Costco, Firearms Prohibited

Think Costco could be successfully sued if an estranged husband killed his ex-wife in a Costco when her pistol was sitting in the car in compliance with their policies?
 
westphoenix asked:

Alan, you said that is your response.
Did you email that to costco?

------------------

I had thought that my post was clear on this point. Seemingly it wasn't. If you take another look at my post, you will note the saluation Gentlemen.

Starting at that point, and carrying on to the last word is what I e-mailed to Costco, at the e-mail address shown on their response to another correspondent.

I've not had anything in reply, nor do I expect anything in the way of a reply. As a rule, these corporations and or large business establishments do not take all that kindly to questions from The Great Unwashed, though they will stoop to taking our money, as much thereof as they can get their hands on. Criticism and or questions regarding their policies or operational methods are most often, another thing entirely.
 
Depending on your state entering a property with a firearms prohibited sign is illegal.
Some states consider it trespassing.
You can also face jail time depending on the state.


Um, I'm pretty sure that unless they find out you are carrying (and when you're successfully carrying concealed, how would they know?), and then tell you to leave, you are not "trespassing" just because you're not in compliance with the rule they've enacted and perhaps posted.

And then, if they claim you are trespassing and you refuse to leave, a cop would have to witness you refusing to leave after being told to, in order to charge you with trespassing.

This would, you know, be about the only way that a person would be protected against a store manager calling the cops and announcing a trespasser, even though you were strolling through the store and no one had said a word to you. How would the cop know before he got there and saw the manager tell you to leave that the manager had already done so? If he truly hadn't, he could still lie to the cop and say he had. Would you like it if that were enough to get you arrested? A made-up story?

So far, I know that Texas has a very specific kind of sign that businesses must have in order to legally prohibit you from carrying inside. As I understand it, they are pretty rare, because companies don't want to piss off the large constituency that carries in Texas. (And that's a good thing.)

-blackmind
 
Thank you for your email to Costco Wholesale.

In reference to your inquiry on our policy disallowing the carrying of
firearms in our warehouse stores.
Costco does not believe that it is necessary for firearms to be brought
into its warehouse stores, except in the case of authorized law
enforcement officers. For the protection of all our members and
employees, we feel this is a reasonable and prudent precaution to ensure
a pleasant shopping experience and safe workplace. Our policy is meant
to protect our members and employees in all warehouses around the world.
This is not a new policy and we do not customize the policy for each
individual city/county/state/country where we do business.
Bringing a firearm into our warehouse does not enhance the shopping
experience. We are sorry the message you are hearing is that "we don't
want you." It is the firearms that we exclude in the warehouses, not the
carriers.

Sincerely,

Camille W.
customerservice@costco.com

You will note that Camille makes no effort whatsoever to explain how excluding CCW by customers protects Costco's members and employees. If someone came in there without a CCW license but WITH a GUN, and started to shoot random people, how would prohibiting CCW in the store protect anyone? How does keeping people who don't commit gun crimes out of the store protect anyone? Who argued that we want to bring guns into the store to "enhance the shopping experience" (as though we think of shopping like a day at the spa?!), to make her say that since they don't, we shouldn't be allowed to? I bring my gun in because on the way to the store, while in the store, and on the way home from the store, I could become the victim of a violent crime and need the gun for my own defense of my life, NOT to "enhance my shopping experience."

The kind of lunatic that they might be worried about shooting people in their store is not the kind of person who would a) have a CCW license and a legally carried firearm, and b) obey the sign that says "no guns" when they already plan to MURDER people. :rolleyes:

-blackmind
 
FrankDrebin wrote

That's a dumb idea.


Why?

Why NOT hold those who force us to be disarmed accountable for the harm we suffer because they did so?

We decry the Supreme Court decision that says the police have no duty or obligation to assure our safety from crime as individuals. How is this different? We holler that if the USSC won't say that cops HAVE TO protect us and are liable if they do not succeed, we should be allowed to carry our own guns for protection.

This is just the converse of that.

It would be helpful if, instead of making a too-simplistic statement such as "That's a dumb idea," you articulated what you think is dumb about it. Or do you prefer to leave us guessing what you meant? I'm afraid I don't see the point of that, unless it's a cover for you not actually having reasons to think it's dumb. I think it's a good idea. It jams it in the face of firearms prohibitionists the idea that if you won't allow others to defend themselves, you damn well better be taking care of that job yourself!


-blackmind
 
Having worked in large corporate environments, I would point out that the chances that the Costco customer service rep, Camille W., composed this reply herself, is just about zilch.

I would be willing to bet that Costco, like most large companies, has a stock of 'canned' responses to most customer service questions. You will see the same phenomenon if you pose a question to an online help desk for a computer issue.

So although you may dislike Costco for dictating what people can do on Costco property, you should not criticize the support staff for merely relaying the corporate response. That response came from much higher up the food chain than the poor person who has to answer the emails.
 
I replied to the email asking why some stores don't have the sign.

"
How come some of your stores in other states do not have these signs?
My local Phoenix, Arizona stores have these signs.
I also read online that one of your Colorado locations had the sign
removed.
<http://www.cssa.org/legal-QA.html> http://www.cssa.org/legal-QA.html
(About half way down).
I am also told that some Costco's outside of Arizona have
no such sign.
"

Here is their reply:

"
The only information we have available regarding our firearms policy is
the information provided by Camille. If you have more direct questions,
please contact our corporate offices at 1-425-313-8100.

Heather P.
customerservice@costco.com
"
 
I made my first visit to a Costco on Sat. Never occurred to me to look for any signs telling me what I'm not supposed to do there, so I didn't see any "No Firearms" sign(s) if there was one displayed. If I were carrying concealed and did notice such a sign, I wouldn't hesitate to continue with my shopping. I have yet for anybody to complain that I'm carrying; hopefully, because when I carry concealed, I really do carry concealed.
 
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