Arthur Frommer – founder of Frommer’s Travel Guides, has declared that he will boycott travel to Arizona because he’s worried about his personal safety.
Arthur Frommer
The whole kerfuffle started after Frommer saw reports about how armed people (ordinary citizens) - carrying assault rifles and pistols, were gathered outside a hall in Phoenix where President Obama was gving a speech.
In a blog post on Frommers.com, Arthur Frommer says that “I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more.”
But it could get considerably worse for Arizona’s tourism industry, because Frommer ends his post by asking “should we all organize a travel boycott of Arizona until this tolerance of armed intimidation is ended, probably by an act of the Arizona legislature?”
Arizona’s tourism officials must be quaking in their boots at the thought of being stuck between Arthur Frommer and the NRA. AZCentral reports that Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Steve Moore, head of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, have already spoken with Frommer and invited him to visit Phoenix to prove that Phoenix is one of the safest cities in America.
This isn’t over yet, though. If it hits the national dailies, Arizona is going to need to do some major damage control.
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17 Responses
How utterly idiotic! He recommends travel to NYC, DC, Boston, Chicago, et al, all cities with strict laws that empower criminals by disarming the law-abiding, and gets lily-livered and weak-bladdered by western states that have historically empowered their law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. Is he more comfortable with armed criminals running the streets? The above places all have higher crime–murder, rape, assault–that any western state with open-carry laws or constitutional provisions, but that doesn’t worry him? He’s just another arrogant eastern liberal going off half-cocked, shooting from the lip. Boycott Frommer and all his advertisers.
Would he have felt better if they were concealed…??? Anywhere he goes, he is around thousands of guns, whether he sees them or not… What was the problem, anyway…They were legally assembled, and weren’t trying to get into the meeting, or anywhere near Barry Obama…He really needs to wake up, and realize that guns are here to stay, and realize they are part of his world..seen or unseen…
I live here in Arizona and have never, I repeat, never had a problem with people carring guns. On the other hand, when I lived in Chicago, I was always feared for my life. Frommer and his advertisers will be boycotted by me any anyone else I can tell. This guy is just an Obama lover and is trying to make those of us who are tired of being treated like dirt by our government look like idiots. We are far from it, but Frommer sure looks like the perfect poster boy for DUMB!!!!
Dear Mr. Frommer:
If the fact that the citizens of the State of Arizona are in the habit of exercising their Constitutional Rights is so terrifying that it causes you to lose control of your bodily functions then I have two suggestions:
Purchase a large quantity of Depend adult diapers and
Stay the hell out of the Grand Canyon State.
There are too many sniveling twits infiltrating from California already.
“Sniveling Twits from California!”
That’s what wrong with our state of Colorado too. I just couldn’t come up with a name for them that I could use in mixed company.
Mr. Frommer obviously travels only by air and considers the majority of this nation as “fly over country.” Otherwise he travels in great fear since the majority of states have quite liberal concealed carry laws. Thirty six states, including Arizona, issue permits to carry on a “shall issue” basis meaning that if you meet the standards and the state can’t find an excuse for denying you, the permit is issued. Open carry without a permit is legal in fourteen states and with a permit in another sixteen states.
It looks to me as though Mr. Frommer’s actual travel is going to be quite limited unless/until he gets treatment for his irrational fear of an armed populace in a nation whose constitution guarantees the right to keep *and bear* arms.
Mr. Frommer is a bit short-sighted on this issue. He’s been surrounded by concealed weapons most of his life, and likely thanked God for his safety, never connecting the two.
I understand that your first sight of a gun in public can be disconcerting. But to avoid a city or state over this issue is akin to saying “Arizona is only about Indian art and I don’t like Indian art.”
Okay, to those of you that compare NYC and other large metro areas to Arizona as “worse” … his point is made to those of us that are rational beings. I’ve been to ALL the major cities in question and by far, Phoenix was the MOST run-down, oppressed, sun-scorched, drug invested wanna-be suburb that I had the misfortune of having to work in. And! Tempe (a suburb) was used as a demographic standard in a townhall meeting to discourage a similar development in our area. (thank you Tempe for your excessively high crime rate). So, with the lack of self-restraint that exists in society today, coupled with the caliber of people that reside in Phoenix (sorry to the few normal ones that got stuck there without choice), I can truly say I have about as much desire to go to Phoenix AZ as seeing those pistol-toting leather-skinned burnouts come to my state.
PS…. my “liberal” relatives just moved back from there after one year of enduring the torture.
An update to the situation – Wiley, the parent company of Frommer’s travel guidebooks, has thrown Arthur Frommer under the bus. They put out a press statement which says that “We have a great deal of respect for our publishing partner, Arthur Frommer, who is not a Wiley employee. He is entitled to express his personal opinions, as he did on Wednesday, August 19, 2009, in his blog post about gun laws in Arizona.
Mr. Frommer’s posting does not represent an official point of view held by Wiley or the writers and editors who create the Frommer’s Travel Guides. As a Company we remain neutral because we respect our rights as individuals to have varying opinions.
Wiley values the good citizens of Arizona, many of whom are our customers, authors, and partners.”
Is this a gun thing or a gun at a President Obama event thing? My guess is Mr. Frommer wouldn’t have a problem if a man with a gun showed up at a Republican President event. In my opinion he has used his position to make a political statement. What a joke, this guy should step aside!
I say GOOD!! One less whining liberal in my one get away from the insanity of California.
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My family is boycotting future travel to Arizona not only because of this wacko gun issue and now the racial profiling of their new immigration legislation, but also because their idiotic governor has closed most of the state parks after stealing all the money out of the parks budget. Really smart – shut down one of the things that brings big tourism dollars into your state. We’re off to Oregon this year.
I have two adopted Hispanic children. I carry no papers proving they are us citizens. If my Five year old girl says “Ola” to her doll she is now brown and speaking Spanish. In Arizona she could be taken away. We are boycotting Arizona.
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Another ex-hippie, America-hater that believes that if the facts don’t conform to his opinion, they MUST BE CHANGED! I’m originally from Buffalo, N.Y. and was always looking over my shoulder when night came and I was outside, even in my own nighborhood! I’ve lived in Az. for 38 yrs now, and I have a concealed carry permit, and carry a S+W 38 special revolver with a concealed hammer, laser grip, and total fragmenting, low velocity bullits. If Frommer would do his due diligence, he would find that the Arizona prisons are FULL of undocumented aliens, who broke the law, and those that are living here under the radar, have FREE medical care, and many are getting food-stamps, welfare checks, and free education for their kids. All this is paid for by the rest of the “legal” residents of Az. and if it’s a federal program, every tax-payer in the country! It’s the “bleeding heart liberals” in politics that think America has to take care of ALL of the world’s needy people. Obama and the liberals in congress are like a family on the verge of bankruptcy, that pays one credit card bill with a cash-advance from another credit card! And the issuer of those credit cards is China! America was founded by immigrants, and ALL of our ancestors went through the LEGAL process of becoming an American citizen…then they learned the language, got a job (s) supported themselves, and many gave their lives for their new country in war. Frommer and the states and countries that are advocating a bocott of Arizona need to do some research on the subject, and the reason behind Arizona’s new immigration law, because it sounds like they’re not talking out of their mouths, but another bodily orifce!
i know this is late but if you read the article it clearly says that “I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest.” think about it people in the usa we have the right for peaceful protest yes but when the people protesting are openly armed it is no longer peaceful, it is intimidation. how many of you would confront an armed angry individual? there is no reason to show up to a political protest armed in the united states, doing so only undermines the very principals of democracy that we hold dear