A big country star opened a huge, new restaurant last week in Woodbridge, Va. But a house rule for the new establishment is roiling some Virginians: no guns are allowed inside.
Toby Keith is not only a hugely successful country star (and actor), he also has personally opened a couple of restaurants, and through other companies, has now expanded those establishments into about a dozen cities.
The latest Toby Keith restaurant opened in Woodbridge. Prominently displayed on the front door is a sign saying: “NO GUNS PERMITTED.”
Virginia happens to be a gun-friendly state, where it’s quite permissible for citizens to strap on a weapon and go into a bar or restaurant, as long as the weapon is clearly visible. State law is silent on the issue of drinking while openly carrying a gun. (State law does prohibit most citizens who are legally carrying a concealed weapon from consuming alcohol, but they, too, are allowed to go into a bar or restaurant.)
The owners have the right to say "no" to firearms, and that's the rule at Keith's Woodbridge restaurant.
Facebook has erupted over the issue, with one patron saying she's "disappointed" and believes the no guns policy announces to criminals that "anyone leaving your establishment is likely completely defenseless and easy pickin's for a robbery." That poster said she will not patronize the new Toby Keith restaurant.
Another person wrote on the restaurant's Facebook page: the no guns policy is "sad" and it creates a "more dangerous environment."
That's right keeping guns OUT of a bar or restaurant makes the establishments MORE dangerous.
Just like keeping sharks OUT of indoor salt water pools increases the number of shark bites.
Just common sense,
And how dare Mr. Fancy Pants Country Star go out of his way to protect his patrons from flying bullets. Doesn't he know what country he is doing business in?
I imagine that much like the brouhaha over the Duck Dynasty dipshit that the paint chip eaters will petition and protest until Keith caves and allows guns in the building and starts selling ammunition as a side dish. After all you can't reason with people who think the Constitution was written by Jesus himself, and that he signed it with a spray of gunfire.
So . . . no guns at a restaurant in the suburbs of Virginia makes it a more dangerous environment? Idiots. I guess the gun nuts really believe roving bands of gangs shall now be robbing them at gunpoint after their fat asses have just finished off a plate of potato skins in the wilds of the burbs next to the Starbucks and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
ReplyDeleteIt is prob a trick like DD to get everyone IN to his shitty a$$ restaurant.
DeleteJust like A &E got many more watchers of the inbred retard show by threatening to suspend head retard.
And I just saw who was instrumental in screaming to get him back? Ted poopy pants.
What a fucking disgusting ass world we live in.
Anon 7:26
DeleteSince Keith is a democrat I'm thinking he isn't running with the right wing nutbags. In this country--being sane about guns will only get your assed kicked.
Ask the state reps in Colorado.
True, but look at Australia. The politicians may have lost their jobs over voting in new gun laws, but there hasn't been a mass shooting in 20 years.
DeleteColorado lawmakers suffered the same fate, and the gun control laws were loosened and there have been subsequent shootings.
Delete7:53 Toby Keith shed his Democratic cape when he jumped to the Palin ParTee in 2008. He may not be a nutbag but he fell for her koolaid so tells me his liberal education wasn't very deep in the humanities or civics.
DeleteLOL
DeleteSeriously, it would be a blood bath if a bunch of ignorant drunkard hillbillies came packing.
This could be another dangerous stunt I sorta agree. They don't mind using anything to make money,
Getting 250k signatures on a petition when a&e claims their largest viewing crowd was around 9m. That is a laughable ratio.
I don't recall any politicians In Australia losing their jobs over the cranking up of gun laws.
Deletegood for Toby. we'll see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI applaud Mr. Keith. But I'm willing to bet that there will be commenters here going on about how having lots of guns around makes everyone safer. P-a-l-l-l-e-e-a-s-s-e-e. In my almost 70 years I've never been in a gun-wielding restaurant environment and I've never felt endangered. If we visit Virginia again, I'll have to be sure that the restaurants we visit are gun-free. I never thought that Virginians were such gun nuts. It's not the Wild West, you know.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
OT
ReplyDeleteOk, Sarah Palin has a best friend who "chose" to be gay. Her self serving comment is so ludicrous on many levels. No one chooses to be gay like one chooses friends. Where was this best friend when Sarah Palin became pregnant with a child with Down Syndrome? We all remember Sarah Palin told no one, not even her own parents. Now for the second time good ol Sarah proudly proclaims she is friends of the gay but didn't even tell her BGF.. Best Gay Friend!
