___________________________________________ April 13, 1998 Dear Ginny"s: Up until today, I"ve been a loyal customer of your North store at Burnet at Rutland. That store has done thousands of dollars of copying for me over the past few years, and up until today I had planned to bring the store another large job: 72 caps and 120 copies of the booklet for my wedding reception. So what"s the problem, you ask? I hadn"t visited the store in the last few weeks, because I"ve been in the Persian Gulf, working for the U.S. Navy. Like many high-tech workers who do contract work for the military, I have a security clearance. In addition to my work in the high-tech industry I also run a firearms training business. The large part of the business I"ve done with that Ginny"s across the street from my office was copying of class handouts and newsletters. My newsletter goes out to over 600 local instructors, law enforcement officers, and permit holders, and my WWW site gets over 1000 different visitors each month. Back to the problem. Upon my arrival at the North store I noticed a newly posted "No Firearms Allowed" sign near the door. The employee behind the counter explained that it was a corporate policy related to insurance and a misguided fear that (a) the signs would actually prevent a criminal from bringing a gun inside your store and (b) a permit holder would commit a criminal act with a firearm. I have bad news for you. First and foremost, you should read the applicable law. In order for your "No Guns" sign to have legal authority, it must conform to Texas Penal Code, Section 30.06. That means the sign must have the exact wording defined by the Penal Code, in block letters one inch high, in English and Spanish. Would your sign prevent someone from committing a violent act in one of your stores? To qualify for the concealed handgun license a person has to have a clean criminal record and no history of mental disorder or substance abuse. We have almost 200,000 permit holders statewise, yet there have only been 4 shootings. In all the cases the courts found that the shooting was lawful self-defense. According to the statistics published by DPS, permit holders are more than 10 times LESS likely to commit a violent crime than the average Texan. The homicide rate in the state of Texas has dropped, not increased, since the permits went into effect. The employee at the North store told me that the primary reason for the signs was for "liability." Is Ginny"s prepared for a civil lawsuit from the family of a permit holder who is injured or killed because she was unable to defend herself against a violent attack as a result of obeying your "no guns" sign? Violent attacks happen every day in our city, but they are not committed by permit holders. I find your sign personally insulting. I"ve taught classes for both the Austin and Travis County SWAT teams, and those experts in real world violence trusted me to be armed around them. The government trusts me with a security clearance, and the Department of Public Safety trusts me to teach thousands of other citizens the laws on use of deadly force and certify them to carry firearms. My students are not right-wing militia fanatics: they are engineers and managers with Dell, Motorola, IBM and other high-tech companies, lawyers, retired military officers, spouses and family members of local law enforcement officers, school teachers, and other honest, law-abiding people. These people undergo a thorough background check, pay hundreds of dollars in fees, and pass the most stringent training program in the US. Yet you judge them to be criminals because they choose to acquire the tools and training necessary to defend themselves against criminal attack. Do you also ban entry to karate students out of fear that they might start a fight? As a private business, Ginny"s certainly has the right to post whatever signs it wants. As a private citizen and business owner, I also have the right to take my business elsewhere. I will also do my best to encourage other Austinites and Texans to boycott your business, through my newsletter and WWW site. If your company ever takes down the "no guns" signs, please let me know. I have enjoyed the quality service provided by the North store, and I regret that I cannot continue to do business there. Respectfully yours, Karl Rehn Research Engineer, Applied Research Labs, UT-Austin President, KR Training Texas Concealed Handgun Instructor member, American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers