and claim its stores to be gun-free zones. Since our polls consistently show that over 80% of state residents approved of common sense, gun control measures, we strongly believe this stand will be good for business. More importantly it will also be good for the safety of your patrons and employees, our children and will make a major statement to the people and legislators of our great State of Washington. Respectfully, The Board of Washington Ceasefire Tags: washington ceasefire, Starbucks Topic: Gun Facts |
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