Political CHIPS - Conservative Heritage Institute for Principled Strength

Are you willing to sell the Second Amendment for $30.00?

I recently drove to Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) in Kansas City with the intention of making a purchase. As my husband and I approached the door, we noticed the sign telling me that we were not welcome. The store proudly displays the NO conceal carry sign. We returned to our car rather than enter the store. Before we left the parking lot, I was on the phone asking for a manger. My call was transferred to one of the Store Directors. We had a very nice conversation, but she couldn’t give me any information as to why the store was against my Second Amendment right. I asked if there was someone else I could speak with, and she said I could leave a message for the Head Store Director, Mr. Ed Lipsett. I left a message and was pleasantly surprised when he returned my call three days later.

Mr. Lipsett was very friendly, and we had a nice, thirty-minute conversation. He said he personally believed in the Second Amendment and that he himself owned guns. He also said that he does not have a CCH. At first, he attempted to explain how safe it was to shop at NFM. He told me how plain clothed security officers were on every floor, that entrances and exits were monitored and how sophisticated their in-store camera surveillance system was. I explained to Mr. Lipsett that my decision to not enter his store had nothing to do with my personal safety and everything to do with the store going against my 2a right! So, he switched arguments and started talking about insurance. He told me many insurance companies won’t insure a building/business if they allow conceal carry. He never actually said that their insurance company said this, but he implied that it was a problem. I told him that insurance companies were a business like everything else and if they were loosing business because large companies wouldn’t do business with them, they would change their practice. I then asked him if the store had metal detectors to insure that no one was bringing in a weapon. He told me they didn’t. He also told me that their security officers don’t carry guns, but he couldn’t tell me anything else because he didn’t want to compromise their “extremely sophisticated security system.”

I volunteered to come in and talk with him and his staff about how allowing CCH to carry does not compromise safety, and that I could show him that he was actually encouraging criminals because they were safer knowing that law abiding citizens were gun free once they entered the store. He turned down my offer. We ended the conversation with him telling me that he hoped he had not lost me as a customer. I told him he had. Then I explained that I was going to do everything in my power to encourage others to not enter his store. I left my name and number with him and asked him to call me if he noticed a drop in business and he wanted to resume our talk.

This is where you come in. How important is the Second Amendment to you? Are you willing to make a stand and support your conviction? I was bothered recently when someone told me that they very much support the 2a, but the minute they needed a new household appliance they ran to NFM because they had the best price. How about you? Are you willing to sell your right to own and carry a personal firearm for $30.00?

Leah Herron

Kansas State Rifle Association

Director at Large

Tags: Furniture, KSRA, Mart, Nebraska, amendment, firearms, second

5 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of Political CHIPS to add comments!

Join Political CHIPS

Comment by Greg Beal on December 10, 2011 at 11:01am: Clerk at a Phillips 66 in KCMO defends himself against a robber, killing the robber. How long before the clerk is fired?

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/crime/polic%3A-store-clerk-sh...

Comment by Micky Baker on December 6, 2011 at 1:10pm: There is one thing that can prevent someone from being hurt if there is a criminal with a gun, and that would be a law abiding citizen with a gun.

Comment by George Argeropoulos on December 6, 2011 at 9:44am: Very good point, Leonard! I have never heard of any "plain clothed security officers" who "don’t carry guns", or "in-store camera surveillance system(s)", or “extremely sophisticated security system(s)” that are any match for a determined thug with a gun. Because I am aware that "when seconds count, the cops are just minutes away," I take my family's protection into my own hands. I have a CCH permit and my wife will have hers soon. We haven't shopped at NFM for years. I too carry business cards that I leave with store managers explaining why I will shop elsewhere, as Linda McGinnis and her husband do. Thank you Leah, and the others, for taking a stand! Our rights are like muscles; if we don't use them, we will lose them.

Comment by Leonard Escalante on December 6, 2011 at 8:10am: How safe are you where the security guards don't carry fire arms ? They are just like any unarmed citizen.

Comment by Leah Herron on December 6, 2011 at 8:03am: A friend sent me this last night:

Here’s another reason for thinking twice to not shop @ Nebraska Furniture!

If U go to Nebraska Furniture’s website…they say “Worry Free Holiday @ Nebraska Furniture Mart”!

When I called the operator she said they were instructed to say “Happy Holiday” & I asked for the manager.

The PR woman said the owners are Jewish & they put the “policy” into place not wanting to “offend & respect all

religions”! OK…but if Christ is the reason for the season….& they are “utilizing” the season to make more profits then

that does offend me! Please check in your town/city for another source of purchasing. I would recommend Sears..tried

& true! There are others…

Comment by Micky Baker on December 6, 2011 at 12:50am: The rights aren't to be protected by the government as a whole. Mostly, what the Constitution intends to do is to prevent the government from infringing on the individual rights, the unalienable rights that we were endowed with from being born and they are endowed by our creator.

Comment by Peter Trast on December 6, 2011 at 12:01am: Kathy, I would go further and suggest that the government was never intended to protect our rights.

I recommend you read this for more info: http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm

I think we were meant to pursue criminals and administer justice ourselves. The reason we have this mess is because we handed over our responsibility to others who have their own agenda, consolidation of power. I will be curious to know your reactions...

Comment by Kathy Brown, Esq. on December 5, 2011 at 11:43pm: Leah, I'm impressed to see someone taking up so strongly for the 2d. Indeed you and others here are right: Without the 2d, we are slaves.

I think it important to state the very source of the inalienable rights protected by our Constitution. Peter was alluding to it, I think, in stating it comes from our very 'humanity'; but our Founders were even more explicit. They made it a point to cite that source, over and over again (in 'The Federalist Papers', 'The Debates On The Constitution', etc.). They went to great pains to clearly enunciate that the source of such rights was/is Almighty God Who, creating man in His own Image, 'endowed' him with such rights...

When we [voluntarily] form governments, we each retain such rights as, for example, to take satisfaction from those who encroach our rights (say, through criminal acts or acts which destroy our property). In forming gov't., tho', we cede such rights to government. Thus: If we are criminally or civilly injured, we do not then ourselves redress such wrongs. Instead, we enfranchise gov't. (prosecutors, or civil courts) to deal with such. But in the Founders' view, no government which is not willingly acquiesced to-like our own-is, constitutionally speaking, competent to act for the individual.

Comment by Micky Baker on December 5, 2011 at 11:33pm: Kim,

you asked in your very first post today if other people read your posts before they argue with you.

Not only did I read your post, but I also explained my position by actually supporting it with an amendment to the Constitution, which is why the last part of the fifth amendment in bold. It specifically says, "For Public Use".

Did you even read my post? It seems apparent that you did not.

Comment by Micky Baker on December 5, 2011 at 11:28pm: Kim,

Did you read the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America? The people that lived on that land before eminent domain was "cited" as the reason for taking the property, THAT IS NOT FOR PUBLIC USE, did not have their private property rights protected, and the 2nd amendment right is the one that protects that right.