Evans claims that he was displaying his badge on his belt and he verbally informed the manager of his status as an officer. He was also dressed in a “field uniform” of tan pants and a polo shirt. After being kicked out of the restaurant, he vented on Facebook:
“Apparently my Department Approved DPS Uniform is not welcome [at Waffle House]. I was asked to leave by the management and also instructed not to return. They said it was because I was wearing a gun…I explained to the manager that I am a state trooper and he said I still wasn’t allowed to have a gun in the restaurant.”
A company spokesman apologized for the incident, saying:
“In this incident, the manager did not initially see the officer’s badge and should have handled the issue with more discretion. We apologize to the officer for any embarrassment we may have caused him. Our corporate Director of Security has contacted the officer, explained our policy and apologized to him. We have also coached our team on how to better handle these situations.”
Instead of wasting their time expelling police officers, maybe Waffle House should be rethinking its no carry policy for regular civilians. Not surprisingly, Waffle House locations have seen a rash of crimes and robberies that could easily have been stopped by law abiding gun owners. Earlier this year, a man was able to rob a Waffle House in Georgia using only a pitchfork. A few months later, a former Marine received permanent brain damage after a racially motivated attack at a Waffle House in Mississippi.
Despite Waffle House’s anti-gun policy, armed citizens have stopped several robberies at Waffle House locations in the past few years alone. In 2012, a man with a concealed weapon permit shot and killed an armed robber at a Waffle House in South Carolina. In 2013, an off duty security guard stopped a robbery at a Waffle House in Fulton County, Georgia.
One can only wonder how many other crimes would have been stopped if Waffle House allowed guns on the premises.
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