Private to Moms Demand Attention: Armed robbery is already against Kroger policy.

Okay, now, this is funny. A guy wearing a scary mask and waving a gun around robbed a Cincinnati Kroger.

No, that’s not the funny part. In fact that’s kind of deplorable. The funny part is that Moms who Demand Attention, which as you probably know is drumming to get Kroger to ban open carry, saw this as a perfectly logical cause célèbre.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

ANOTHER ARMED ROBBERY AT KROGER: This man robbed a bank inside a Cincinnati-area Kroger yesterday. Police say he wore a grey skeleton mask and demanded cash while brandishing a semi-automatic handgun at a teller. The robbery comes only two days after a man at another Cincinnati Kroger was robbed at gunpoint in the restroom: http://cin.ci/1w8GXnq

These crimes at two Kroger stores in one week should serve as a wake up call to Kroger’s leadership to prohibit the open carry of firearms in its stores. Kroger customers should not be responsible for determining if someone in the store holding a gun is a criminal or making a political statement.

As far as I can tell, the reasoning here is that if everybody is allowed to open-carry in the store, then how can anybody know which of the gun-toting hooligans is there to rob the place and which is just doing some shopping?

Based solely on the picture from the security camera – which was posted on MDA’s Facebook link, by the way – I think the people there might have been able to discern a
subtle clue.

Really, I’m almost embarrassed to have to explain this, but it seems necessary. So here goes:

Your Uncle Joel openly carries a handgun quite commonly. If I happen to be in the local food store, I may not even be the only one. It’s that kind of place. Shouldn’t bother you. But if somebody burst into the store wearing a fright mask and waving a gun around, screaming some variation on “Gimme the money,” I might find that person rather alarming.

So to summarize:
Person wearing a gun in a holster, peacefully pushing a cart around and buying Cheerios: Not a robber.

Person wearing a fright mask and brandishing a gun while screaming “This is a robbery”: Probably a robber.

Hope this helps.