Was Sarah talking about? She has known him for at least 30 years, in the past she has referred to him as her best friend, there are the rumors that Todd is gay.
Deletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/sarah-palin-gay-friend-duck-dynasty_n_4501113.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics
Delete7:25 That may be true. It it also makes sense why Sarah Palin got so upset when a rumor was making the rounds that Track Palin was not Todd Palin's offspring, but that of Curtis Menard Jr, Todd and Sarah have perpetuated insurance fraud on the Alaskan native medical care system
DeleteRebecca Mansour, who writes her diatribe she spews, is gay and married her partner.
DeleteTodd is bi-sexual. He just gets it when he can, any way he can. But first they have to pay.
DeleteMy comment at 7:25 AM should have said "Was Sarah talking about Todd?" Sorry.
DeleteShe's a beard for Tawd and has been for years. No rings, hello? Is this mic on?? Notice she never comments on gay marriage. They have a "mutual arrangement" so the dwindling money can keep coming in.
Delete8:35 Palin hasn't known Mansour for 30 years
DeleteTodd's about as gay as Obama. There, see how that works? Using sexual orientation as an insult? Stop it. He's a straight horn dog and he and Sarah used to one up each other in the adultery grounds also known as Bristol Bay.
Delete8:01 AM
DeleteTrack has military medical now. What about the baby that is said to be his with Britta?
Why can't any of these things be investigated? B/c Mama Grizzly was a quitting Gov?
If Shailey was telling the truth about the two-tone gherkin, Todd and Sarah have probably been playing one up games since Bristol Bay and before to make him look more the Alaskan frontiersman. Who knows when he started experimenting. Bi-sexuals can think of themself as very hetro. It is complicated. It is not an insult to Todd regarding any sexuality. The Palins are criminals, no one would care if he was just boring Todd. Part of their public persona is about their Christianity and the image of the family they manufacture. That is why it is curious about what Sarah claims and what is more like reality.
DeleteTodd is connected to the Dillingham area. Yes, they do their best to make it appear as a lovely place. It is also has a long history of as very corrupt, dark place. Todd spent a great deal of time in mostly male places like working the North. People don't talk about some of the things that go on in those situations. Same goes for the Iron Dog deal. It is 98% likely Todd did experiment and he may have preferred what he found with boys. He has an arrangement with Sarah that has yet to be more fully revealed.
Wrong Mansour, excuse me. That being said, there's one HELL of a lot the media and GOP are covering up for this train wreck and why the trolls descend. It's their bread and butter to keep up the illusion and cover what's going on underneath.
DeleteC'mon, $arah, declare your '16 candidacy. You CAN'T, you know it, and you know WHY.
What fools those who follow her and hang on every word.
Mother Thanks Atheist Group for Saving Christmas After ‘Shockingly Bad’ Church Treatment
ReplyDeleteA mother who claimed she was turned away from a church's toy giveaway because she wouldn't let volunteers hold her baby says her Christmas was saved by an Oklahoma atheist group.
Tiffany Wait said she, her husband and their 7-month-old baby went to Bible Baptist Church's Toy Shop on Christmas morning to get gifts for their child, but were met with animosity because Wait did not want to give her baby to the volunteers while she selected gifts.
"I am poor and would not be able to celebrate Christmas this year without their charity," she said. "I went last year and it was a life saver. This year, however, I was treated shockingly bad."
Wait said her baby doesn't like strangers and she'd prefer to be with him. She said the volunteer said it has to be done that way, or the family wouldn't be able to participate.
"I stood there, fighting back tears and asked, 'You would turn a baby away on Christmas?'" said Wait.
The volunteers held their ground, and according to Wait, one woman tried to forcibly take her child.
Eventually, a woman brought a toy out to Wait.
But Wait soon took to the internet, posting her story on various social media sites, and that is when Oklahoma Atheists' Director Red McCall and members of his group set out to save Christmas.
"We had several people donate things and send her money through a PayPal," said McCall.
Christmas is a secular holiday now, according to McCall. He said everyone deserves to have a happy holiday.
"The Christians turned my baby and I away, and a group of atheists showed us compassion, kindness, and charity," Wait said. "They brought us toys, dinner, gift cards, donated money and really saved our holiday."...
http://www.pressrepublican.com/fyi/x1186896885/Mother-says-atheist-group-saved-her-Christmas
Well, so much for the atheists’ War on Christmas™, huh?
