On Sunday night, The Pit‘s new Durham restaurant fell victim to an armed robbery. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but it’s a terrible crime nonetheless.
The Pit, like many businesses in North Carolina, has a “No Weapons” sign posted on its front door.
Maybe it’s because they came in through the back door, but the armed robbers totally ignored the sign. Or maybe they can’t read. Or maybe THEY’RE CRIMINALS. They don’t bother obeying laws against robbery, so it seems somewhat unlikely that they’ll respect this door sign.
Full disclosure: I am a concealed handgun permit holder. I am also a firm believer in private property, so I think that business owners should be able to permit or prohibit handguns on their own property. The owners of The Pit have every right to institute this policy, and I will respect it. I won’t carry on their premises.
However, I don’t really think it’s a policy that’s likely to have the desired result. It just ensures that the only people who will have guns at The Pit are those with ill intent, as we sadly saw on Sunday. And when that happens, prohibiting responsible, trained gun owners from carrying will only leave all of us at the mercy of irresponsible, possibly untrained ones. That makes me feel less safe, not more.
