Burritos and Bullets

I was shot standing ten feet from my Congressswoman, on a sunny Saturday morning, in front of a grocery store. My little friend, Christina-Taylor Green, died while holding my hand.  A licensed, legally carried weapon was used.

Today, I opened Facebook and saw these guys

Yes, those are the round trash holes and marginally comfortable stools you find at every Chipotle in America.

I stand in line at Chipotle at Foothills Mall about once a week.  There's lots of glass,lots of people milling about, and no reason on God's green earth for an AK47 to join me. I wonder if the Chipotle's in Dallas, where this photo was taken, are somehow less secure.

I'm wondering just how strong the fellow on the right thinks he is.  That weapon he's holding has quite a kick.  It also shoots more than one bullet at a time.  Should his spindly arms get tired while he's aiming at the bad guy, those bullets might just stray and spray the families sharing guacamole nearby.  

Are assault rifles really necessary accompaniments to tacos?

Fast Eddie, JannyLou, TBG and I were dining at Five Guys last spring when a handgun on a patron's hip sent me scrambling for the exit. That link will take you to the original post, where I describe the chilling effect of that handgun... a legally carried hand gun.... and the kind but powerless response of the local manager.  

Company policy is not dictated by the locals. corporate management is in high rises, not a glass box in a parking lot in a strip mall.  No one is walking in for a 10 o'clock meeting with the CFO while toting a long gun, I'm sure. Were that to happen, I imagine security would be accompanying the weapon wielder.

Sure, it may be legal.  But is it right?  Do you really need a weapon to eat a burrito? . Besides, by the time they managed to put down their structurally compromised foodstuffs, the damage will already have been done. Those meals are not neat.  Dripping salsa cannot be helpful while aiming an automatic weapon.

Texans concerned about Right to Carry laws have been staging these protests to draw attention to the fact that handguns are banned in many places where long guns are not.  They are attempting to change the laws by bringing public attention to the issue.  That may be true.  It may be that these gentlemen were waiting for a reporter to inquire about the deeper meaning behind their armed presence in a family-friendly fast-food joint.  It's possible that they would have responded to a question with an in-depth analysis of the issues underlying the inequities in the law.  It could be.  I just haven't heard it.

It took some searching to find anti-Moms-Demand-Action bloggers who made this point.  If change is their aim, I think they need to find a new PR person.  The message is not getting across.

Guns, alcohol and families do not mix.  A rapid fire assault weapon was frightening to me when I saw it strapped to the back of a teenage soldier dressed in camouflage in an airport in 2001.  The threat felt very real.  Somehow, sitting over a chicken burrito with hot salsa and sour cream, children and grandparents and construction workers surrounding me, it's absolutely sickening.

Chipotle's paper bags are filled with love songs to gently raised animals and vegetables and the natural life.  I don't need an AK-47 to round off the meal.
*****
This kerfuffle lasted less than one day.  Chipotle posted a request on Facebook that customers refrain from bringing assault weapons into their stores.  This, at the end of the statement, seems disingenuous to me

this issue is not central to the operation of our business, and we do not feel that our restaurants should be used as a platform for either side of the debate.

Sorry, guys.  You live in and do business in the USofA.  The debate happens out in the open.  It's called activism.

This time, the good guys won.