Put the "human" in "humanist".
DeletePuts the "human" in "humanist".
DeleteWhat idiot policy demands a mother hand over her 7 month old infant to strangers? They planning on baptizing the kid while the parents shop?
How sweet. Can you imagine if we left charity in the hands of these arbitrary and capricious religious groups? As it is, they only fill 11% of the populations needs, but the fiscal conservatives want the power to 'give,' to the needy - at a price.
DeleteThose dang joe mc scrooges STOLE christmas from that child. I'm so glad someone came through for them, someone who gave for the right reason and spared them further embarrassment.
DeleteSo ... by denying entrance to gun-totin' citizens, Toby Keith is increasing the possibility that criminals with guns will stake-out his restaurant in order to rob his firearm-deficient customers. With convoluted logic like that, I can see how the former President of the Harvard Law Review(1) could also be a Kenyan-born(2) Muslim(3) socialist(4), and the antichrist(5), who in his spare time has palled around with terrorists(6) and shaken hands with the brother of a communist dictator(7).
ReplyDelete1. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1990/2/6/obama-named-new-law-review-president/
2. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/blogs/message.aspx/3074#.Ur750mRDsgs
3. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/03/egyptian-newspapers-explosive-allegation-president-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-brotherhood-member/
4. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/20/Obama-What-Me-Socialist
5. http://www.cogwriter.com/barack-obama-prophecy-antichrist.htm
6. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/fact-check-is-obama-palling-around-with-terrorists/
7. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-shakes-ra-l-castros-hand_770687.html
(note: This is satire. No trolls to be found here. Move along.)
And remember also too, the gun-free zones known as public schools are killing grounds!
DeleteFuck you, you psychotic gun freaks.
ReplyDeleteConservatives and gun activists are in high dudgeon over a sign outside country singer Toby Keith’s new Virginia bar and grill that says “No Guns Permitted.”
ReplyDeleteAccording to Washington, DC’s WTOP, the sign has provoked an explosion of outrage online. Many gun rights advocates took to Twitter and other social media to denounce Keith as a “gun hating liberal,” a “fake,” and a “Republican In Name Only” or “RINO.”
“So if ‘no guns are allowed’ I guess that means that police officers that are ‘on duty’ aren’t allowed in for lunch or dinner??” asked Facebook user Connie Hollar Wright on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “Who are you guys callin [sic] when you need help???? Good luck with that!”
“Toby is a gun hating liberal. What a fake,” wrote another.
“Won’t go into a Killing zone,” said another commenter with a “Duck Dynasty” avatar, “which is what gun free zones are.”
The restaurant — called I Love This Bar and Grill — opened in Woodbridge, Virginia this week. The state has an open carry law, which allows citizens to openly carry firearms without a license. Businesses, however, reserve the right to ask patrons not to bring their guns inside.
Not everyone disagrees with the rule.
“I think it’s a good thing no guns are permitted in a restaurant,” said Jean Sutts of Woodbridge to WTOP.
Mike Miskin of Suffolk agreed that “alcohol and guns do not mix. I believe that you should be allowed to carry your gun with you but not into a bar.”
A post at right-wing website Breitbart.com protested that, “(o)ne of Toby Keith’s biggest country video hits is ‘Bullets in the Gun.’ It romanticizes carrying a gun.”
Keith has been politically outspoken on a number of topics, but in fact bills himself as a conservative Democrat. He supported President George W. Bush when rival act the Dixie Chicks criticized Bush at the outset of the War in Iraq.
However, in 2008, Keith donated to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president and spoke out in favor of Obama’s policies in the Middle East.
Watch video about this story, embedded below:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/28/gun-rights-advocates-freak-out-over-no-guns-sign-at-singer-toby-keiths-restaurant/
In the face of the hate and vitriol from the right wing, just remember this:
ReplyDelete15 wins for the progressive movement in 2013
http://www.nationofchange.org/15-wins-progressive-movement-2013-1388247396
Guns
ReplyDeleteFinal report yields chilling account
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/28/newtown-police-report-chilling-account-massacre
It never ceases to amaze me how conservatives go on and on about freedom, yet they freak out when someone does something they do not like.
