The Downtown Journal (formerly Skyway News) has their 2005 round-up issue out this week. One of the items was new downtown businesses for 2005. Of the nineteen they had listed I was able to contact all but two of them (what kind of retail business isn't on the web or in the phone book?!). Of the seventeen I could contact, none of them were posted, though Tonic, the night club, did have a dress code prohibiting guns.

The MPPA's passing upset a lot of people and spurred a few businesses to post either out of fear or to curry favor, but clearly, now that the issue is no longer in the public consciousness we're not likely to see much new posting. This seems to be one we'll win through attrition and atrophy as businesses turn over naturally.

I'm just a country bumpkin from up north so I'm not familiar with the sophisticated ways of the city. Could someone explain to me what a dress code that prohibits firearms is? Thanks

If the "dress code" does not ban guns per the law then they cannot really stop you. They might as well ban a certian makes of guns, "We ban guns that do not match the color of your shoes."

Maybe it is their way of trying to discourage open carry?

Given that many of the downtown nightclubs are full of jackasses full of booze, testosterone and maybe a little coke, something tells me that "no guns" suits that lifestyle.

Not to mention the regular shooting galleries that some of the places that cater to the hip-hop crowd become.

Of course if you're not part of this "lifestyle", then carrying downtown IS probably a good idea.

Well, at some of the places on that block enforce the "no weapons" clauses in their dress oodes with a pat down and a metal detector. Their impropper signage makes entering with a gun not a crime, but you won't get in with one, so it's not an issue. That's not the only element of their dress code that keeps me from entering such places.