Restaurant can serve alcohol, operate shooting range

Customers may bring their own guns or rent one, and they don’t have to order food or drinks to be allowed to shoot.

A Florida man plans to open a gun range that will be connected to a restaurant serving booze and food this November – and Daytona Beach, Florida, is allowing it. City planners are of course concerned that the gun range has been given the green light to open its doors; however, range owner Ron Perkinson assuaged those concerns.

Concerns were raised about the wisdom of mixing booze and bullets on a commercial property, but the City of Daytona Beach has now approved the proposal.

Perkinson stressed to commissioners that all the necessary precautions and training will be put into place to make sure that patrons can only buy alcohol after locking their guns up for the day, and won’t be allowed to use the range for 24 hours after having a drink.

Perkinson said he would post signs warning that guns are not permitted in the dining area, although he and Staudt admitted they wouldn’t know if a person was legally carrying a concealed weapon without a metal detector.

The range will also be safe due to the presence of law enforcement officers, who will be able to train at the range with a simulator, Perkinson added.

Perkins said without selling alcohol, the restaurant would not be profitable. “If you choose to have an alcoholic beverage and go home, that’s on you”. “I was leery”, Patrick Henry, another commissioner, explained.

The commissioners were reportedly swayed by the business’ claims of strict rules against shooting after drinking. “Everything is going to be revolved around safety”, he said. He said he’ll keep a watch list for customers who could be trouble and he’ll contact police when necessary.