Mike
Site Co-Founder
imported post
http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_03967e08-1d5d-59a6-a702-4c9e84669630.html
Eateries wrestling with AZ gun laws
Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010
GREG BRYAN / ARIZONA DAILY STAR Roy Schaefer, proprietor of Monkey Burger, 5350 E. Broadway, initially was neutral on the right to bear arms, but he's become a believer. In his eatery, holders of concealed-weapons permits get a 10 percent discount.
Gloria DiCenco was chatting amiably with a few Italian speakers at Beyond Bread on North Campbell Avenue on April 20 when armed men began coming in.
First there were two, then more. Finally, maybe 20 people carrying holstered guns and, in some cases, ammunition, arrived and ordered food, DiCenco said. A hush fell over the restaurant, she said, and her group's happy mood turned tense.
It happened that her Italian conversation club crossed paths with a group of local advocates of "open carry" - unconcealed carrying of firearms. And the open-carry advocates saw their Beyond Bread dinner quite differently - as noticeably unremarkable.
"That's the whole point - nothing happened," said J.D. "Duke" Schechter, who was among the group of gun carriers.
As Arizona's gun laws grow more liberal, business owners, employees and customers are increasingly confronting the issue of firearms in private businesses. In Arizona, a business may prohibit firearms on its premises, but some have found that doing so alienates customers who may have been carrying weapons concealed all along, or who simply believe in the right to bear arms. A less organized cadre of customers, like DiCenco, wonder why people feel the need to carry guns everywhere.
Facing the firearms issue is something many business people, including Beyond Bread owner Shelby Collier, would rather not do.
"We're really trying to take a neutral position," Collier said. "To the extent that that becomes a problem, I may have to take a position. I hope it doesn't come to that."
The issue didn't begin with Arizona's new concealed weapons law, which as of July 29 will allow people over age 21 (and not prohibited from possessing a weapon) to carry a concealed gun without a permit. However, it's become more pronounced as business owners realize how many people are carrying firearms, and as gun-rights advocates push for public acceptance.
Pro-gun website
One locally based website, www.GunBurger.com maintains databases of restaurants that prohibit and permit firearms. The site encourages gun owners to "vote with your dollars" when they encounter gun-prohibiting businesses and "take your business elsewhere."
The Arizona Citizens Defense League, a nonprofit group that supports expanding gun owners' legal rights, provides templates of business-sized cards on its website that users can print out to hand to business owners who prohibit firearms. Under a logo indicating no guns means no money, the cards say "You have made a decision to ban guns in your store. I am going to respect that decision and take my gun and my money to a competing business."
Pro-gun arguments have worked with some Tucson restaurant owners. The Hungry Fox, a bustling diner at 4637 E. Broadway, put up a sign prohibiting guns last year but quickly heard protests from customers who, unknown to the restaurant's owners and employees, were concealed-weapon carriers. The restaurant's management quickly reversed the policy.
"We were going to lose a lot of customers, and we can't afford to lose even one," said Dene Little, the restaurant's manager.
. . .
discount offered
Beneath the debate over firearms in businesses lies a deeper disagreement over the place of firearms in society.
Many gun owners view carrying a firearm as a fundamental right - or even a responsibility - in that it allows for self-defense.
That belief helped underwrite Roy Schaefer's new business, Monkey Burger, at 5350 E. Broadway. A start-up investor made it a condition of his investment that Schaefer permit guns and give a 10 percent discount to concealed-carry permit holders.
Initially neutral on the issue, Schaefer has come to believe in the right to bear arms in public.
"I just feel that they're appropriate and should be allowed in the public with people who are responsible," he said.
He's planning to open a second restaurant, this one downtown, on Aug. 1. It will have the same firearm policies, Schaefer said.
. . .
http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_03967e08-1d5d-59a6-a702-4c9e84669630.html
Eateries wrestling with AZ gun laws
Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010
GREG BRYAN / ARIZONA DAILY STAR Roy Schaefer, proprietor of Monkey Burger, 5350 E. Broadway, initially was neutral on the right to bear arms, but he's become a believer. In his eatery, holders of concealed-weapons permits get a 10 percent discount.
Gloria DiCenco was chatting amiably with a few Italian speakers at Beyond Bread on North Campbell Avenue on April 20 when armed men began coming in.
First there were two, then more. Finally, maybe 20 people carrying holstered guns and, in some cases, ammunition, arrived and ordered food, DiCenco said. A hush fell over the restaurant, she said, and her group's happy mood turned tense.
It happened that her Italian conversation club crossed paths with a group of local advocates of "open carry" - unconcealed carrying of firearms. And the open-carry advocates saw their Beyond Bread dinner quite differently - as noticeably unremarkable.
"That's the whole point - nothing happened," said J.D. "Duke" Schechter, who was among the group of gun carriers.
As Arizona's gun laws grow more liberal, business owners, employees and customers are increasingly confronting the issue of firearms in private businesses. In Arizona, a business may prohibit firearms on its premises, but some have found that doing so alienates customers who may have been carrying weapons concealed all along, or who simply believe in the right to bear arms. A less organized cadre of customers, like DiCenco, wonder why people feel the need to carry guns everywhere.
Facing the firearms issue is something many business people, including Beyond Bread owner Shelby Collier, would rather not do.
"We're really trying to take a neutral position," Collier said. "To the extent that that becomes a problem, I may have to take a position. I hope it doesn't come to that."
The issue didn't begin with Arizona's new concealed weapons law, which as of July 29 will allow people over age 21 (and not prohibited from possessing a weapon) to carry a concealed gun without a permit. However, it's become more pronounced as business owners realize how many people are carrying firearms, and as gun-rights advocates push for public acceptance.
Pro-gun website
One locally based website, www.GunBurger.com maintains databases of restaurants that prohibit and permit firearms. The site encourages gun owners to "vote with your dollars" when they encounter gun-prohibiting businesses and "take your business elsewhere."
The Arizona Citizens Defense League, a nonprofit group that supports expanding gun owners' legal rights, provides templates of business-sized cards on its website that users can print out to hand to business owners who prohibit firearms. Under a logo indicating no guns means no money, the cards say "You have made a decision to ban guns in your store. I am going to respect that decision and take my gun and my money to a competing business."
Pro-gun arguments have worked with some Tucson restaurant owners. The Hungry Fox, a bustling diner at 4637 E. Broadway, put up a sign prohibiting guns last year but quickly heard protests from customers who, unknown to the restaurant's owners and employees, were concealed-weapon carriers. The restaurant's management quickly reversed the policy.
"We were going to lose a lot of customers, and we can't afford to lose even one," said Dene Little, the restaurant's manager.
. . .
discount offered
Beneath the debate over firearms in businesses lies a deeper disagreement over the place of firearms in society.
Many gun owners view carrying a firearm as a fundamental right - or even a responsibility - in that it allows for self-defense.
That belief helped underwrite Roy Schaefer's new business, Monkey Burger, at 5350 E. Broadway. A start-up investor made it a condition of his investment that Schaefer permit guns and give a 10 percent discount to concealed-carry permit holders.
Initially neutral on the issue, Schaefer has come to believe in the right to bear arms in public.
"I just feel that they're appropriate and should be allowed in the public with people who are responsible," he said.
He's planning to open a second restaurant, this one downtown, on Aug. 1. It will have the same firearm policies, Schaefer said.
. . .
