Guns in restaurants draw stares but little outcry

RESTON, Va. (AP) — The patrons at Champps, an upscale restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when customer Bruce Jackson stood up and made an announcement: He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols and revolvers. Jackson said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for their attention and sat down.

And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League organized the dinner at Champps to prove a point: that the presence of armed customers in northern Virginia restaurants would elicit little more than shrugs.

The dinner — and several other restaurant visits throughout northern Virginia last month — were a response to comments from the majority leader in the state Senate, Democrat Richard Saslaw, who said during a legislative debate that armed patrons would be unwelcome in northern Virginia restaurants.

“In most urban areas, you walk into a restaurant with a gun on your hip, they’re going to tell you to get out,” Saslaw said.

In fact, with a few exceptions, the gun owners got their meals. The group went to eight different restarants in April — at two of them, they were asked to leave. More often than not, though, their presence failed to generate a stir.

All the restaurants were in Fairfax County, a bastion of suburbia and soccer moms outside Washington that is the wealthiest county in America, according to the most recent Census data. It is also a place where nerves over the gun debate are still somewhat raw a year after the shootings at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were slain, including many from northern Virginia.

The restaurants included numerous family establishments including the Fuddruckers burger chain and the McLean Family Restaurant.

“We wanted to prove not only that (Saslaw) was wrong, but we wanted to make the point that we have the right to self defense. That’s a God-given right,” said Dave Vann, a retired D.C. police officer and VCDL member who organized the restaurant visits.

In Virginia, gun owners are allowed to carry firearms in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, as long as the restaurant permits it and they carry their weapon openly. Legislation to allow concealed weapons in restaurants serving alcohol passed the General Assembly this year, but was vetoed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

While Virginia is generally considered friendly to gun owners, it is only one of two states along with Montana, that requires people to openly carry arms in restaurants that serve alcohol, according to the Web site opencarry.org, which promotes and monitors gun owners’ rights. Eleven states ban guns altogether in restaurants that serve alcohol, while the rest make no distinction between open and concealed carry.

At Champps, several patrons failed to notice that so many customers were armed, even though dozens of gun-toting men and women had walked right past them.

Tomas Nolasco of Reston said he hadn’t noticed the guns and didn’t care as long as they weren’t drinking. (They weren’t.) His wife was a little more concerned.

“There are families in here, children in here,” Cathy Nolasco said. “It bothers me.”

Brendan Fitzgerald of Reston and his friends noticed the guns immediately. They were curious but unconcerned.

“I’m just laughing because it’s totally unnecessary in my opinion,” Fitzgerald said, pointing to one individual who not only was armed but also had several clips of ammunition attached to his belt.

“This is Reston, not Southeast,” said his friend Nathan Dicken, contrasting the northern Virginia suburb to a section of the District of Columbia that has been known for gun violence.

The gun owners say those patrons’ comments miss the point. Vann said the gun owners’ presence make the restaurant more safe, not less. Champps’ manager — Carey Vereen, a gun-rights supporter — agreed.

“This is an area with a large population of government agents — FBI, CIA, local,” Vereen said. “In terms of people seeing open carry, it’s not a shock to our customers.”

Indeed, many of the men who carry weapons say people frequently just assume they’re police or retired police.

For women who carry, it’s a different story. At one restaurant — Mike’s American Grill — the group had gone essentially unnoticed until a woman in her 20s with a satin-finished, stainless-steel revolver got up from her table.

The restaurant’s manager spotted her and asked the group to either put the guns in their cars or leave. They left.

“When I saw the gun on her hip, I was like, ‘What is going on here?”‘ said the manager, Gabba Kaye, who hadn’t noticed the guns when the group of 20 checked in for their lunch reservation.

Kaye said he hadn’t received complaints from customers, but that the weapons made him uncomfortable. He also said he had been warned by the restaurant’s ownership after word got out that VCDL planned a series of restaurant visits. He was specifically instructed not to allow them service while carrying.

The woman who caught the manager’s attention said the gun always attracts notice.

“Every time I go out, I notice people’s eyes going right here,” said the woman, pointing to her hip. She de-clined to give her full name out of privacy concerns. “It’s interesting because it’s not a reaction of fear. It’s more a reaction of ‘You can’t do that. You can’t carry a gun.’ ... It’s like disdain.”

She said she only recently began carrying a gun after a string of sexual assaults in her Alexandria neighborhood.

The second restaurant that turned the group away was Kilroy’s in Springfield — a restaurant where Saslaw was popular enough to once have a sandwich named after him. The owner also said he had been aware of earlier news reports that the VCDL was planning a series of armed lunches.

“We’d just prefer they not come to the restaurant,” said the owner, Phillip “Pip” Thomas. “I’m sure it would offend some customers.”

Saslaw said he’s not necessarily surprised that VCDL found restaurants in the region that would allow them to dine while armed. But he said that carrying guns is simply not normal behavior in this area.

“What normal person walks around with a gun on your hip? Something’s wrong in your life” if you feel compelled to carry a gun as part of your daily routine, he said.

The gun owners bristle at that stereotype. Nearly 100 people attended the various lunches and dinners, including many retired military personnel. Others were white-collar professionals. While most were white men, the group included blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women.

“This isn’t a bunch of drunk rednecks sidling up to a saloon,” said Christopher Wu, 28, of Alexandria, carrying a Springfield XD45 pistol.