Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Legal Requirement to Allow Guns in Restaurants?

While I generally think people who own a business have the right to decide what goes in in it, I did have this handed to me in comments here:

It is called public domain and the law says that unless a privately owned business has an “exclusive” clientele such as a private club or maybe a membership, the laws that apply on the side walk out side would also apply in the business.
So, any legal-minded person have an opinion on this? Should "public domain" require owners to allow legally permitted handgun carriers in their places of business?

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4 comments:

The Second Chance Sheepdog said...

Rustmeister,

I don't know much about this "public domain" deal so I'll leave it alone until I do. However, I have been wondering about something. If restaurant and other business owners have the right to ban guns on their property, don't they also have a duty to keep their patrons safe ?? If they are gonna be allowed to take away an individual's right to defend themselves while on their property, then maybe a law needs to be passed where if they're gonna post, they have to provide well-trained, quality, armed security during business hours. Let's make them choose - either they provide the security or we, the patron, will. Any thoughts ??

Bonnie said...

I second that - if you're going to take away my best chance of defending myself, you'd damned well better be prepared to step up the protection!

Rustmeister said...

All I can say is, if something were to happen to me in a place that restricted my right to carry, I'd most certainly be talking to a lawyer afterwards.

skeptic said...

Both Hudgens v. NLRB, and Pruneyard v. Robins are supreme court decisions that say private entities can restrict what they like, governments cannot.
They dealt with 1st amendment issues, why should 2nd amendment issues be any different?