By  Elai Kobayashi-Solomon
Opinion Editor
As a proud and macho American, the only thing that I love more than a hamburger is an AK-47. So, when a local restaurant owner in Louisiana recently announced that he would give a 10 percent discount to any customer that showed him their guns, I knew immediately where I was going to go eat if I ever went down South.
Kevin Cox, owner of Bergeron’s Restaurant in Port Allen, is going against recent corporate trends by encouraging, rather than banning, firearms in his restaurant. Cox told NBC33 that he had become frustrated with companies such as Target, which had requested in July that customers not bring their weapons into stores.
“I keep hearing so much about people banning guns,” Cox told NBC33. “Target’s banning guns and these people are banning guns. Don’t they realize that’s where people with guns are going to go? I want to take the opposite approach. How can I make my place safer?”
Apparently, the solution is, as it always seems to be, more guns. Cox said that some 15 to 20 people take him out on the discount offer each day, with some excited customers bringing multiple firearms into the restaurant at a time. (Unfortunately for them, more guns does not mean a bigger discount. Even if you showed Cox your shotgun, your Beretta, and a tank, your 10 dollar hamburger would only be 9 dollars.)
Many in Cox’s community support his decision with open arms and filled clips.
“If someone walked in here, had a gun and wanted to harm somebody, we are not defenseless,” said Olivia Carambat, who carries her .38 Smith and Wesson. “There are so many people who are trying to take our guns away and the government makes stricter gun laws. We’re given the right in the Constitution to keep and bear arms.”
First of all, I’m glad that these brave men and women in Port Allen are fighting the harsh injustices and tyrannical rule of our current government by bringing their handgun along to eat a hamburger.
But more importantly, what Carambat says is right. In the end, it all does boil down to the Constitution, or more specifically, the Second Amendment.
In fact, the only reason why anyone cares about this little Louisiana Cajun food restaurant and its discount policy is that it asks a much larger, controversial question: “Do more guns mean more, or less violence?”
Whether it be politicians or the media, no one can really seem to agree. Anti-gun activists site examples of other countries, such as England, which have much stricter gun regulation laws than the United States and drastically less gun violence. However, shotgun owning rednecks can always counter, “Well, if the good guys had guns, they could shoot all the bad guys, so then there would be no more bad guys,” and idea expressed by both Cox and Carambat.
Admittedly, it’s pretty hard to say who’s right.
All I’m saying is, I wouldn’t be comfortable having to reach over a bazooka every time I wanted some ketchup. And to me, that would seem a whole lot less safe, but rather a disaster waiting to happen.