[Mr 5 0]

This thread demonstrates that we can all take our personal political and cultural positions and apply them to any situation as some sort of litmus test as to whether or not we should be offended about something or other, even if it has no actual relevance to anything.

I am not a gun owner but I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment and oppose any weakening of that constitutional right. However, a place of buiness requesting that it's customers not carry firearms - concealed or otherwise, I would think - into it's establishment hardly morphs the owners of the business into anti-gun zealots clamoring to strip us of our constitutional right to own and bear arms. That's an over-reaction - and quite unconvincing.

I am a political conservative who realizes that many of the owners of the places I do business with are often likely to be 180 degrees opposite of my political beliefs and some no doubt hate President Bush's guts. So what? If some CEO or corporation owner or even the guy who runs the local pizza place I eat at happens to be a political liberal who thinks Hillary Clinton should be granted the presidency by acclamation in 2008....I don't care! Yes, I would strongly disagree with them and I wish they were all hardcore political conservatives but I cannot run my economic life based on what other people's politics may be - and I have no intention of trying.

We are all free to spend our hard-earned money where we wish and if someone wants to 'boycott' a parts dealer because he asks that you not carry a weapon into his store, well, that is your choice to make but I see it as an absurd overreaction. The company won't know you didn't buy their product(s) and even if they did, won't care much, I can assure you.

Frankly, if this really was an insurance issue, your refusal to do business with Flaming River is akin to refusing to do business with a gas station that won't let you smoke while filling your tank with high-test. In short: ridiculous and short-sighted.