A Maine restaurant owner has told AR-15 owners that they are no longer welcoming at her business.
Anne Verrill, who owns the Foreside Tavern in Falmouth, ME and the restaurant Grace in Portland, ME, posted a picture of an AR-15 on Facebook and began ranting about the firearm.
“If you own this gun, or you condone the ownership of this gun for private use, you may no longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love,” Verrill wrote.
Verrill continued, “You don’t privately own this weapon to protect your family, or to hunt. I understand that I may be offending members of my community, but this is a human issue, not a gun owners issue, or a Second Amendment issue, it is about humans. I cannot, in good conscience, accept anyone inside of my restaurants who believes that this is OK.”
Verrill’s post was later deleted and she wrote a follow-up to try and clarify her position.
“I don’t want to take away guns of responsible gun owners,” Verill wrote. “I don’t care if you have 12 hunting rifles if you are a responsible hunter. I want people to not have the power to own weapons of war…if you do not understand why I do not want a weapon designed to kill at that kind of rate of speed in my restaurants then there is nothing I can do about that. But I am not going to hide behind not politicizing myself for fear of my economic security. If evil and hate want to boycott my restaurants then so be it, because I believe good will be on my side on this.”
What prompted Verrill to post her rant on the AR-15 was her refusal to let her daughter participate in the Portland Pride Parade out of fear.
“I’m scared for my children to go on field trips in public places,” Verrill told the Portland Press-Herald. “At some point you have to take a stand. At some point you’re accountable. It has to be about more than just posting a Facebook meme with a rainbow flag.”
Verrill has received fierce backlash over her comments, with some people on Facebook saying things like:
“What a stupid thing to do,” one commented. “Go ahead. Alienate half your customer base.”
“Your wish is granted,” wrote another. “We’ll never visit your establishment and we’ll make sure to spread the word to the 200 million some gun owners who you have insulted.”
As well as:
One commenter wrote, “Your (sic) a special kind of stupid.”
Another wrote, “It’s far too late to hide your moronic post from earlier, your stupidity has since gone viral and your rating on Facebook has plummeted. You should have stuck to not being political and just served your food. You brought this on yourself by being uneducated in your opinions.”
Verrill may want to do some research on the AR-15 before alienating potential customers. The AR-15 is not a weapon of war, but it is a convenient and useful weapon for self-defense, and it has everything to do with the Second Amendment. But most importantly: the terrorist who shot the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL did not use an AR-15.
If Verrill is afraid for her children to go out in public spaces, wouldn’t she feel safer if they were accompanied by a good guy with a gun?