“I don’t want to be the one who gets to tell the vets that they cannot smoke in their club. Hell, the guys fought for this country and now they’re being regulated by a bunch of nannies. What’s the point of having a private club if you have your rights stripped away there too? Private property rights aside, these are private, exclusive organizations, chartered by the Federal Government, for veterans who have served in wars and conflicts for their country to get together and enjoy time together. If that isn’t the ultimate insult to veterans, I don’t know what is. If people pay dues to belong to a private organization, whether the VFW or a private country club, they should have the right to smoke if they please. If other members don’t like it, too bad. It’s a choice to belong. It’s not a public facility.”

- Ryan Evans, Pro Patria

“People don’t want to be outside. So they don’t come…You talk to the night staff and they feel a bigger crunch than I do. They’re not happy at all.”

- Dusty’s Bar owner, Jeffrey Ormond, Minneapolis, MN

“The smoking ban did us in. Plain and simple.”

- Mike Nelson, former owner of The Viking Bar, Minneapolis, MN

“(A) busy usual Thursday night you couldn’t hardly move in here. People were having fun,” Freeman said. “Now, last Thursday I was lucky to have 15 people in here.” Freeman said the decline in business started right after the smoking ban did. Thirty percent the first week; 40 percent the next. She said her business dropped 65 percent the third week of the ban compared to the month before.
“I can’t weather it,” she said. “If it keeps going I will be out of business within two months. There’s no way. My bills have not changed.”

-Denise Freeman, owner of the U Otter Drop Inn in northeast Minneapolis

“This smoking ban has been the downfall of yet another Moorhead business. We gave it our all, but in the end our young business could not compete with Fargo being across the river where people can still smoke in bars.”

-Aaron Duma, general manager of the Broken Axe in Moorhead, MN, said in a press release

“It has almost put me out of business. We are down about 45 percent for each month,” Zook said. “Our food sales were 48 percent of our business. Now they are down to 10 percent. A lot of people who had drinks with lunch or dinner are not coming in now.”

-Robert Zook, bar manager, Maple Grove, MN