We first caught wind of this story via freedomoutpost.com. Bryan Hull, a founder of the Oklahoma Open Carry Association, confirms it. Given the media’s fondness for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, I hardly expect the press to concern itself with an open carry demonstration inside a Chipotle restaurant where the manager kicked-out the anti-open carry demonstrators. Yup, you heard right . . .
Oklahoma Open Carry [OKOCA] had received word that MDA [Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America] was going to go to the local Chipotle’s for lunch, so they decided to meet them there. Chipotle restaurants in Oklahoma have officially taken the position that they would rather see people leave their guns at home, but they won’t ask you to leave if you don’t; after all, in Oklahoma it is legal to openly carry, so they at least respect the law and your rights.
Moms Demand Action on the other hand, seemed to be demanding a little much on this Saturday afternoon as they approached management and asked them to throw OKOCA members out of the restaurant because they were “offended” by the presence of guns.
To be honest, we were expecting this, and we figured that we would be asked to leave; but what happened next was nothing less than awesome. The manager refused to kick out OKOCA and even gave them free drinks. MDA activists then proceeded to take pictures of the gun owners and attempted to portray them as intimidating and threatening. The management wasn’t having any of it; he threw Moms Demand Action out of his store!
I conducted an interview with the manager, and while I asked him if I could quote him directly, he asked that I do not. He said that he wasn’t going to have people treating paying customers rudely in his store. They simply do not allow customers to take pictures of other customers; it’s a “zero tolerance” policy if you will. He also said that he has no position on open carry, and he understands that it is legal to carry in the state. Finally, he acknowledged that people behaving in the manner that MDA had in his store were actually more harmful to people than the act of lawfully carrying a firearm.
Note: in the picture above a member of the Oklahoma chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (left) is shaking hands with Gary Stiner, VP of Oklahoma Open Carry Association.