For this next item, we have a loyal reader to thank for sending us a link to a very interesting newspaper article after reading our ‘guns and airplanes’ item in the last edition of Belly Ache. Since this item also involves guns, we go back to, guess where…the good old US of A. Go figure!

So, on with the story. Apparently there is a – not insignificant – group in the US called the ‘Open Carry’ movement. Essentially this group of erstwhile Rambos are testing the laws in 42 states that allow gun owners to carry weapons in public.

Basically it goes back to this American love-affair with firearms – despite the obviously tragic impact it has on American society – in which guns are seen as a fundamental right. You know, that whole founding father, defending the nation, constitutional rubbish.

Just for point of reference, in 2007 the number of gun-related homicides nation-wide was 12,129, while 17,348 people used guns to commit suicide. A further 721 (rather dumb) people accidentally shot themselves to death, while police shot and killed around 5,000 suspected criminals.

In the newspaper article we were referred to, one ‘proud to be packin’ citizen said: “I see my gun as insurance. Like I have life insurance to protect my family, car insurance to protect my car, house insurance to protect my house.”

In essence what is happening is a showdown between the two diametrically opposed sides of the gun debate. And weirdly enough, this showdown’s modern day setting has turned Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, into a modernday OK Corral.

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t wear my gun to go to a coffee bar,” one Jim Snyder, was quoted as saying in the article – whostrode into Starbucks saloon at high noon (his spurs going all jingly, jangly)and ordered himself a tall hot chocolate(without whipped cream), a mobilephone strapped to his left hip and a semiautomaticBrowning pistol strapped on hisright. Pity the poor barista that mistakenlyadds whipped cream!

“If businesses say you can’t bring in a gun, that’s discrimination against a person for doing something that’s legal. It’s like saying we won’t serve people with blue shirts,” he added.

Yah ok we see where you’re coming from Jim….but, if we may be so bold to point out the seemingly obvious…blue shirts don’t have the potential to cause death – well, except in some rather bizarre situations that even we have trouble imagining.

Ah, but we know what you’re going to say next…‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people’. We would have to agree with you on that one, with one caveat: Guns just make it a whole lot easier for people to kill people, period.

US gun sales rose 39 per cent last year (no one is quite sure, but estimates suggest there are as many as 350 million guns in the hands of a 307 million citizens) and 24 states passed laws to ease restrictions on gun ownership.

Arizona and Virginia recently approved bills making it legal to carry concealed weapons in bars. Tennessee voted to allow guns in, of all places, playgrounds. Guess that’s gonna change the outcome of the inevitable sand throwing incident. Way to go Tennessee. A wave of similar court challenges is expected across the country.

Meanwhile, back to Starbucks. While the MacDonalds-of-the-coffee-world says it does not have a corporate policy regarding customers and weapons, “we defer to federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding this issue.”

But businesses have the right to bar guns on their premises. It is their property and, just as they can prohibit entry by people with bare feet, they can do the same for people with guns. In this instance Starbucks has obviously sided with the gun crazies.

And while we’re not suggesting you should do the same, here at Bellyache Central, we’re going to spend our hardearned money at a different coffee outlet as one small gesture in trying to make the world a better place.