Reporter calls b.s. on Howard Schultz's shareholders meeting comment about guns

Melissa Allison, who covers Starbucks for the Seattle Times, tweets: "Why does Schultz keep saying loaded guns aren't allowed in stores? They are here [in the state of Washington] if [Starbucks'] policy is to abide by the law." Read more of Allison's annual meeting tweets.

Comments

[smalltownsm]

Any one have the key points from the meeting today? I wasn't able to be on to watch.

[pdxy]

I think howard is making a point of saying that starbucks doesnt make it a policy to "ALLOW" loaded guns in their stores...they just follow the law wherever they are.

Seriously this whole gun thing is a non issue and i wish people would just let it go. Starbucks has no official policy on guns...following the law is not a policy. A coffee shop does not need an opinion on gun control. Both sides of this issue are ridiculous crazy people.

the end.

[Aaron]

Could anyone post a transcript of the portion in question?

[Melissa Allison]

Here's part of what Schultz said in response to a shareholder question: "I want to correct something you said that’s not right. You can’t walk into Starbucks with a loaded gun. So that’s not the issue. The issue is, the law allows you to walk in with a weapon that people can see that's unloaded." A replay of the Q&A is at http://bit.ly/9KlTui.

[Aaron]

Open-carry has a color coded map of state laws on open-carry of a LOADED handgun (you can click through any state for more info too):

http://opencarry.org/opencarry.html

I do wonder a bit whether they are assuming too much in some cases. I was under the impression that a lot of states restrict open-carry to unloaded guns. Unfortnuately I don't have time to look through the laws of a bunch of states to see if there are any that specifically do allow people to carry loaded guns in public. But if this map is close to accurate, obviously Starbucks does allow even loaded guns in stores since their policy is to "comply with local laws" or whatever, by which they actually mean they allow in their stores whatever the law allows in public. They could decide not to allow guns in their stores, which are private property, and still be in compliance with the law.

Way to be on the ball Melissa.

[ncsm]

Starbucks DOES have a policy on allowing weapons in their stores. As previous poster noted, Starbucks could, as a private business, choose to not allow weapons, and be in compliance with state law. Yet another example of the company being afraid to take a principled stand on a controversial issue!

[jim]

Sometimes, not to decide - is to decide.

[cb23245]

They ARE taking a principled stand.