Daytona Beach, Florida, the self-proclaimed “world’s most famous beach,” is making headlines this week for an unusual business plan.
In Daytona Beach, sunbathers can spend an afternoon watching high-speed racing at the Daytona International Speedway and then drive their car right onto the beach a few miles away. Now, they will be able to add another item on the list of activities: knocking off a few rounds at a gun range and then knocking one back.
Entrepreneur Ron Perkinson owns Volusia Top Gun, a gun range located in Volusia County, Florida. He was recently granted permission to turn a vacant building on his land into a restaurant, and yes, it will be serving alcohol, according to Vice.
Perkinson insists that the new attached restaurant will need to serve alcohol in order to turn a profit. The idea is to bring in as much business as possible. Patrons who want to fire a gun will be given the option of finishing the day with a juicy hamburger and a drink. The owner told CBS News that the alcohol is to keep patrons in the store after they’ve finished shooting. It is not a bar and range, according to Perkinson, it’s a restaurant and range that happens to serve alcohol. It’s also like an all-inclusive parade of testosterone, triggers, and tequila. What could go wrong?
Perkinson insists safety is his main priority.
To be fair, Perkinson has thought through the safety issues with having a gun range that doubles as a restaurant. First of all, the restaurant is separate from the gun range. Perkinson said, it’s the same as going to an Applebee’s after leaving a shooting range, except he decided to bring the Applebee’s to the gun-toting patrons.
In order to keep everybody safe, patrons will return the gun before they leave the range. Those who choose to bring their own gun from home are required to check it in a locker before they can enter the restaurant (it is worth noting however, that Perkinson doesn’t plan on having a metal detector in the restaurant entrance).
Additionally, anybody who purchases a drink must scan their ID and once that driver’s licence has been scanned, they will not be allowed back in the gun range for 24-hours, according to CNN. Additionally, Perkinson said he plans to “keep a watch list of customers who may cause trouble and will call police when necessary,” according to Vice.
Again, it’s worth noting that Perkinson doesn’t plan on hiring police to do this monitoring. However, he did say, “[workers] will be trained to visually look at the person, look at their eyes [and] look at their pupils, just like an officer would.”
This business permit isn’t very surprising since it’s being opened in the same state that has some pretty lenient gun regulations, like allowing citizens to legally carry concealed weapons. Theoretically, a patron of the gun range who also has a concealed weapons permit could fire off some rounds in the shooting range and then knock a few back in the bar, all with a weapon legally hidden under his or her jacket. What could go wrong?
[Featured Image Credit: Mark Roy via Flickr]