By Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis
Scripps Howard News Service

Do firearms and frappucinos belong together? That's the argument raging in California and other states right now.

Gun enthusiasts have been testing their rights under ``open carry" laws to enter businesses while armed ― only to be turned away from establishments like Peet's Coffee and Tea and California Pizza Kitchen. One place they've been welcome: Starbucks.

Gun-control advocates are asking Starbucks to ban armed customers from the premises. Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence even weighed in with an op-ed likening the coffee chain's decision to ``serving food tainted by E. coli."

Should Starbucks declare gun possession off-limits in its stores? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.

Joel Mathis

If you walk into a Starbucks and see another customer enjoying a latte with a .357 strapped to his hip, there's a very simple way to ensure your safety: Go find another coffee shop.

Gun-control advocates are rightly concerned about the proliferation of firearms in the United States, because it's not exactly true ― in the words of the old NRA adage ― that people kill people.

In point of fact, it's mostly people with guns that kill people: 10,177 Americans were shot to death in 2006, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

So it's not irrational to see a gun and fear violence: The only purpose of a gun, after all, is to inflict death and injury. That's it.

But the Second Amendment seems to guarantee the right to bear arms.

And Starbucks is within its rights to allow gun-toting customers ― as are Peet's and California Pizza Company in prohibiting them. As a thought experiment, consider the following: The First Amendment guarantees Americans the right to worship as they choose.

But few people would demand that coffee shops make their premises available for church services, and few reasonable people would castigate those that chose to do so.

Guns are ― for many people ― more threatening than church services. It is unlikely, however, that Starbucks' policy will result in a sudden rash of caffeine-fueled violence in the chain's California stores.

People who feel unsafe at the coffee shops, though, should take their business elsewhere. It shouldn't be long before we find out if Starbucks needs its gun-averse customers more than they need their cappuccinos.

Ben Boychuk

The controversy over Starbucks' ``open carry" policy has less to do with customer safety and more to do with anti-gun alarmism and special-interest fear mongering.

The reason we don't hear about bullets flying at baristas every day is the people who tend to carry firearms, whether openly or concealed by permit, are usually very well trained and take seriously the responsibilities that come with gun ownership. These aren't shoot-first-ask-questions-later people.

Truth is, a gun is merely a tool ― a means to an end. Remember, the police cannot be everywhere, always. And when seconds count, the cops are usually just minutes away.

When a lone gunman in 1991 drove his truck into a Luby's Cafeteria in Texas, he killed 23 unarmed men and women and wounded 20 more before turning the gun on himself. Texas changed its laws to allow qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons as a result.

Unarmed people are vulnerable people and killers scoff at ``gun-free zones," In Mississippi six years after the Luby's massacre, a school shooter was stopped ― not killed, but compelled to surrender ― by a vice principal who retrieved a .45-caliber pistol from the trunk of his car.

How many lives would have been saved if he had been carrying his gun? It isn't merely that the Second Amendment ``seems to guarantee" the right to keep and bear arms.

Self-defense is the natural and inalienable right of every individual. So here's a thought: If you do walk into a Starbucks and see another customer enjoying a latte with a .357 strapped to his hip, breathe easy.

Enjoy your tasty beverage comfortable knowing a fellow citizen is prepared to defend himself and maybe even you in a life or death situation.

Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis blog and podcast every week at http://www.infinitemonkeysblog.com and http://politics.pwblogs.com.