No CCW in restaurants - thoughts

Okay, a little background. Virginia does not have bars. Virginia has restaurants and some restaurants apply for a beer/wine or a mixed drink license. To get and keep a license to serve alcohol by the drink a certain amount of food must be sold, etc., etc., etc. Even a gentlemen's club has to sell enough food in order to keep their state license.

IOW, if a place like Pizza Hut sells beer at lunch, you cannot carry concealed. Want to go to a fancy French restaurant and blow a few hundred dollars on wine for your family, but not drink any yourself? You can't carry concealed. Same deal with the corner deli even if they only have 6 tables, but sell bottled or canned beer for on-site consumption.

Stupid laws.

John
 
I wonder, how about no concealed carry after 10 p.m.? :) The dinner crowd is mostly gone and the drunks are in full voice.
 
mcomikey beat me to it about the Florida law, which I find to be a very reasonable compromise. So long as I don't sit in the lounge/bar area, it's all good. Of course if it's so packed that those are the only available seats...well it is concealed.
 
I can see where not being able to legally carry a weapon in a restaurant is a violation of rights, but I can top that!

There is a chain of bakeries some of you may have heard of called Panera Bread. Normally I go in and buy a bagel or some kind of pastry and a cup of coffee and leave, but a few days ago I had to opportunity to actually sit down and spend some time in one of their locations. One of the things I do carry with me is an iPod Touch. These nifty little devices have built-in wi-fi capabilities and I proceeded to connect to their free wi-fi service. I was able to check my email, get the latest local weather and news, but when I attempted to access this forum, I go a message on the screen telling me that this site was BLOCKED BY A FIREWALL. I finished my food and left. I went to another place that offered free wi-fi service and I was able to connect with no problems.

I wrote to Panera Bread and here is what they said, "As part of offering free wi-fi in our bakery-cafes nationwide, it is important that we maintain the community tone and standards that Panera Bread is known for."

Because of their "community tone and standards", they have just lost one customer!

Scott
 
Louisiana- Can't carry anywhere that is zoned to allow alcohol to be consumed on premises. Sucks. I think you can get around it with a Parish permit, which I'm about to look into, but you can only get a parish permit for the parish that you reside in, so... :barf:

Stupid. Like everyone else said, there are already laws against carrying and consuming. That ought to cover it IMNSHO.

Jason
 
i live in new york

in spite of everyone bashing the state for being so anti,
we have no limitations for carrying in a bar or restaurant

of course, you need to have your license to carry concealed
but after that, about the only places you have to stay out
of are schools and the post office......

of course, i am not a lawyer, so if you live in ny and have
your license, it would be best to check out the laws yourself,
just to be safe
 
Restaurant carry

Here in Tennessee the both branches of government just passed a bill allowing us to carry in restaurants,even where alcohol is being served.It was passed in both parts by so many votes that even if our Democratic Gov. were to veto it they say it would pass and overide him easliy on a second vote.This Bill
also allows carry in State Parks in Tennessee.
 
My understanding is that it was the big chain restaurants that pushed for it. Adult beverages are the single highest profit margine thing they sell. They hope that we don't carry so we'll buy drinks. They could have just made "no guns" rules for their own property, but they didn't want to be labled as anti-gun. They were also responsible for passing the smoking ban. The big chains seem to only care about profits and not respecting rights. There are some small bar and grill places that may go out of business do to the smoking ban. I prefer to give my money to the locally owned places.

If you dress business casual and open carry; they often assume you are a police officer.
 
To me it depends on how you define "restaurant".

If the entity derives a majority of its revenue from sale of alcohol then I can see not allowing the carrying of firearms there. After all, the obvious conclusion would be that a majority of the people are going there to get "stupider"/intoxicated. Logically, guns and "stupid"/alcohol don't mix well.

On the other hand, if it is a restaurant which makes less than half of its revenue from alcohol, then I would argue there is no reasonable argument against carrying concealed therein.
 
Good question; however, the problem is not so cut and dry. The root cause of Virginia’s prohibition on carrying concealed handguns into establishment selling alcohol lies with the fact that there is precious little difference between a “bar” and a “restaurant” in Virginia; specifically, Virginia law states that businesses with a mixed beverage license must have at least a ratio of 45 percent food sales to 55 percent alcohol sales. Somehow the law must be changed to differentiate between a “Bar” and a “Restaurant” because, the fear is (justified or not) that armed drunks are a danger to society, which I have a tendency to agree with although I disagree with a ban on cc in restaurants; however, I would support a cc ban in Bars if Virginia could somehow differentiate between the two.:confused:
 
I would support a cc ban in Bars if Virginia could somehow differentiate between the two.
Click to expand...

It just amazes me how effective the years of anti-rights propaganda have been in convincing people that there are problems.

Why would you support the ban, is it because of all of the drunks committing mayhem with guns in/near bars/restaurants in Virginia for the past 30 years?

Pardon the sarcasm but it's a solution to a non-existent problem. In Va we've been able to open carry in places serving alcohol for more than 30 years and a small, but statistically significant portion of the population of Virginia do so (probably about the same percentage who have a CCW and are already carrying).

The result of this has been an astounding amount of nothing-happens.

If 30 years of "it just hasn't been a problem" isn't proof enough that this whole thing is silly then I guess there is just no proving the point.
 
Man up to it! Guns and alcohol is a bad mix in most situations.

I grew up on the strip in Ft. Laud. Alcohol was always involved in the worst situations. Guns were never involved but the level of stupidity was unsurpassed by drunk college kids.

If there were a law (like DUI) for hunting I'd be all over it. I was missed twice the season before last by poachers.
 
move to GA. go anywhere you want and open carry if you feel like it. Even restaurants. Just don't drink, cause that one you can't do while carrying.
 
in spite of everyone bashing the state for being so anti,
we have no limitations for carrying in a bar or restaurant
Click to expand...

Yep, this is about the only perk of being a NY gun owner. When I go out to dinner with my wife to a nice I resturant, I put on a suitcoat and my 4" S&W Model 28 in a simply rugged sour dough pancake:D
 
And the silly thing is

Criminals don't tend to obey laws anyhow? So the only people affected/inconvenienced is the law abiding citizen..... AS USUAL! :barf:

I bet if there is a law to say you cant carry in a resteraunt, like you guys are saying, if a criminal came in and started threatening the diners with a gun & a good guy (being naughty, carrying in the resteraunt) shot the BG about to kill god knows how many innocent diners, the GG would be a HERO :D.... then get arrested :eek::barf:
 
Everytime I see this all I can think of is the Luby's Cafeteria incident in Texas.

The no carry law worked great there at giving an insane assailant a whole restaurant of people to shoot.

Really sad.
 
Specter, I’m a retired sailor I’ve been in more bars then I should admit to; alcohol and guns do not mix, period. Just like cars and alcohol the two should never meet. Also, never have I seen someone open carry in any bar/restaurant in Virginia; however, I have seen someone open carry in the children’s section of the public library just to prove a 2nd amendment point, the only thing that was accomplished was the erosion on our 2nd amendment rights because he scared the hell out of a bunch of parents there for “Story Time” with there children; thus, turning that much more of the population towards stricter gun laws. Georgia’s law “carry anywhere but don’t drink” seems the most logical, I wish Virginia would adopt it.
 
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