A member of the Army National Guard was hungry so he decided to grab some breakfast at the Waffle House restaurant in Nicholasville, Ky. but he was told to leave his firearm outside or he wouldn’t be served his food. His story has since gone viral on social media.
The soldier, Billy Welch tells LEX18 that after ordering his food a waitress motioned for him to come to her. Welch was wearing his Army National Guard uniform and had his firearm holstered to his side.
“I got up and I walked over to them, asked them how they were doing and stuff, and they said I’d have to take my firearm outside,” He said. “I don’t feel comfortable taking my firearm away from me. I always keep it with me and they said, ‘it’s one of our policies.’”
“You know, if I can’t have my firearm, then I can’t be here,” said Welch. “I walked inside to the other waitress. I said, ‘thank you, but no thank you ma’am. I’m gonna have to leave.'”
Welch started hearing from people and organizations all over the country after one witness took the details of the situation to Facebook.
“I have a bunch of family members and friends who have been active military and in the military and retired and it hurts my feelings when people disrespect them,” said Micaela Shaw, who was sitting in a booth nearby. “I just wanted to stand up for him.”
Her posts quickly went viral.
As for Waffle House, a statement from the owner reads, in-part, “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.”
That is a ridiculous policy. Obviously these people are anti-gun liberals that don’t understand that having armed service members and police officers actually makes it a safer place! It’s like having free armed security for God’s sake!
Unfortunately we are seeing more and more of these type of situations largely in part to the gun grabbing agenda of Obama and his leftist morons.
We want to thank all those who serve our country and may God Bless you all.
Dean James III% AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS
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What idiots…now, watch, there will be a spate or armed robberies, or mass shootings, at waffle house, now that they are outed as a gun free zone. No way in hell you could get me in one of those now…
Will you be the one leading…
Leading what?
Sorry just got off work…time for you to punch in and follow the convo.
Whats it like going through life being scared all the time
What a silly sorry comment. First, I have a .45, A black belt, and 2 browns. This is not about fear, this is about common sense, which you seem to lack. Nearly every damn time some off his rocker nut job goes on a shooting spree, he goes to a place where all present have been effectively disarmed. He can shoot and shoot and no one is there to shoot back. Sounds to me like your one of those people scared of an inanimate object, and refuses to accept the facts. Like they say, ignorance is bliss.
Yeah, leave the armed men outside during the next robbery.
When Police walk in are they told to leave too?
No they are not !! I was in a waffle house not to long ago and there was 2 Cops sitting in there having coffee !! So if they can keep their firearms then our damn soldiers sure need to be allowed to keep theirs !!!
Geez
SMH
They may one day need that same soldier to protect them with his weapon
Evidently he has a Paranoia Problem if when there was no threat to him he could not be separated from his weapon long enough to feed himself.
Sorry but you are wrong, a soldier in uniform is a target for many people. He is an individual that is trained in the use of a fire arm. From reading the article they have a NO WEAPONS or GUN Rule, as a retired officer who is authorized by state statue to carry, I will not be stopping at any Waffle House !
And that is your Right. I do not carry and I am not scared so I will eat wherever I want to.
When I wore my uniform from 81 to 85 I ate wherever I wanted
And you have an idiocy problem
Guess I will be giving up my waffle house !!! Oh well it’s best for my heart anyways
Waffle House is Vomit.
I’ll starve before I ever eat in a Waffle House……..
The headline is a bald faced lie. They didnt refuse to serve him. He left on his own. They just asked him to take his gun outside and then HE chose to leave at that point. At no time did they refuse to serve him. These bullshit right-wing sites have to fake up stories to get the Trump idiots riled up. Try telling the fucking truth sometime.
You are missing the point here, Peachy. The manager would serve him only, only w/o his firearm.
For HIS safety and his fsmily’s, he would only remain there WITH his firearm.
And now the full story comes out. From the owner of the Waffle House: 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.
I would rather keep my gun on my person than leave it outside for some loser to steal and either sell to some gang banger or use for their own purposes.
Since when is the miilitary allowed to wear firearms off base and off duty? He isn’t an cop so and he wasn’t deployed so why was he wearing a firearm in uniform?
Since they do escort duty off base. Dumbass.
Yes, carry your firearm wherever you go. No teachers at Sandyhook had firearms, how sad!!!
Damn, I like their food. Never be back!
I wonder if they would refuse a Police Officer for wearing his gun in the Restaurant !
The Police are doing there job when carrying a weapon. As far as I know we are not at war with anyone inside our borders so why didn’t this Army National Guard just lock his weapon in his vehicle for 45 minutes and eat. I guess neither the “liberal’ media or fox informed the public of the danger of eating at Waffle House.
Got to wonder if this is true -or- another hoax (like the disfigured girl at KFC story).
I sure won’t be back. They just let all the bad guys and loonies know they are disarmed.
This is for you waffle house
I’ll bet the goofs at the waffle joint would have kissed the feet of a Muslim if he or she walked in with a gun. Food would have been free too.
Gee, do they also ask police officers to leave their firearms at the door?
I was wondering the same thing.
The best way to show disapproval to this restaurant and it’s owner is with your wallet. When the people stop doing business with them, they will either rives the policy or go out of business.
WE DO NOT HAVE WAFFLE HOUSE UP NORTH THANK GOODNESS, WHAT IDIOTS THEY ARE
Ii have heard of a company with a no firearms policy, that didn’t have an exception from informed police and military!
Just called the awful house national customer service number (1-877-9-WAFFLE) and asked if this was a franchisee issue or a national policy. The person who answered didn’t have a clue. She took my information and said she’d kick the question up to senior management to get an answer. Any bets on whether someone will call me back? I also called the awful house where this happened, and a shift manager informed me that this was a franchisee rule. Feel free to call yourself and ask. (859) 881-9050.
The full story is out now. This is the statement from the owner: 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.
Isnt amazing how these stories get twisted and told to rile up the simple minded?
He was wearing his personal fire arm which is illegal.