Baguette et Chocolat—a bakery in Austin, Texas—is standing by their gun-free policy one week after a concealed handgun carrier was escorted out by police.
The bakery has signs posted at the front door barring armed, law-abiding citizens from carrying a handgun open or concealed in the restaurant.
The armed customer—The Truth About Guns’ Robert Farago—said he carried his gun into the eatery by accident; that he normally puts it up before going inside but simply forgot. He was carrying the gun concealed, under his T-shirt, and supposes the outline of the gun was visible just enough that one of the employees noticed it and started the process that would result in two police officers confronting him.
According to KVUE, Baguette et Chocolat owners Anne-lise & Chi minh PHAM DINH tell a similar story. They said store staff called 311 to ask what they needed to do and 311, in turn, called police. Officers arrived, were apprised of the circumstances, then confronted Farago.
The owners wrote an open letter about the incident, which said in part:
We saw his gun underneath is T-shirt. My employees and myself didn’t know what to do so, we decided to call 311. We were trying to know what can we tell this fellow, who knows that we don’t legally allow guns in our bakery, but still comes inside with his gun. 311 decided to send police officers. We were not aware of it until the police officers showed up.
Those police officers dealt with him telling him that regarding the LAW, we don’t allow guns in our store. He pretended he didn’t see the signs on the door. Apparently, he just had a warning and left the store.
Farago blogged about his removal from the restaurant and Baguette et Chocolat’s Facebook page became so inundated with negative comments that the store owners pulled the page.
The owners used part of their open letter to defend their decision to require law-abiding citizens to disarm before entering the store, writing, “Yes, we put those LAW signs on the doors. Yes, we don’t want guns inside the bakery as we’re small place and can be packed with children around as they have their own spot. We WELCOME EVERYONE and always do, but just unarmed. Our concern is NOT the person but the gun.”
On September 18, Breitbart News reported that the single greatest commonality between mass public attackers is not the kind of gun they use or their religion but the fact that they pick gun-free zones as targets. After all, the attacks on Virginia Tech University (April 16, 2007), Fort Hood (November 5, 2009), the Aurora movie theater (July 20, 2012), Sandy Hook Elementary (December 14, 2012), the DC Navy Yard (September 16, 2013), Fort Hood (April 2, 2014), the Lafayette movie theater (July 23, 2015) Umpqua Community College (October 1, 2015), the San Bernardino County Building (December 2, 2015), and the Orlando Pulse nightclub (June 12, 2016), all took place in zones where law-abiding citizens were required to enter disarmed, and therefore defenseless.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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