Who caused Starbuck's problem?

This morning's Associated Press article, printed in the Northwest Herald, explains to those who read it closely who actually created the dilemma that led to Starbuck's CEO Howard Schultz' letter yesterday that has inflamed the gun rights' groups and their members.

Near the beginning of the article the author of the AP article, reporter Candice Choi, lays the blame on those who put together "Starbuck's Appreciation Days". These were people who expressed their appreciation to Starbuck's for its policy of observing state laws regarding firearms. If the State allowed you to carry, then Starbuck's was happy for you to come in. In some areas (not in Illinois, of course) coffee drinkers showed up with guns.

The real culprit, though, is Shannon Watts and her group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. This group formed the day after the Newtown, Conn. school shooting. The Moms group has been, according to the AP article, "organizing 'Skip Starbuck's Saturdays' to urge the coffee company to ban guns at its stores."

Chicago-area Moms' members were at the February 22 Illinois House Judiciary Committee meeting in Chicago and took up more than its five-minute share of time to beat its own drum.

Committee Chair Nekritz allowed each of the three Moms to speak, rather than giving five minutes to the group of them. And then she refused to allow a man from Elgin to speak, even though he had registered in advance to speak. Maybe if he hadn't worn his NRA vest, Nekritz might have allowed him to speak.

Starbuck's has brought negative attention to itself, and CEO Schultz will be wise to move back to a neutral position of respecting state law.

And the idiots who flaunt their openly-carried guns in other states and who walk into Starbuck's with their rifles should have their heads examined. They are actually hurting the effort of law-abiding, gun rights' citizens.