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Originally Posted by therewolf View Post
...I vote with my wallet, daily. Any business that doesn't respect my rights to carry will lose the business to a direct competitor...
That's the point that many seem to be missing here. Bikenut isn't supporting people who post their premises as gun-free zones, as some seem to be implying. On the contrary, he advises doing exactly what you're saying. Take your business elsewhere. Bikenut is really just stating a few simple points. It's hypocritical to demand your rights be respected while thinking the rights of others should be ignored. He's not calling those people correct or even respectable by creating gun free zones. He's merely pointing out the facts that they have the right to do so, and that in many places you'd be breaking the law in addition to disrespecting their rights. Many here seem to think he's supporting gun free zones or the people who create them, but he isn't doing anything of the sort. There are many people in this country who profess and advocate things that I find reprehensible, but I recognize their right to do so. Doing otherwise would be in direct contradiction to the principles this country was founded on. Bikenut isn't doing any differently here. He doesn't like or support those people, but he's acknowledging they have a right to do it. He also points out that it's hypocritical to willfully disrespect heir rights while demanding that your rights be respected. That isn't an insult, though many seem to be taking it as one. I engage in the very same hypocritical type of behavior that he's talking about. I try to respect the rights of others and take my business elsewhere whenever possible, but I do sometimes defy those signs when I'm left with little other chance. I don't disrespect their right to create gun-free zones, but when faced with a situation that puts myself or my family in danger I choose to err on the side of personal safety. I'm not hypocritical so much in the sense that I feel disrespectful for their rights. I'm just forced to disregard their right when having to choose the avenue I have available to insure my safety and the safety of my family. Those people may be in the wrong or horribly misguided in what they're doing, but they do have the right to do it. By pointing that fact out Bikenut isn't supporting them in any way. He's simply pointing out they have those rights, at least in some jurisdictions. I don't think it's correct to provide a statutory for those people to discriminate in that way, but I don't write the law. I'd be more than happy to see that statutory support for gun-free zones go away, and I imagine Bikenut wouldn't be opposed to such an idea. I'm sure there'd be lots of interesting discussion and debate about making gun carriers a protected class as such, but he would support that right too should we ever manage to achieve that goal. In any case, some here need to understand that acknowledging and respecting the rights of others doesn't mean they support them.
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I despise Chuck Schumer and sincerely wish he would shut up, but I fully acknowledge that he has a right to say what he wants. And yes, it would be hypocritical for me to say he doesn't have the right to speak when I or others do, even though I can't strand listening to him. But I can change the channels just as I can patronize places that aren't gun free zones. So I don't understand why so many people are attacking Bikenut when he's making the same points about gun rights. He and I may not see perfectly eye to eye on everything, but that is no reason to attack him. And if some here can't accept that others are allowed to differ with us, then what the heck are they doing on an internet forum?