After photos of armed customers in Raleigh go viral, Subway changes open carry policy
Two months after photos of gun-toting customers visiting their downtown Raleigh location drew nationwide attention, Subway has altered its policy regarding firearms in its stores nationwide.
The Connecticut-based restaurant chain’s website now includes a notice in the health and safety section of its social responsibility policies asking customers, other than law enforcement, to keep their weapons concealed.
“For the consideration and comfort of restaurant employees and guests,” the policy states, “Subway respectfully requests that guests (other than authorized law enforcement) refrain from openly displaying firearms inside restaurants — even in states where “open carry” is permitted.”
On May 9, as people were downtown protesting social restrictions implemented by Gov. Roy Cooper in response to the coronavirus pandemic, armed protesters entered a Subway location on Fayetteville Street and began ordering sandwiches. Photos by The News & Observer photojournalist Travis Long showed one man carrying an AT4 rocket launcher, with a sticker saying “inert” on it, slung over his back with two pistols in holsters on his waist.
Another person, wearing a scarf face covering, was shown carrying a pump-action shotgun. In another photo, a man is sitting with a shotgun propped on a Subway bench while he has a sandwich in his hand. He is wearing a face covering.
A fourth photo showed a man taking a selfie outside the shop while holding a .50-caliber wooden prop machine gun.
Those photos went viral that weekend.
Connecticut senators cite N&O’s photos
Local and national gun safety activists, including Raleigh-Apex NAACP, Guns Down America, Newtown Action Alliance and North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, called on Subway’s corporate leaders to take action.
On June 29, Connecticut’s U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, sent a letter to Subway chief executive officer John Chidsey, urging him to prohibit the open carrying of firearms in Subway locations. The restaurant’s corporate headquarters is located in Milford, Connecticut.
The senators cited The News & Observer’s photos in making their request.
“That North Carolina is an open-carry state is inapposite,” they wrote. “No person should have to fear gun violence while visiting or working in Subway restaurants.”
Sens. Blumenthal and Murphy pointed out that companies such as Chipotle, Sonic, Chili’s, Target, Walmart, Panera Bread, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Aldi, CVS and Walgreens, all ban the open carry of firearms in their stores or, like Subway, request that customers not do so.
Subway responded with its new policy change. An email sent to Subway’s corporate office by The News & Observer requesting comment on the move was not returned Wednesday.
“We were grateful when support grew quickly on the local, state and national levels,” Raleigh-Apex NAACP president, and North Carolinians Against Gun Violence board member, Gerald D. Givens Jr, said in a statement. “Subway joined with us to say safety comes first. This moment is a testament to the power of the people and businesses coming together to make a difference and being the change.”
On Wednesday, the Fayetteville Street Subway location reopened after having to close due to last month’s rioting and looting that occurred around the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed May 25 while in police custody in Minnesota.
Wake County Board of Commissioners chairman Greg Ford applauded Subway for its policy change.
“No one needs a rocket launcher slung over their shoulder to simply order a sandwich,” Ford said in a statement he Tweeted. “I’m glad that Subway has changed its open carry policy, so anyone who eats at the Subway restaurant in downtown Raleigh – or anywhere else in the United States – can feel safe.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM.