Bars weighing impact of new gun law on business

Business owners have option to ban firearms.

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By Katie Wedell, Staff Writer Updated 12:23 AM Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Local bartenders say they don’t want policing concealed weapons added to their long list of responsibilities.

“Guns and liquor don’t mix,” said Mark Medsker, an employee of Boulevard Haus in the Oregon District, who has worked in the industry for 14 years.

Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation Thursday allowing concealed-carry permit holders to take their guns into bars and restaurants serving alcohol as long as they are not drinking themselves. After the House and Senate passed two different versions of the legislation this spring, a reconciled version was approved by both houses June 15.

The law would allow permit holders to carry a concealed firearm into roughly 17,000 facilities with Class D liquor licenses, which allow for on-premise alcohol consumption. That category includes restaurants, bars, sports stadiums, nightclubs, shopping malls and museums.

The legislation allows business owners the option to ban guns from their property by posting a sign.

Ohio’s major sports venues have already announced that they will continue the ban on guns for safety reasons.

Many bartenders and bar owners think firearms in drinking establishments pose just as much of a safety concern.

“First off, I don’t want a gun in my workplace. And second, I don’t want a gun around alcohol,” said Adam Wirrig.

As bar manager at Boston’s Bistro and Pub in Harrison Twp., Wirrig said he’s not anti-gun and he formerly owned a firearm. But he said the law raises too many logistical questions.

“If there is a bar fight, do I want to go running in middle of it? Because I don’t know who is packing,” he said. He also worried that a bystander pulling a gun during a scuffle could make the situation worse.

Medsker said it is unclear if bartenders would be liable if they served someone who was carrying a concealed weapon. “How am I supposed to know?”

Shawn Oliver, owner of South Beach Nightclub in Washington Twp., said even with as many as 500 people in the club on a Saturday night, they’ve never had problems with weapons or violence in the bar.

“We’ve never had to be a place where we stand at the door and pat people down,” he said, and he hopes it doesn’t get to that point.

Wirrig said newly added legal responsibilities like policing the smoking ban have already made bartending more complicated.

“If people really start carrying there is going to need to be some sort of training for bartenders on what to look for,” he said.

Not all bar employees are against the new law. Matthew Foughty, who works at the Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers location in downtown Dayton, said he thinks it might bring business back to bars that lost customers after the smoking ban took effect in May 2007.

“Maybe (a gun owner) won’t be so afraid to come downtown,” he said.

But Boston’s owner David Boston worried that the hype surrounding the new law would actually scare off customers such as families with children.

“I’m not opposed to the responsible carrying of a weapon,” he said, noting that he used to carry one himself, but he is concerned about the small percentage of people who choose to break the law.

“(The problem) is not the guy who has a concealed permit; it’s the guy who doesn’t,” he said.

Oliver agreed that those individuals who have a permit and carry a gun legally aren’t typically the ones the cause a problem. “But if there is alcohol involved, anyone can be a problem.”

He and Boston both said they will continue to ban guns in their establishments if the law passes.

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