News

Sonic finds itself in the gun debate crosshairs

May 29, 2014

Sonic Drive-In is the latest restaurant brand to receive a petition from the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America group, following similar campaigns at Chipotle, Starbucks and Jack in the Box.

The organization’s petition was written after a group of people showed up at a San Antonio restaurant last week openly carrying firearms. Specifically, Moms Demand Action is calling on CEO Clifford Hudson to respond with a policy prohibiting guns in their establishments.

"Moms should be able to take our children to family-oriented restaurants like Sonic and not have to worry about being confronted by customers with semiautomatic rifles," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a news release. "We support the Second Amendment, but people displaying their loaded weapons at the places we take our children to eat — as these extremist gun groups have been doing — is unacceptable. How can we, or the store's employees or law enforcement, possibly know if they are good guys or bad guys? That's why we are calling on Sonic to follow the lead of Chipotle and Starbucks and clearly state that open carry is not welcome in their restaurants."

Earlier this month, Chipotle responded to a Moms' petition by asking customers to leave their guns at home. Jack in the Box also responded to the Moms' petition by announcing that it would enforce a prohibition of guns in its stores, stating that, "the presence of guns inside a restaurant could create an uncomfortable situation for our guests and employees and lead to unintended consequences."