If you’ve been looking for a fool-proof way to motivate a crummy waiter, you might be in luck: more states are now permitting loaded guns in bars and restaurants.
Ever since McDonald v. Chicago slaughtered state sanctions over the Second Amendment in June, the gun lobby opened the firearm floodgates for gun-toting citizens. Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, and Virginia all passed laws that allow restaurant and pub owners to permit or prohibit guns in their facilities. (Arizona, Alaska, and Vermont don’t require a permit do carry a concealed handgun.)
In Tennessee you’re prohibited from drinking alcohol while carrying your gun. So much for taking shots of whiskey in the saloon before the duel. With the law, Tennessee swiftly reinforces both the Second and the Eighteenth Amendments, which, by the way, was repealed in 1933.
But it’s not like you can just bring your revolver to any old Long John Silver’s; Many restaurants deny gun holders … they just keep it a secret. “Many restaurateurs are reluctant to discourage the patronage of gun owners,” according to Gay, “often saying privately that they do not allow guns but holding off on posting a sign.”
How many people would a “No Guns” sign discourage? Is there really a significant portion of the population that can’t enjoy a chicken Caesar wrap or a rack of ribs without a loaded 357 magnum in their pockets? [Probably. —The Editors]
Not surprisingly, a lot of people would feel unsafe in a restaurant loaded with hard liquor and hot guns. “I have a right to go into a restaurant or bar and not have people armed,” said David Randolph Smith, a lawyer representing a waiter who feels uncomfortable in his own gun-friendly restaurant. “And of course, the waiter has a right to a safe workplace.”
“I have a right to go into a restaurant or bar and not have people armed. ”
I, uh, don’t think you do, David.