RESTON -- The patrons at Champps, a restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when customer Bruce Jackson stood up and made an announcement. He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols and revolvers. Jackson said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for their attention and sat down.

And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League organized the dinner at Champps to prove a point: that the presence of armed customers in Northern Virginia restaurants would elicit little more than shrugs.

The dinner -- and several other restaurant visits throughout Northern Virginia last month -- were a response to comments from the majority leader in the state Senate, Democrat Richard L. Saslaw of Fairfax County, who said during a legislative debate that armed patrons would be unwelcome in Northern Virginia restaurants.

"In most urban areas, you walk into a restaurant with a gun on your hip, they're going to tell you to get out," Saslaw said.

In fact, with a few exceptions, the gun owners got their meals. The group went to eight restaurants in April -- at two of them, they were asked to leave. More often than not, though, their presence failed to generate a stir.

All the restaurants were in Fairfax County, a bastion of suburbia outside Washington that is the wealthiest county in America, according to the most recent Census data. It also is a place where nerves over the gun debate are still somewhat raw a year after the shootings at Virginia Tech, in which 33 people died, including many from Northern Virginia.

The restaurants included numerous family establishments, including the Fuddruckers burger chain and the McLean Family Restaurant.

"We wanted to prove not only that [Saslaw] was wrong, but we wanted to make the point that we have the right to self-defense. That's a God-given right," said Dave Vann, a retired Washington police officer and league member who organized the restaurant visits.

In Virginia, gun owners are allowed to carry firearms in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, as long as the restaurant permits it and they carry their weapon openly. Legislation to allow concealed weapons in restaurants serving alcohol passed the General Assembly this year but was vetoed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

At Champps, several patrons failed to notice that so many customers were armed, even though dozens of gun-toting men and women had walked right past them.

Tomas Nolasco of Reston said he hadn't noticed the guns and didn't care as long as the customers weren't drinking. (They weren't.) His wife was a little more concerned.

"There are families in here, children in here," Cathy Nolasco said. "It bothers me."

"This is Reston, not Southeast," said Nathan Dicken, contrasting the Northern Virginia suburb to a section of the District of Columbia that has been known for gun violence.

Saslaw said he's not necessarily surprised that league members found restaurants in the region that would allow them to dine while armed. But he said carrying guns is simply not normal behavior in the area.

"What normal person walks around with a gun on your hip? Something's wrong in your life" if you feel compelled to carry a gun as part of your daily routine, he said.

Gun owners bristle at that stereotype.

"This isn't a bunch of drunk rednecks sidling up to a saloon," said Christopher Wu, 28, of Alexandria, carrying a Springfield XD45 pistol.