Target announces but won’t enforce gun ban

http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/03/target-announces-but-wont-enforce-gun-ban/

Read how stubborn and disrespectful gun owners can be. I can't believe that in Texas people can walk around with "long arms" openly. Can you imagine walking into a Starbucks and everyone is sitting there with ak47's and other high powered assault rifles strapped to there backs.

It's not very family friendly.

Why the need to carry these kinds of gun around in public what are these guys afraid of?

The irony is that all these guys do is get people more scared of guns and gun owners.

Elements of our culture seem so bizarre at times, as if I'm living in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Well, what choice do they have? If they do decide to enforce something sensible then it will stir up the American right who will then vilify Target on a never ending campaign equating it with Nazis and some such shit.

Well Target can't really enforce the policy unless they have guns of their own or call the police.

I could see why people wouldn't want openly armed guys when they're shopping at the store. I would probably feel a bit uncomfortable. Though in a way, I guess it's better if the weapons are out in the open rather than concealed.

On the bright side, if a nutcase does happen to try to shoot up the place and there are a bunch of armed guys in there, they can stop him.

Pretty much.

Americans who are simply careful with their guns exercise their rights far better than those who make the effort to tote them around everywhere.

No Guns allowed? Well no problem!

I support the 2nd amendment, but these people are idiots...

I mean really? open carrying an AK at target is "helping keep us safe"?

Hope this doesn't escalate

It will... Everything always escalates in our country because people don't understand when they should stop.

Open carry with rifles is unreasonable and I'm against that.

But you're wrong for calling all gun owners disrespectful, TC. Many of us don't support open carry.

Unfortunately. This is the very reason the NRA is against open carry.

With all these people walking around with long arms, how will we be able to distinguish who is about to mass murder and who is just walking around?

Open carry is something I can see doing while in the woods but not in in a mall. No matter how pro-Second Amendment you are you are just asking for trouble. Especially with Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook on people's minds you never know who may shoot at you out of fears you are the next James Holmes or something.

@airshocker: "But you're wrong for calling all gun owners disrespectful, TC. Many of us don't support open carry"

I didnt think saying "gun owners can be disrespectful" was labelling all gun owners as disrespectful. Sorry if it came across like that.

@Nuck81: "With all these people walking around with long arms, how will we be able to distinguish who is about to mass murder and who is just walking around"

Good point.

I'm pro gun and pro second amendment, but when a business asks customers not to bring guns into the store in an open carry fashion, I have no issue with it. It's the business' store and they make the rules, if people don't like it then they can shop somewhere else.

What good is a ban if it isn't enforced. Target has every right to turn customers away who open carry. I like to occasionally go trap shooting and there is a gun in my house, but open carry is just stupid.

Even with the fact that I work at Target in mind, this does not really affect me beyond a reminder than the days of the American cowboys are slowly coming to an end.

Open carry is just rediculous, if you lived in a lawless state or if civil war was apon you then yeh, but to openly walk around with long arms out in public, in peaceful times is just weird, it's madness.

You wouldn't know who the nutcase was with the other guns about.

I'd prefer responsible, well-trained citizens be allowed to carry weapons for self-defence than have to rely on the police. With response times in the 25-45 minute range, I'd rather not take any chances.

Open carry is just arrogant and useless. Conceal carry is an active deterrent which has been proven to lower crime rates on numerous occasions.

I hate the gun laws in Canada due to the fact they make legitimate gun owners lives a living hell (you not only have to go through rigorous testing just to buy a handgun, but if you ever plan on moving it, you have to call the police and provide a detailed (to the minute) route of how you will be transporting it and where) and do absolutelynothingto prevent criminals and mentally ill psychopaths from getting their hands on weapons (the recent Moncton shooter's guns were illegally acquired and modified).

I personally want to own two guns. That's it. A 9mm handgun (probably a Beretta 92F) for concealed carry self-defence and a Remington 700 for range shooting. But since I live in Canada, the only self-defence weapon I am allowed to have is a shotgun... and that must be kept locked in a gun safe at home, with a trigger lock, and the ammunition kept in a separate location, also locked away. It's absolutely fucking stupid.

People are going to get their hands on guns. There is a huge black market. Hell, if they really want someone dead, they won't use a gun, they'll stab them or strangle them. Guns don't kill people, in fact, they've been known to save plenty of innocent lives. [/rant]

As for the topic at hand:

tl;dr

Open carry is stupid and wholly unnecessary unless there is a state of emergency and the government is no longer in power and police/military forces have disbanded or during a civil or international war and there is no one but yourself and your community to defend your people and your land.

Well, they mustn't be automatic. You can still carry a semi-automatic variant of a M16 or an AK-47 around. You can carry an M1 Garand if you so wish. All of those guns can punch a hole through a wall and kill someone on the other side, so ye.

So, the Colt AR-15 is significantly different from an M-16? :)

Ye it has, are the M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles? Yes they are. Can they be bought in the US? Yes the can be. Is a guy in the OP's link open carrying an AK-47 at Target? Yes he is.