ReplyDeletePlus: Why would you need a gun to go to a restaurant? Why would someone rich and famous (like Toby Keith) build a business in a dangerous neighborhood? I think a lot of the detractors are confusing possibility with probability.
That's because conservatives really believe in fascism, where they have freedom but everyone else lives under a totalitarian dictatorship in which they must abide by what they conservatives tell them.
DeleteThe elite decides, everyone else sits down, shuts up and does as they're told.
The conservatives being the elite.
Go AHEAD, $arah, have your paid consultants spew on THIS one. Tell us what the difference is between "no guns" and "no shirt, no shoes, no service." Tell us how our rights are being violated yet again.
ReplyDeleteI like IHOP better ... International House of Pistols
ReplyDeleteLMAO!
DeleteIt must be awful to live in the constant state of fear that those 'gun toters' do. They're terrified of everyone around them at all times. Sad. Truly sad.
ReplyDeleteThe "boogieman" has truly descended.
DeleteIs he pulling a PR job to get folks more interested in his restaurant? Makes me wonder. But, I do agree that guns do not need to be in bars or restaurants - anywhere - anytime - anyhow!
ReplyDeleteNO. His business, his right.
DeleteWell, how long before Keith buckles under the pressure from the mouth breathers? Will he have to protect his investment by caving, like A&E? Such a sad, sad state we're in when a group of people can dictate how a business conducts its business. Even Chick-Fil-A jumped on the DD bandwagon with its "support Duck Dynasty day." If I lived anywhere near Toby's restaurant, I would make sure to be there as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Chick-fil-a made an announcement that they were in no way involved with that Phil thing( not that I like them) but keep your facts straight.
DeleteAs for restaurants/bars with "no guns" it has been proven that MOST consumers want it that way.
This is the same group that defended Phil, but that 250 thousand does not speak for everyone.
"Will he have to protect his investment by caving, like A&E?"
DeleteMaybe he could try and split the difference and only allow gays to carry?
If I were a "bad guy" in Virginia, I could walk around with a loaded weapon on my hip and nobody would stop me. I doubt the cops there ask folks to show their permits. How is this safety? How is this even reasonable?
ReplyDeleteIf they don't like it they don't have to patronize his bar or listen to his music. Just like I don't eat fast food or watch Dumbduck Dynasty.
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to what they currently call C&W because they are generally a bunch of Christianist hypocrites. I might have to give Mr. Keith a second thought. Don't back down, sir.
"Sad" and "Disappointing" because they consider him one of "theirs".
ReplyDeleteHad this been some progressive liberal, the language and subsequent actions would have been a lot stronger.
Yeah, that Toby's a troublemaker!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKZqGJONH68
I think that it might have something to do with what happened here. He's just using his god given brains to avoid another such incident, it would seem to me. Erring on the side of safety and sanity.
ReplyDeleteOutlaw country singer Wayne Mills dies in bar shooting
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/24/showbiz/wayne-mills-death/
I hear Coleman Barney and Schaeffer Cox are ringing their Liberty Bell to announce a demonstration in support of letting all the guns into Toby's....
ReplyDeleteLast paragraph: "We didn't find anyone at Toby Keith's who objected to the no guns rule. It's possible we found no dissension because gun fans are boycotting the establishment. If that's happening, the boycott doesn't appear to be effective. At lunchtime, there was a 20-minute wait for tables."
ReplyDeleteExcellent.
DeleteThe no firearms policy was actually done in the interest of all of the patrons in Mr. Keith's restaurant, the logic being that armed patrons would be highly likely to blow their own brains out if any of Toby's incredibly shitty music came wafting out of the jukebox. " Gotta cleanup on my four top over here, Jessica. Looks like some brains and particles of skull on the lady's entree. Thanks honey!"
ReplyDeleteIn my 40+ years, I've never been in or walked out of a restaurant that did not allow guns and felt threatened. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteSomething's seriously wrong if someone needs a gun to eat a meal or have drinks at a bar. In most cases, a fork, spoon and knife are the basics for food consumption, and a glass, tumbler or straw to drink.
ReplyDeleteGood for Toby. It's his place, he makes the rules. Facebook rant from Gun Rubbing Palin in 3 2 1 .... and she'll work in "And this is just the tip of the spear".
I will never understand the need to carry a gun everywhere. I like guns and somehow i have managed to grocery shop, go to the bank and eat out for decades without a second thought. I seriously question anyone who has to carry a gun everyehere they go.
ReplyDelete