Waffle House Refused to Serve an Armed National Guardsman
Daniela Galarza for Eater
PHOTO: atmtx/Flickr
This past weekend, an armed member of the National Guard was denied service at a Waffle House restaurant in Kentucky. According to a local NBC station, when officer Billy Welch — who was in uniform — sat down for a meal at the Nicholasville location of the 24-hour chain, he was told he’d need to disarm or leave the restaurant.
Welch, who had his firearm holstered at his side when he walked in the door, was only asked to leave after he’d placed his order and the server noticed the gun. When she asked him to leave his gun outside, he refused. He later told the news station, “You know, if I can’t have my firearm, then I can’t be here. I walked inside to the other waitress. I said, ‘thank you, but no thank you ma'am. I’m gonna have to leave.’”
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A witness took to Facebook to express his discontent at the incident.
Waffle House restaurants across the South are frequently the scenes of deadly or bizarre crimes involving guns, and at least one commenter noticed the irony in this Waffle House’s policy and actions. Laura Zolman wrote, “and if some crime took place there best is an armed military person who knows how to handle a weapon.”
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The restaurant’s franchise owner released this statement: “For many years we have had a 'No Firearms’ policy in place in our restaurants. We continue to believe this is the best policy for the safety of our customers and associates.” Reached by phone, Waffle House’s corporate communications department told Eater that this particular location was a franchised-owned location, and so the owner of this location may have been enforcing a slightly different rule. Waffle House’s official policy bans guns from its restaurants with the exception of law enforcement.
Open carry remains an issue in public places like restaurants across the U.S. While many states and cities ban guns from dining establishments, controversial gun-themed restaurants have popped up in recent years. Notably, the staff at Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colo. wear loaded guns as part of their work uniform. Outside of Las Vegas, Bullets and Burgers — a combination shooting range and restaurant — had to close after a 9-year-old student accidentally shot and killed an instructor. The restaurant has since resumed operations.
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Update, 9/29; 2:45 p.m. EST: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that an instructor at Bullets and Burgers accidentally shot a 9-year-old student; in fact the 9-year-old student accidentally shot and killed the instructor.
Update, 9/30; 11:15 a.m. EST: Ray Daniels, the owner of the Waffle House franchise in question, has released an updated statement:
“Unfortunately, we have been besieged with a misrepresentation of the facts regarding the incident with the National Guardsman, Mr. Welch, at one of LexiDan Foods Waffle House establishments. The facts are simple. We do have a policy posted on our Waffle House franchise buildings stating our policy in permitting firearms in our buildings. We normally are very loose on how we enforce that policy in terms of the military. However, on this particular incident, two facts have not been reported accurately that facilitated the situation with Mr. Welch. First, he was an active participant in a fight on the premises several weeks prior to September 27th. He was restrained and taken off the premises by off-duty police officers that were eating in the restaurant at the time. The second item not reported accurately was the time the most recent incident occurred, 2AM. We have associates who have to make snap decisions on our third shifts to provide for their own safety and the safety of our customers. Our associates decided because of Mr. Welch’s recent altercation, which they witnessed, it was in their best interest at 2 AM to ask Mr. Welch to leave his firearm in his vehicle. Mr. Welch decided to leave. We still tried to garner his business at that point. I am supportive of my team’s decision. I was not there and will not judge their decision making after the fact. If this incident occurred at 10am in the morning and Mr. Welch had not been involved in a previous fight I’m sure the outcome would have been different. I feel Lex 18 did not do due diligence in their reporting. We are highly supportive of all our military branches and especially supportive of our veterans. I hope this provides some clarification on the matter. Thank you for taking the time to read this and understanding that in any business, judgment decisions have to be made to provide for the safety of our associates and customers.”
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