Baristas Refuse to be Victims
By Nicki Kenyon, March 31st 2014
JPFO writer contributor, © 2014.
After a string of robberies in less than a month at Jitterz Java in Spokane, WA, the coffee shop owner and her employees decided they were going to take responsibility for their own safety. Sara Chapel is not only encouraging her staff members to bring their tools of self defense to work with them, but she's keeping a firearm in the stand just in case it's needed. This is a refreshing change from cowards who insist their employees remain defenseless while on the job, and even punish and fire their workers for daring to stand up to armed thugs! Yes, we're looking at YOU, Shell station in Nashua, NH and you, Dominos.
The video from the last robbery attempt at Jitterz Java shows that the employee merely had to grab her firearm to make the would-be thieves soil themselves in fear and run away after trying to break their way into the store through a drive-through window. As it happens in so many self-defense cases, all the potential prey had to do was brandish the firearm to stop the crime. Researcher John Lott writes in More Guns Less Crime, that "in many defensive cases a handgun is simply brandished, and no one is harmed ..." This may be one reason why recorded instances of defensive gun uses in America seem to fall short of actual incidents. Since no one is harmed and the firearm is never discharged, police are never notified.
Customer response appears to have been positive so far, with shop patrons encouraging employees to take responsibility for the safety of their place of work and themselves, and thus far there has been only one vocal, condescending arrogant misogynist who opened his maw and spewed forth an offensive generalization about armed women. "Whoa, maybe you girls shouldn't have them because when you're angry you do things you shouldn't," he reportedly said.
Really? What, no PMS reference to complement the obnoxious, reprehensible bigotry?
Fact is women serve in America's and other nations' armed forces, participate in shooting competitions, and hunt. Gun ownership among females is on the rise, and we have seen no increase in negligent or overreactive discharges as a result.
And yet, this "women are too emotional to use guns" argument has been used as justification by petty tyrants in three-piece suits to deny the right to self defense for all students on college campuses.
The owner of Jitterz Java correctly believes that everyone deserves the ability to protect themselves and to take personal responsibility for their own safety, and despite the thankfully rare bout of misogynistic ignorance, it appears the response to the coffee shop's "protect yourself and your place of employment" policy has been overwhelmingly positive.
Unlike the sniveling, hoplophobic crybabies who haunt the grunge scene-y, fluffy couches of Starbucks, and who demand a ban on firearms, circulate petitions and arbitrarily call police whenever they see an armed citizen, this shop actively encourages armed self defense, and its employees set a stellar example!
Kudos, Jitterz Java!
Here's to a long, profitable existence!
-----Nicki Kenyon has been an avid gun rights advocate since she returned to the United States from an overseas Army tour in Germany. She began writing about Second Amendment issues in 2001 when KeepAndBearArms.com published her first essay, "The Moment.". She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in National Security Studies from American Military University. Her area of expertise in those fields is European and Eurasian affairs. When not writing about gun rights or hanging out with her husband and son, she practices dry-firing her M1911 at the zombies of "The Walking Dead."