Voila

The Colt AR-15 is a semi-automatic variant of the M16 specified for "civilian use". Apart from a few states (California IIRC) they are perfectly legal and in all aspects identical to the military M16, except that they don't have fully automatic or burst fire capacity (though it's pretty easy to get a conversion kit for that actually).

Don't go mumbo jumbo on me because there's a bunch of non Colt built AR-15's, I'm talking about the Colt manufactured AR-15, which is a semi-automatic M16 for civilian use.

P.S: I just remembered you can get an AR-15 variant that chambers the .50 cal Beowulf round, a round that has similar stopping power to the .458 SOCOM round that US Special Forces designed specifically because 5,56x45 NATO doesn't have the stopping power to kill things in one shot. *MURICAAAHHHH!*

These losers carrying around rifles into stores simply 'case they can', are making actual respectful gun owners look bad. The vast majority of people don't want feel uncomfortable around these dick less losers shouldering an AK-47 into Chipotle for no reason what so ever.

@chaplainDMK: "The Colt AR-15 is a semi-automatic variant of the M16 specified for "civilian use". Apart from a few states (California IIRC) they are perfectly legal and in all aspects identical to the military M16, except that they don't have fully automatic or burst fire capacity (though it's pretty easy to get a conversion kit for that actually)."

"Don't go mumbo jumbo on me because there's a bunch of non Colt built AR-15's, I'm talking about the Colt manufactured AR-15, which is a semi-automatic M16 for civilian use."

"P.S: I just remembered you can get an AR-15 variant that chambers the .50 cal Beowulf round, a round that has similar stopping power to the .458 SOCOM round that US Special Forces designed specifically because 5,56x45 NATO doesn't have the stopping power to kill things in one shot. *MURICAAAHHHH!"

I love you

Is this true? Yes, it's true. This man has no dick

The M16 is a variant of the original ArmaLite AR-15, the current Colt AR-15 is a version of the M16.

No, they are identical apart from having no fully automatic firing capability. There's a few bits utterly changed in the AR-15 to prevent easy conversion to fully automatic or burst fire capacity, but that has no effect on the accuracy, lethality or handling of the rifle. You can more or less interchange just about anything between an M16 and an AR-15, though it's illegal to put M16 parts into a civilian AR-15. Otherwise you have the M16 in semi-automatic fire mode if you have an AR-15.

And you are really grasping at straws here, both the M16 and AR-15 (if the AR-15 has the same barrel length and is a 5,56x45mm version) will fire a bullet with the same muzzle velocity and accuracy and will handle identically.

I agree with concealed carry permits and don't think anyone has a right to ask them to leave their store as long as they're concealed. Idk how they would know unless someone came out and asked you or you pulled your weapon out in the store.

Now as to the nuts carrying long guns into a restaurant just because they can................I agree. They are dickless losers.

This is America, and we're fortunately not to that point yet where carrying long guns into restaurants are needed just to feel safe. Maybe after the inevitable oil bust/civil wars/general collapse of society, but now, no.

So, the AR-15 and M16 have identical accuracy, lethality, handling, weight, ammo capacity etc., and are only different in the AR-15 not being select fire. Tell me again how the AR-15 is basically not an M16? And how does that have any bearing on the fact that the 5,56mm AR-15 will kill you just as fast as a M16?

@thegerg said:

@Boddicker said:

@thegerg said:

@Boddicker said:

I agree with concealed carry permits and don't think anyone has a right to ask them to leave their store as long as they're concealed. Idk how they would know unless someone came out and asked you or you pulled your weapon out in the store.

Now as to the nuts carrying long guns into a restaurant just because they can................I agree. They are dickless losers.

This is America, and we're fortunately not to that point yet where carrying long guns into restaurants are needed just to feel safe. Maybe after the inevitable oil bust/civil wars/general collapse of society, but now, no.

You don't think that a property owner has the right to choose who carries what weapons on his own property? WTF?

You said that no one has the right to ask someone carrying concealed to leave? Why?

In a municipality where it is allowed, no, that would be a violation of their 2nd Amendment rights. I've known several people that concealed carried and it never bothered me.

Now to the nuts carrying long guns into a restaurant, I would turn around once I saw them and go to another restaurant. Maybe they're not "gun nuts" that are going to go postal, but you have to be atleast a little insane to think that's OK in America.

Concealed carry = OK

Long guns strapped over your shoulder while eating at a restaurant/store = not OK

Classify what "military-grade" is.

Because there is no difference between the Colt AR-15 and M16 (apart from a lack of automatic fire) in anything except some minor bits that really have no affect on the weapons "efficiency".

Maybe you're right, but Target regardless has lost my business.

@Boddicker: why? They're not actually enforcing any ban

Don't understand why thegerg is arguing about the M16/AR15 platform when he should be defending the AK and it's variants as they are superior to Stoner's f*cked up designs. Direct Impingement... LOL!

I wonder why people still bother to engage thegerg in these pointless debates

Explain the difference apart from designation.