Virginia pizza shop offers discounts to customers who pack heat

Pack heat and eat cheap.

That could be the motto at All Around Pizzas and Deli, a Virginia Beach, Va., pizza shop offering 15% discounts to customers who show up with their guns or their concealed-carry permits.

Owner Jay Laze, who was looking for a way to boost sales, said he heard about a frozen yogurt shop in Utah doing a bring-a-gun, get-a-discount deal and decided to, well, give it a shot.

“The news made it all the way to Virginia,” Laze said. “And I wondered why nobody here was doing it.”

Since he started the deal Friday, Laze said, he’s seen about six times as many customers as usual and an array of guns — the first customer brought in an AK-47.

He’s also had to answer a flurry of phone calls. By Tuesday afternoon, he said, 45 people had called to say they liked the idea, and three had called to complain.

Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center, told the Los Angeles Times that he’s opposed to gun-themed marketing. (In a similar approach, several companies offered love-and-gun-themed marketing for Valentine’s Day.)

“I think it’s insensitive,” said Sugarmann, a native of Newtown, Conn., where a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in December, killing 20 children and six school staffers.

No one who has come into the shop has complained, Laze said, adding that some customers told him it “actually feels more safe” with guns there.

That was the case for Chrystal Hinton, 30, who heard about the deal on the radio and decided to drop by Tuesday.

“I figure if they’re doing it openly, they’re probably legal,” Hinton said, of her fellow pizza patrons who packed heat Tuesday.

“I think it’s awesome,” Hinton said, adding that she brought a 9-millimeter Glock and a Springfield-brand handgun she purchased this week with her to the restaurant. “I’m like, ‘Hey, do I get a 30% discount?’”

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marisa.gerber@latimes.com