That’s funny… pretty sure most of us that carry go through not only the background check to obtain our firearm but a secondary finger printed one as well. We dont have restraining orders, felonies, or class b misdemeanors, etc. Can he say the same about the other patrons in the establishment? Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have read all day.
For the better part of the past 35 years, I have been a frequent McDonald’s customer.
When I was in high school, my friends and I would frequent Mickey D’s, as we were perpetually broke teenage boys and it was an affordable meal. Of course, it was also where the perpetually broke teenage girls would go, so there was always the potential to get a date as well.
I had friends who worked there as well, so we would go and visit our friends on our Friday movie nights. One told us how he hated making the McRib, so we always made sure to visit his store and order McRibs, because that’s what friends do.
McDonald’s is one of the few foods I can eat while traveling that doesn’t make me sick, so over the years, and hundreds of thousands of miles traveled, it has become my de facto restaurant. Not any more.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were shopping in Fort Gratiot, and we decided to stop at the Fort Gratiot McDonald’s to have some lunch, as we have done many times before. We pulled in a parking space, turned off the car, and then spotted something that caused us to decide to go somewhere else.
In the few seconds it took for me to restart the car, we saw several customers hurriedly rush out of the restaurant with panicked looks on their faces.
What was it that we spotted? A man carrying a gun into the restaurant.
Because Michigan is an open carry state, it is quite legal for someone to walk into a busy McDonald’s with a firearm. Why do it? Because it is your right?
Given that there were Canadians in that restaurant, and they don’t have the same gun culture that we have, how do you think that made them feel? I can’t speak for the Canadians, but I can speak for myself — seeing someone other than a police officer walking around with a firearm does not make me feel safe; quite the opposite.
How am I, just an average person, supposed to know if the person with the firearm is a “good guy” or a “bad guy?”
Suppose that I am armed, too. Should I fire preemptively at the other person with the gun just in case that person is a “bad guy,” and take the chance of killing a “good guy,” or should I hold my fire and take the chance that the other person will not be a “bad guy” or be a “good guy” and think I am a “bad guy” and fire at me first?
Is there a secret handshake that “good guys” use to identify each other? If so, what if a “bad guy” uses that secret handshake to pretend he is a “good guy” and then performs his nefarious acts?
I speak for myself, and I am confident I speak for many others — I don’t need armed vigilantes protecting me from criminals. I grew up in Saint Louis, one of the most violent cities in the country. I spend several days a week driving around Detroit, also one of the most violent cities in the country.
I have walked through housing projects, and I am still alive to write about it. I don’t need your protection.
The overwhelming majority of crime involves people who are familiar with each other; violence against strangers is much less common.
Walking around with open firearms is provocative; just because you have the constitutional right, doesn’t mean you should.
Businesses need to make some hard choices as to who is valued more as a customer, those who feel it is OK to open carry even if it makes others uncomfortable, or those who want to not feel nervous they are going to get shot eating a hamburger or fries?
Belonging to the second group…