So you're at your neighborhood Starbucks, maybe with your kids, and you notice a man sitting at the next table with a revolver strapped to his waist. The man next to him has a pistol. In fact, you realize as you look around, there's a table full of gun-toting customers just a few feet away, sipping coffee and doing nothing to conceal their deadly weapons. Aside from steering clear -- or else getting the hell out of there -- what can an unarmed citizen do?
Starbucks' Cop-Out to Gun Nuts: Customers Served Coffee While Strapped
Liliana Segura, AlterNet, 9 February 2010
Note the way the whole debate is being framed: you can either "steer clear" or "get the hell out of there". Well, I can see several other options - such as realize that you may just have found yourself the safest spot within 20 miles to have your cup of coffee.
Clarification: I am not saying that the presence of weapons always makes a location more secure. I am most certainly not attempting to state the reverse either. I am just attempting to show that articles like that are based on assumptions that are not grounded in factual reality.
