Chester County Open Carry Event - Barnabys

[soccerdad]

Sunday we had a Open Carry event at The Barnaby’s of America location in West Chester. It was a win. We had 10 guys and 2 ladies show up there around 3 pm. Doc Kromer, the organizer, had “cleared” the event ahead of time with Barnaby’s owner and also informed the WCPD of our intentions to gather.

Initially they put us in a back, relatively private room, away from the main bar patrons. I don’t think it had anything to do with keeping us away from the great unwashed (or was that us?), as much as keeping a group together. When I got there and saw that were so isolated, I walked into the bar area, spied three or four tables open in the main room and asked the manager or hostess if it was OK for us to move into the main bar. There was no problem moving. Game on.

I was surprised that the main bar was pretty crowded for 3pm on a Sunday (I’m not a day drinker) with most bar seats filled, probably 20-30 people in the room. We took our seats, ordered drinks and food and everything was cool. You could see many of the patrons stealing casual looks our way, but nothing overt. We had plenty of “Know Your PA Gun Rights” flyers to give away and placed a few on each of our three tables. There was one woman who engaged the guys at the table behind me, but I didn’t hear the conversation. I found out later she was kind of negative. I’ll let one of them elaborate in the comments section. Jon? Sean?

The rest of the patron interactions we had were uniformly positive, thankful and encouraging us to continue doing what we were doing…which was simply gathering as friends, meeting new people and enjoying each others’ company while exercising our second amendment rights. At one point, the manager, whom a few of us were familiar with, came over and said, ’don’t get used to this.’ So we, of course, engaged him professionally and courteously asking why? We also asked if he wanted us to leave, and he immediately said “no!” He said some of the patrons were a bit skittish about our presence and he wasn’t sure we’d be allowed back for another event of this kind.

I told him we were planning to do this at least quarterly and if he didn’t want us back we’d be fine taking our business somewhere else. He certainly was not negative or hating on us, he actually told us he’d just applied for his LTCF. But he just wasn’t sure that he liked the idea of guns in the bar, i.e mixing them up with alcohol. He was very polite and excluded us “responsible gun owners” from his reservations, but none the less, we did not press him any further on a go/no go for next time. Now I go to Barnaby’s regularly and I’m positive there are guns in that place every night because they do not pat down, there are no metal detectors and no ‘no guns’ sign. Knowing that the decision is not up to him, and that he’d be talking with the owner about today, we kept it light, professional and tried to be as informative as possible.

We will follow up with the owner to see what he wants us to do for the next Chester County Open Carry event.

[magmini]

the only thing i would suggest is that "we" pick a new location each time . that way it make smore people aware . i will be bringing a few friend next time .

[craigc]

If I can ever get a weekend off I'd really like to attend one of these

[West Chester]

Where was this posted.... I would have swung by for sure if I had known.

[soccerdad]

Where was this posted.... I would have swung by for sure if I had known.

It was posted in this forum and the Chester County sub-forum. It was a little hard to find, as the title was only Chester County Open Carry and the announcement was made as a reply in that thread. We will make sure to get more prominence to our next one...probably in April or May. Would have been nice to have you and about 30 more.

[XavierBK]

Is there a Facebook page this was posted on as well? Where's the group pic?

[magmini]

here is the facebook page for it .

https://www.facebook.com/events/list...2077302532197/

[JonEMTP]

Well, I missed my invitation!

I live in town, and would have glady come out for some OC fellowship. Glad to hear it went well.

[XavierBK]

here is the facebook page for it .

https://www.facebook.com/events/list...2077302532197/

That link doesn't work for me.

[blackcloud]

I would have come by as well since I live down in Kennett Square.