Told to wear a mask at Kansas City area BBQ restaurant, man in MAGA hat flashes a gun
Arlo Kinsey was working behind the carryout counter at RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission last week when a middle-aged man dressed in a red Make America Great Again hat — and no mask — walked through the door.
“I asked him if he could wear a mask, since it’s what Gov. Kelly told us to do,” said Kinsey, 18, who was working shifts at the barbecue joint this summer before heading off to college. He had dealt with a handful of customers who refused to wear masks inside the restaurant despite the statewide mandate — but none like this, he said.
The man said he had an exemption to the mask order: He then lifted up his shirt, revealing a gun in a holster on his hip.
“It was definitely a threat,” Kinsey said. “I was looking at the gun thinking he was going to shoot me.”
“My first thought was, I work in customer service and this is really what’s going to happen? All we’re asking is that you wear a mask for a couple of minutes. We could have taken your order outside if you didn’t want to. But you go into an air conditioned area without a mask on, and if I tell you to wear one, you’re going to shoot me? Wow. I make $8.50 an hour, plus tips — for this?”
Kinsey called for his boss, Bob Palmgren, owner of the 17-year-old restaurant in suburban Kansas City, off Lamar Avenue and Johnson Drive in Mission. Palmgren was in the back, working in the kitchen.
“(Kinsey) comes around and says this guy won’t put a mask on and has a gun, and I’m like holy sh*t. I run over there, and I’m like hey, what’s going on? And he shows me his Trump hat,” Palmgren said. “And I like Trump. Everybody’s got problems. But it doesn’t make a difference. You don’t have a mask on. And I’m like, your gun’s not going to kill coronavirus, now get the hell out of here.”
Palmgren said he’s been strictly enforcing the mask mandate, which took effect on July 3, as COVID-19 cases skyrocket in Johnson County and across the metro region. He said his restaurant — which is known for its Kansas City barbecue and was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives — has stayed afloat during the pandemic by relying mostly on carryout.
But he worries that customers refusing to wear masks will jeopardize his business.
“I get people in here that don’t want to do it and think that we’re a small place so we won’t enforce it or something,” he said. “But if everybody gets sick, then I’m out of business. So I’ve got to enforce these rules.”
Palmgren said he got into a heated exchange with the man as he yelled at him to wear a mask or leave.
“He goes, ‘Well, I won’t be in here anymore.’ And I said, good, I don’t want you in here. And got him to leave,” Palmgren said. “People are crazy.”
Palmgren, a former Marine, said he felt threatened.
“Especially these days, it’s scary when people have any kind of gun, even if it’s a fake gun. You don’t know what he’s going to do,” he said. “I have a lot of guys who I know come in here and are concealed carrying. But they aren’t showing their gun to anybody.”
The man left before Palmgren or Kinsey could identify him, they said.
Wearing a face mask in public can help prevent the spread of coronavirus. But masks have increasingly become a personal or political statement. President Donald Trump wore a mask for the first time in public on Saturday.
Defiant customers have made headlines across the country, with viral videos of people shouting their refusals to wear masks.
But recently, the mask debate has merged with another divisive political issue: gun laws. Memes have circulated widely on social media, with the false claim that wearing a mask “removes your concealed carry ability.”
There is no federal law that bans someone from wearing a mask while legally carrying a concealed weapon. And while concealed carry laws vary, law enforcement officials in many states have debunked the claims, according to multiple fact checking organizations.
In Kansas, neither the concealed carry nor open carry statutes prohibit the carrying of a firearm while wearing a mask, said Deputy Rick Howell, a spokesman with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
The statewide mandate — which both Johnson and Wyandotte counties also approved — requires face coverings in most indoor public spaces and outdoor areas where social distancing isn’t possible. At restaurants, people do not have to wear masks while eating or drinking, as long as they are social distancing.
Like mandates in Kansas City and Jackson County, there are several exemptions, including for young children and people with health conditions. But carrying a weapon is not one of them.
At RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack, Kinsey urges customers to follow the mask mandate. He said his experience with the armed customer was “nerve-wracking and disappointing, honestly.”
“Even if you have a medical exemption, just stay home. Or let us take your food to you,” Kinsey said. “There are so many options to follow Gov. Kelly’s mask requirement.”
The Star’s Robert Cronkleton contributed reporting.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 4:46 PM.
