.
I've never been there, and I can tell you that I have no idea. Here's my deal... I never call ahead to find out what their policies are. At no time in PA's history has OC ever been illegal, and I don't by into the whole 'gunz r bad and must be hidden and locked away' crowd. I guess I've known better since I was a little kid. Anyway, if the establishment doesn't have a policy it is possible the act of calling ahead may create one. How is the management
supposed to react to such a call...
"Hey, can we bring our guns?"
"uhhh, NO."
"Oh... OK. Geez, bummer."
You see, "no" is always the default safe answer. No one will ever get into trouble saying no to a request prior to the event. Instead, merely show up as a large-ish group of paying customers. At some point it is possible that this will come to the attention of employees/management, and what will they see? Gee, look, there's a big bunch of people over there, all wearing big scary guns! And what are they doing? Uh, having lunch, just like everyone else. It's difficult for a person to imagine horrific scenes unfolding when the reality is that all is well and peaceful right in front of them, and they can see it with their own eyes.
We can scarcely imagine the images that our phone call would conjure in the minds of whoever receives the call, but we can take that completely out of the equation if we can
demonstrate that it is OK. Most businesses aren't going to throw out a group of people for this reason only. In fact, I have
never heard of OC being an issue at a meet-and-greet, UNLESS it was discussed ahead of time.
If we merely show up, we get 3 wins out of the scenario...
The first win is that we don't have to find another place to meet,
the 2nd win is that we don't unintentionally create a brand new gun-free zone,
the 3rd win is that we get to demonstrate in front of a business and all the other customers who are there that all guns are not automatically bad.
Incase anyone is not already aware, I have been OCing in and around York for just about 4 years now, without incident (other than positive ones). I have never called ahead.
Oh, and I tip really well. My intention is to be remembered in the most positive way possible. Tips tend to do that. Feel free to call ahead if it is that important, but don't be surprised when you are turned down repeatedly.
I've been dwelling a little on the negative side so let me end with a positive anecdote. One of our poofa members wanted to get a big meet and greet going in the Lancaster County area a couple years ago. She found a pizza place that she liked, and she had been there OC before without a problem. A thread went up, and on the day of the event we had around 60 people there, at least 55 of us were open carry. It was a good sized place, and we took up about 80% of the available seating with most of us standing. In the back was a small party room that was filled with little kids, about 5 years old or so, and about 6 young women. Let me take a brief pause to let that sink in.
Women and children. The women had to constantly walk through our crowd to get to the counter area for one thing or another, so it's not like they didn't see us. But the priceless thing were the reactions. I will never forget one woman in particular, a group of about 6 of us had to separate so she could walk past. She made a kind of exaggerated craning of her neck to see all the holstered pistols and with a big smile said, "This has got to be the safest place in Lancaster right now!" As she turned away, one of the guys said, "That's the whole idea." She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. She looked stunned, her mouth hanging open. Then, ever so slowly, this smile began to grow on her face and I swear you could just see the gears turning and the little light come on. She got it. She nodded, turned and went back to what she was doing.
Someone got it that day, in a way that no phone call could ever accomplish. It was demonstrated. It was proven.
For me, it just doesn't get any better than that.
.
but we're just getting this off the ground and
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