At Colorado burger joint, waitresses pack heat

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Waitresses, patrons pack heat at Shooters Grill

Family-run restaurant exercises Second Amendment rights

It's called Shooters Grill and it is located in Rifle, Colo., so naturally, the waitresses pack heat.

The burger joint, about 180 miles west of Denver, embraces the firearms theme with menu items like the "M16 burrito," "Smith & Wesson Grilled Cheese" and "Locked and Loaded Nachos." The salt and pepper shakers are made from shotgun shells. But the biggest Second Amendment statement is in the guns waitresses carry, including the Rueger Blackhawk .357 Ashlee Saenz sports.

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Owner Lauren Boebert, 27, started the trend when she began carrying a pistol shortly after opening the restaurant a year ago.

"I started open-carrying maybe a month after we opened just because I am a woman in business and I was there early hours and late nights," Boebert said. "There was a man beaten to death in the alley behind my restaurant last year. It was very unfortunate."

The accessorizing caught on with the staff. But even though carrying a gun openly is legal in Colorado, Boebert nonetheless makes staffers who want to pack take an extra safety course.

Customers don't feel threatened by their servers carrying guns, she said.

"No one has ever turned around and walked out because they saw a gun," Boebert said. "They might have left because it was too crowded, praise the Lord. But not over the guns."

Chef Matt Archambault said word of the gun-toting wait staff has brought in new customers in recent months, but it is the half-pound burgers that keep people coming back.

“Burgers are a staple of the restaurant," he told FoxNews.com. “It’s pretty much an all-American place. We love anyone who wants to come in.”

And Archambault does not carry a gun back in the kitchen.

"We have knives and spatulas," he laughed. "That's how I roll."