An Olive Garden restaurants is taking some heat for kicking out an active-duty police officer on his birthday because he had a holstered gun. Yes, he was on-duty and in uniform celebrating with his family when he was asked to leave the restaurant.
Kansas City Police Officer Michael Holsworth says he went to Olive Garden on Sunday with his family to celebrate his birthday when an employee demanded that he leave because of his firearm, according to the Kansas City Star.
Holsworth was on duty and wearing his police uniform, he wrote on Facebook in a post that has been shared more than 12,000 times.
Holsworth says he was waiting at the front of the restaurant for his family to arrive for the celebration when an employee said: “Sir, we don’t allow guns in here.”
“I actually thought it was a joke at first, so I asked her, ‘Are you serious?'” he wrote. “She replied back with ‘Yes.’ So I told her, ‘Well, I can leave I guess.’ She then replied back, ‘Yes, please leave.'”
Olive Garden has apologized for the incident.
“Officer Holsworth’s experience was unacceptable and completely inconsistent with how we treat members of law enforcement,” Olive Garden spokesman Rich Jeffers told Business Insider. “Police officers are always welcome at Olive Garden. They serve our communities, and we love serving them.”
It sounds like Olive Garden has a “no gun” policy and an employee took it a little too far. Why else would an employee think it was perfectly reasonable to kick out a patron with a firearm, even if it was a police officer?
And this raises the question, should police officers with a firearm be allowed to dine at a restaurant but civilians with a firearm not? On the one hand, the left (and the anti-gun crowd all hail from left) wants us to believe police officers are crazed predators murdering innocent people in cold blood. On the other hand, the left loves the police state and forcing people to comply with laws “for their own good” or the “greater good.”
If Olive Garden is one of your regular dining outlets and you legally carry a firearm, it might be a good idea to call ahead to make sure you won’t get kicked out before your bread sticks arrive.
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