Gun Control Activists Threaten Jersey Mike's with Boycott for Open-Carry Policies
And the mob has come for Jersey Mike’s, purveyor of sandwiches, because it’s dared to allow customers to exercise their right to carry firearms inside their stores.
The controversy began, according to Business Insider, when a photo appeared on social media showing a customer inside the sub chain with two guns, one of which appeared to be improperly holstered.
Dude. It’s @jerseymikes, not Fallujah. You think you need a 1911 and an M&P to get a sub, but the thing that’s gonna kill you is cholesterol. Also, zero retention on that M&P. If I could walk up behind you in line and take your gun, you shouldn’t have it. pic.twitter.com/lnv2Hiv1ou
— Happy Cavsgiving! (@CombatCavScout) October 26, 2019
“Dude. It’s @jerseymikes, not Fallujah,” the original tweet, posted by @CombatCavScout, read. “If I could walk up behind you in line and take your gun, you shouldn’t have it.”
The post went viral after it was retweeted by Travis Akers, the liberal pundit best known for his work with Left of Bang, a gun control group made up of veterans. Akers criticized the carrier without going after Jersey Mike’s.
“This man is brandishing two firearms, one of which is not retained properly,” Akers tweeted on Oct. 26.”I could easily take that gun from him and shoot him, and take the other gun, all within 3 seconds.
“If you can’t carry safely, you shouldn’t be allowed to carry.”
This man is brandishing two firearms, one of which is not retained properly.
I could easily take that gun from him and shoot him, and take the other gun, all within 3 seconds.
If you can’t carry safely, you shouldn’t be allowed to carry.#LeftOfBang
H/T: @CombatCavScout pic.twitter.com/Ohu0opE2dH
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 26, 2019
It’s worth noting that the man isn’t “brandishing” anything. The two guns are being carried. As per Merriam-Webster, brandish means “to shake or wave (something, such as a weapon) menacingly.”
Hyperbolic, incorrect language aside, there’s kind of sort of a kernel of truth here; carrying requires carrying responsibly.
That said, I don’t think Navy Intelligence veterans are going around to Jersey Mike’s looking for guys carrying firearms tucked into their jeans above their derriere so that they could “take that gun from him and shoot him, and take the other gun, all within 3 seconds.”
If these are the things Akers and others might be thinking about while waiting to order their chipotle chicken cheesesteak, perhaps some time away from the gun control community might do them some good.
Anyhow, the original post and Akers’ post didn’t call out Jersey Mike’s, per se, merely the gentleman in the photo for improperly carrying a firearm. Fair enough.
This metastasized quickly after Jersey Mike’s fired back at the backlash with a joke, which — let’s face it — is never a great idea when dealing with the humorless.
“If the laws were up to us, we’d make it so everyone had to eat Jersey Mike’s Subs on Sundays,” the company said in a now-deleted tweet.
Guess where this went next?
As long as you allow open carry in your stores, we’ll make sure to grab a sub @subway any day of the week. https://t.co/AqhDX46ffT
— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) October 28, 2019
I asked @jerseymikes for a public apology after replying with jokes about unsafe open carry in their stores.
I also let them know if they did not reconsider their poor taste in humor & delete their tweets, that we would bring media attention.#LeftOfBanghttps://t.co/5visos9oCc
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 29, 2019
Here is a photo of the customer that started this. @jerseymikes should ban open carry in their restaurants and here is why. This customer was to incompetent to even properly secure this weapon and @jerseymikes turn that into a joke. Somebody could have died because of this. pic.twitter.com/KR0UeEGrWm
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) October 28, 2019
Any evidence that mass shootings of opportunity are a problem, or that banning open or concealed carry in public spaces reduces crime, is notably absent in these tweets.
Instead, the thinking is: Guns are bad. This guy is carrying a gun. He’s in a Jersey Mike’s, which allows customers to exercise their legal right to carry. Ergo, Jersey Mike’s is bad. Try plotting that one out using formal logic.
Jersey Mike’s deleted the tweets and apologized.
Thank you. We apologize. We always want to do better.
— Jersey Mike’s Subs (@jerseymikes) October 28, 2019
Again, while fair, this was never the point for the other side of this debate:
I asked @jerseymikes for a public apology after replying with jokes about unsafe open carry in their stores.
I also let them know if they did not reconsider their poor taste in humor & delete their tweets, that we would bring media attention.#LeftOfBanghttps://t.co/5visos9oCc
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 29, 2019
It’s not hard to do better. @Walmart did it. @kroger and @starbucks too. Issue a formal store policy. #subsnotguns
— be.the change.dana (@dcburns74) October 29, 2019
Upon further review, not good enough. This seems to be your standard reply. Allowing people like this in your stores and then joking about it requires a change in policy and thought. I hope to hear from you @jerseymikes. https://t.co/3djCp0EPwt pic.twitter.com/V0OckOASV8
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) October 29, 2019
You could start by actually deleting those joke responses and making a sizeable donation to @MomsDemand, @AMarch4OurLives, or similar organizations that are working to combat gun violence.
— Caleb Knox (@CKquaCK) October 28, 2019
So, in short, for the gun control movement, the only acceptable apology for a bad joke and a viral photo of a guy with his guns (who wasn’t “brandishing” them, no matter what you think about his dedication to gun safety) is to ban guns from the chain, talk to gun control advocates upon penalty of boycott and make donations to gun control groups.
While other companies have caved to gun control activists’ demands amid boycott threats, the calls for a Jersey Mike’s boycott seem to have fallen primarily upon deaf ears.
No policies have changed, despite the apology for the Twitter post. The media attention that Messrs. Akers and Guttenberg have threatened hasn’t exactly materialized. The social media mob has mostly stayed within its own bubble.
It’s entirely reasonable for a business to make rules that get as many people in the door as possible. Take this as a piece of evidence that bending to the social media mob doesn’t necessarily do that.
The folks at March for Our Lives might be staying away from Jersey Mike’s, but this makes me a bit more likely to grab a sub there. I doubt I’m alone.
CORRECTION, Nov. 5, 2019: Several readers have written in with comments stating the man’s second gun was properly retained. It is difficult to tell whether this is true based solely on the photo. However, we have updated the sourcing of our article to clarify that the information is based on the original tweet from @CombatCavScout, who took the photo and claimed the gun was improperly retained.
We failed to abide by our Editorial Standards and locate the original tweet, which would have provided this important information about the incident when the article was first published. We apologize to our readers for our oversight and for any confusion we may have caused.
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