Two More Restaurant Chains Ban Guns On Site

The Open Carry demonstrators caused this.

Sonic Drive-In and Chili’s Grill & Bar have added their corporate voices to a growing list of food firms asking patrons to enjoy their meals without their guns.

The announcements Friday follow recent demonstrations by open-carry activists who brought rifles and shotguns into Sonic, Chili’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill outlets in Texas.

In Sonic’s case, they’re a drive-in, so banning guns is totally unenforceable. They’re not going to send their skating car-hops out to search every car for guns. Sonic’s statement even admits that they can’t really enforce it.

“We’ve considered the views and desires of our customers and employees that staff the drive-ins across the country,” the Oklahoma City-based company said. “Accordingly, we’re asking that customers refrain from bringing guns onto our patios or into our indoor dining areas. With respect to the storage of guns in vehicles, we ask that our customers continue to honor local laws.”

Enforcing it isn’t the point. Keeping lawsuits at bay is the point. We’re a very litigious society. Corporations have to defend themselves — from us, sometimes , and rapacious ambulance-chasers like John Edwards and those snakes you see in cable ads.

I strongly support open carry. It should be the law in Texas. But Open Carry’s game isn’t the way to go about getting a good law passed.

The Open Carry demonstrators have caused these corporations to go get their lawyers, and their lawyers are doing what lawyers do — erring on the side of caution. The lawyers are telling the board or owners that if the restaurants didn’t say something now, someone could hold them at fault if an idiot starts a shooting rampage on their grounds. Before the Open Carry demonstrators did their thing, these restaurants could live in ambiguity. Now they can’t.

So thanks, morons. Now please knock it off.