The story of the NRA supported boycott of ConocoPhillips is big news right now as it should be. I would like to take this chance to introduce you to some old news that has some bearing on the subject.

I live in Smyrna Tennessee and like all cities it is suffering the blight of franchise restaurants. One is Captain D’s. While it is just another franchise like all the rest it has taught me a small lesson lately that I would like to share.

This Captain D’s looks like all the rest on the main strip of any town out there. Another cookie cutter building from corporate hell.

The one thing that sets off this restaurant is this small bench and a small grey headstone set out in front. Unless you take the time to look at it you likely would miss it.

What is it? A memorial to something very bad that happened here.

Most places you eat at do not have headstones as decor, but this one does and there is a bloody story behind it.

In July 2000 the store was being closed up that night by the last workers on the night shift. There were three of them.

The problem is one of them supposedly owed 400$ to some shady characters. Those characters came that night armed to get their money. When they left there was no one left alive in the Smyrna Tennessee Captain D’s.

I once wrote a small piece on the debate about the right to be armed while you worked.

As a Mormon I would never go into a persons house and demand that they not have coffee for breakfast because I am against it, or even to take the opposite extreme and demand they have fish for dinner Friday if I were Catholic. The simple fact is that they make the rules for their house, their business, and their life.

If you don’t like it then leave. But do not get so self absorbed that you feel your rights wins over their rights. That’s the basic beliefs that has pushed the gun grabbing community for to long. They believe their rights are more important then yours. A group of people I do not want to be related to in any way.

At first my argument is correct, but I did not carry it to its fullest extent. I should respect and follow the rules you set on your property and job site…up to the point that they do not endanger my life. At that point you need to understand that you do not have the right to put me in harms way for a paycheck.

So that July night in 2000 three people died. From the testimony of the killers two dies while on their knees. A sad place be when death comes a knocking.

“Then I heard two gunshots,” Palmer said in the statement. “It sounded like firecrackers going off. I remember seeing two of the people in the back on their knees. This was before they were shot.”

What rules does Captain D’s have about firearms on the property? Not sure. I checked their doors and they do not have the anti-carry permit sign so that does not seem to be an issue, but as for the workers they likely would be fired in a heart beat if caught with a concealed firearm..

So here in Smyrna we have the names of three people etched into stone.

Who were they?

Scott Myers, 42, of Memphis was married and had three daughters. At the time he was killed, he was completing his Captain D’s manager training at the Smyrna restaurant. His family remained in Memphis during the training. The family was last together in St. Louis, where Myers had temporarily been assigned for management training before going to Smyrna. He was found slain with Bryan Speight in a walk-in cooler inside the restaurant.

William Troy Snell, 18, of La Vergne was a senior at La Vergne High School. The teenager lived with his parents about five miles from where he was found slain in his purple Mazda Protege in a parking lot near Captain D’s.

Bryan Speight, 29, of Nashville was an assistant manager at the restaurant and had one daughter. He was the youngest of two children born to Daphne Taylor of Gainesville, Fla. His body was found with that of Scott Myers in a walk-in cooler inside the restaurant.

I’m not going to write this and say they would have lived if one had a firearm. I do know that without one they ended up on their knees and dead.

So into this restaurant comes the fine citizens of Smyrna. Most would easily say that firearms should not be in the workplace. I wonder how many of them know that just feet from them unarmed people were gunned down? Would it change their minds. Do they even know what that stone headstone is there for? Probably not.

Etched in stone in here in Tennessee is the best reason to carry while at work. Three sons, two fathers, a husband, four orphans, and so much suffering. A damn good reason to carry at work.

Posted in uncategorized on August 8th, 2005 by gunner | RSS 2.0 |