Gun rights group Michigan Open Carry (MOC) has hosted several events at Holiday’s Restaurant on West Stadium, but the organization’s most recent plan ignited an escalating series of controversies. Holiday’s owner Rob TerBush says the restaurant canceled MOC’s reservation for September 22 after receiving several calls from customers voicing disapproval of the event. TerBush says he realized that “maybe there was a bigger battle” surrounding the situation–and decided his restaurant was “not the battleground” for it.
MOC made the battle even bigger when it announced that it would move the event to Frank’s Restaurant on Maynard and incorporate a fundraiser for MOC and Michigan Gun Owners–the group suing the Ann Arbor Public Schools to force it to allow guns in its buildings.
Frank’s, too, canceled the event; Frank’s manager Frank Vrvos says there were “just too many people calling and complaining.”
Credit Ann Arbor musician Chris Buhalis for some of those protests: he not only complained to Holiday’s directly, he also vehemently encouraged his 1,734 Facebook friends to make their voices heard.
“Anyone trying to bring a gun into a school is something that I’m going to contest,” Buhalis says. “I feel that strongly about it. It’s just not a good idea.”
