Policy

"I've Been to Chuck E. Cheese with a Gun"

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What happens when a Middle Eastern-looking man and a young black man walk into a LongHorn with loaded pistols on their belts?

"Welcome to LongHorn, will it just be the two of you?"

The hostess told us there would be a 20-minute wait. We stood at the doorway and talked. Nobody said a word or even looked at us funny. A few people glanced down at my belt as they walked up, but honestly, a new iPhone would have caused a bigger fuss than our guns.

At Creative Loafing Atlanta, vaguely liberalish sensitive guy Andisheh Nouraee traipses around Atlanta and its environs with a gun and waits for reactions. Takeaway: No one even says "boo."

In April, Georgia passed a law that expanded the list of places that it's A-OK to carry a gun to include restaurants, including those that serve booze, and those that don't, like Chuck E. Cheese, plus public transit:

"So I just want to be clear," I asked [Atlanta public transit system] MARTA police Chief Wanda Dunham. "If I had a turkey sandwich in one hand and a gun in the other hand, MARTA police would ticket me for the turkey sandwich?"

"If you're eating it," she replied. "Only if you're eating it."

An interesting study in the robust minding-one's-own-business ethos that makes America great. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: I'm reliably informed that you can get two (2) small plastic cups of beer and/or wine at Chuck E. Cheese. If only I'd know that during all the kiddie parties I attended in my youth. I bet a beer would have improved my skeeball skills immensely.