True North

Joel Rosenberg notes a cruel, capricious irony in a brutal local crime:

Thom Pham, the owner of Azia, was mugged on Tuesday. There were apparently six to eight attackers; fortunately, he only was "hospitalized with blunt force trauma to the head, lacerations to the skull and face, broken orbital (eye socket), concussion and severe bleeding."

Azia's a nice place. Had a date there once. But I doubt I'd go back - and not entirely because of the prices. No, I noticed the same thing Joel did:

I've never eaten at Azia; it's one of the very few restaurants in Minneapolis that still has those silly No Guns signs up, and I prefer to spend my money where there's no formal or informal suggestion that either the customers or the staff have been disarmed for the convenience of garboons.

For those of you from out of state: Minnesota's "shall issue" law was accompanied by a requirement saying that stores or businesses that wanted to exclude the law-abiding gun owner from their premises needed to post a sign to that effect on their doors. The first months after the passage of the Personal Protection Act saw a number of stores get posted, but the custom withered away pretty quickly; most proprietors realized that the law-abiding gun owner was both a non-risk and a pretty good customer; others responded to the reactions of long-time customers who, it turned out, were getting permits and donning concealed holsters and libertarian scruples.

Mr. Pham's place - marooned in the deepest, darkest, dankest DFL-sodden part of The Wedge neighborhood in Minneapolis - no doubt earned the odd kudo from the occasional frumpy "the state is my mother"-type local resident.

So I wonder if the irony is lost on Mr. Pham?

Hey, Thom? I've got an offer: take down the silly signs, buy Felicia and me dinner, and the class is on me.

Mr. Pham: Joel's class is as good as Azia's food. And that's saying something on both counts.

Go for it.

(Comment on this post at Shot In The Dark)