Blumenthal & Murphy Call on Subway CEO to Ban Open Carry of Firearms in All Restaurants

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) sent a letter to Subway CEO John Chidsey, urging him to ban openly carrying firearms in Subway restaurants in Connecticut and country-wide. Blumenthal and Murphy called on the Connecticut-based restaurant chain to prohibit open carry in all of its restaurants amid a significant gun sales spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As the CEO of Subway, you have both the means and the opportunity to take action to protect your employees and customers by instituting a ban on the open carry of firearms in your restaurants,” wrote the Senators. “Action is more critical now than ever as COVID-19 has spurred a deeply disturbing surge in gun sales. The public health challenges that we face, as a nation, due to this global pandemic are great, but neither excuse nor absolve us of our obligation to respond to the related and mounting public safety crisis—posed by the tremendous proliferation of firearms sales—in the making.”

The Senators called on Subway to send a message that the company “stands proud in helping to stem the gun violence epidemic plaguing this country” and to follow suit in implementing the ban as a number of restaurants and shopping chains, including Chili’s, Panera Bread, and Whole Foods, have done.

The full text of the letter is available here.

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