Update: If you’d like to know why I’m so adamant about restaurant carry, and why I won’t enter a restaurant that bans guns, listen to this 10 minute snippet of a podcast interview I did with Luke at Triangle Tactical Podcast. You see, I have a friend who survived a restaurant mass murder.

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Sunday night at about 9pm the restaurant “The Pit Authentic Barbecue” in Durham was robbed by armed and masked men.

Make sure to click over and watch the security cam video. Put yourself in the place of those workers.

I am very glad that no one was seriously injured. But everyone involved needs to face one very important fact. They were not murdered only because the robbers did not decide to kill them. The robbers had all the power. No one could resist them. Why? Because the owner of The Pit Authentic Barbecue has banned guns in his restaurant.

Here’s a photo of The Pit Authentic Barbecue, Durham, from the street.

And here’s a close up of the door, showing the sign.

Photos used by permission of an anonymous blog reader

Take a close look at the anti-gun sign. See how it’s not just some generic “No Guns” sign the owner, Greg Hatem picked up down at the local sign emporium. No, these are custom jobs. He went out of his way to make custom signs to make sure we gun owners felt unwelcome.

For those who can’t make it out behind the reflection, let me describe it. The three pictograms are labeled “NC State Capitol,” “NC Legislative Building,” and “The Pit.” Above the pictograms it says, “No Weapons” and below, “No Concealed Firearms.”

This isn’t just a simple case of some unthinking restauranteur slapping up an anti-gun sign. This is a political statement. He’s very clearly saying “The Legislature bans guns in their workplace, why are they allowing them in mine?” He’s trying to make the case for it being hypocrisy. Well I have three questions for him

Does The Pit Authentic Barbecue offer the same level of armed security that the NC Legislature and the NC State Capitol offer?

Are there armed police officers hired to stand guard patrolling The Pit Authentic Barbecue the same way there are armed police officers hired to stand guard on the NC Legislative Building and the NC State Capitol?

How does your insurance company feel about you assuming the responsibility for the safety of your patrons by prohibiting lawful self defense and banning ALL weapons in your restaurant?

I’m going to send a link to this blog post to the owner’s “Media Inquiries” address,

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Samantha Hatem at [email protected]

CONTACT EMPIRE EATS OFFICE

(919)459-3206

133 Fayetteville Street

Raleigh, NC 27601

and ask them. What do you think their response will be? Feel free to email them yourselves.

UPDATED to add: This is just one of the several restaurants that Greg Hatem owns. His company “Empire Eats” also owns several other places.

Also, his original “The Pit Authentic Barbecue” in Raleigh was the host restaurant for Gabby Giffords’ anti-gun carpetbagger tour last July. They lied to us back then and said “We host all sorts of political functions. We don’t mean to take sides.” Yeah, right.