Chipotle to Customers: Leave Your Guns at Home

Open-carry group spurs change in policy
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2014 1:49 AM CDT
Chipotle to Customers: Leave Your Guns at Home
The door of a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Robinson Township, Pa.    (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Chipotle customers, even in open-carry states, are now going to have to eat their burritos unarmed. The chain decided to ban guns after a group of people from an open-carry demonstration turned up in a Texas branch toting weapons including military-style assault rifles, the Los Angeles Times reports. The group caused "many of our customers anxiety and discomfort," so "we are respectfully asking that customers not bring guns into our restaurants, unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel," the Denver-based chain said in a statement.

Chipotle said it had traditionally followed local laws for its policy on weapons inside its restaurants, but the display of firearms had created a "potentially intimidating or uncomfortable environment" for its customers. The founder of Open Carry Texas, however, says the group was in the restaurant to have a meal after an event, not to prove a point. "We don’t go there just to carry guns into a restaurant," he tells Forbes. "We always let the manager know we're coming. We try very hard to make people feel comfortable." (More firearms stories.)

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