Open Carry: Fairfax City Patch Readers on the Coffee Shop Gun Situation

Over the weekend, Patch ran a piece asking readers for comments on a coffee shop situation in Reston.

Within 36 hours of publication, the Patch post had received more than 400 comments.

The original situation was detailed in a blog post on Reston Patch—a man walked into a coffee shop with an openly-carried gun, and some women who frequent the coffee shop were uncomfortable with the way the man conducted himself.

• You can read that blog post here: What do you do when you run into a man with a gun?

Fairfax City Patch readers weighed in and here, we’re rounding up some of their comments. What do you think about what your neighbors are saying? Comment below, or head back to the original post from Sunday and add to the discussion going there.

A reader named Michael posted some interesting comments:

“The majority of people who open carry are reasonable and prudent people with a well balanced judgment and if ever had to use there firearm to defend them selves or others they would do so with causing as little or no collateral damage as possible. … People who openly carry are not trying to be quasi police officers or heroes of the day, they know bad people who do bad things are everywhere and are unpredictable, they just want to keep themselves safe and their family safe as well.”

A Vienna Patch reader Susan wrote: “Guns make me uncomfortable. There may be places in our country where people feel as though they need to defend themselves when going to a coffee shop. I can't imagine that someone who isn't paranoid would feel that way in Reston ....”

What do you think, Fairfax? 

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