A restaurant owner is celebrating customers' right to bear arms by allowing them to bring guns into her establishment in Maryville, Tennessee.
Shiloh Brew and Chew owner Sharma Floyd said that after posting a sign welcoming gun owners to bring their weapons into the restaurant, her business has increased.
"As the owner, I wanted to stand my ground," Floyd told WBIR. "I have that constitutional right. If you like it, that's great, if you don't, I'm sorry for you. I can't change who I am."
The sign, posted a month ago, reads: "Guns are Welcome on the premises. Please keep all weapons holstered unless need arises. In such case, judicious marksmanship is appreciated!"
Floyd said she got the idea after one restaurant posted a "No Weapons Allowed" sign, and was robbed at gunpoint two days later.
"The convenience store manager was shot," the Shiloh owner said. "And that got me thinking.
"I lost a whole group of motorcyclists because they thought I didn't allow weapons. But I believe it's ok to carry as long as you have a permit."
The restaurant serves beer, but does not allow gun-carrying patrons to drink.
"If they say 'Yes, I have an ankle strap on', I say 'Sorry, then you can't drink,'" Floyd said. "We sell very, very little beer here, but we do offer it. I don't have a liquor license. I won't get a liquor license."
Other than one customer who told Floyd that he wouldn't return to the restaurant, she said the response to her "Guns are Welcome" sign has been positive.
"I have had so many customers take pictures of the sign, ask to meet me in person, and thank me," she said.
"There have been as many as eight people in here at one time who I know for a fact had guns. And no one would have known it except I know them personally.
"They're law-abiding, God-fearing, Christian people. And that's what I stand on. That's what my restaurant is based on."
