Wichita Restaurant Sparks Outrage With Pro-Gun Stance

A restaurant in Wichita, Kansas managed to outrage the anti-gunners of the city. You see, while so many businesses are being applauded for being anti-gun by the gun control-loving zealots, this business made a different stance.

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They said guns were welcome in their restaurant.

For anti-gunners, that’s something that just can’t be tolerated.

A Riverside restaurant stirred up a passionate — and sometimes ugly — social media debate on Saturday with a Facebook post that announced “guns are welcome on our premises.”

The post, which sparked dozens of comments from customers on both sides of the gun debate, had people all weekend vowing to either increase their visits to Riverside Cafe — or to never set foot in the restaurant again.

It also highlighted a divide between diners who say they feel safer when people nearby are armed and those who are alarmed by the sight of a stranger packing while dining.

The post, which went up at 8:41 a.m. on Saturday, included a picture of a handgun with a green circle around it. “Guns are welcome on our premises,” the sign said. The text that accompanied the post said, “We fully support the Second Amendment.”

[Owner Paul Cohlmia] said he was surprised by the uproar, especially since the sign has been hanging in the window for 10 to 12 years. He’s the type of guy who has all kinds of friends with all kinds of opinions on issues, he said. And they can always agree to disagree.

Most of the responses on Facebook have been okay, he said.

“But some of it is just flat out telling me I’m a bigot, and they don’t know me,” he said. “I have all kinds of friends of all kinds of religions. I’m not going to prove that to anybody, but the proof is in the pudding. I can deal with a lot of stuff, and you can’t fight everybody.”

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The bigot line is fascinating to me.

You see, no matter how often we point out that the pro-gun side doesn’t care if you’re black, white, or purple if you support our right to keep and bear arms, we welcome you. On the other hand, if you oppose that right, we don’t care if you look exactly like us, you’re our opponent. But somehow, we’re still bigots.

But that’s because they weren’t talking about Cohlmia. They were talking about the strawman version of him that they’re absolutely convinced is reality despite the complete lack of evidence supporting their delusion.

Let’s remember that they’re the tolerant ones, right? They’re the ones who are accepting and all that.

Meanwhile, we’re trying to fight for our natural rights against an onslaught from them and their supporters, and being told we’re somehow evil for wanting to defend those rights.

Frankly, while I’m not likely to be in the Wichita area any time soon, I do plan on keeping the restaurant’s name handy in case that changes. If it does, I’ll make it a point to step in and have a bite. After all, he supports my right to be armed. The least I can do is support his right to earn a livelihood.

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