After the deadly terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, a restaurant owner in Portland (Maine not Oregon) wanted to do something “outside the box” in order to solve the problem of “gun violence” in America.
So she wrote a post on Facebook.
Anne Verrill, owner of two Portland-area restaurants, wrote on Facebook that anyone who owns—or even supports an individual’s right to own—an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, may “no longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love.”
The post was deleted after a bunch of people on the internet who like guns found out about it and wrote mean things and threatened to boycott.
The New York Times published a rather breathless account of Verrill’s activism:
This time she took a stand, knowing it could hurt her business in a pro-gun, largely rural state, where hunting and target practice are immensely popular and where the political schisms run deep.
It’s one thing to say that people who carry AR-15s, which is legal to do in Maine without a permit, cannot be served in a restaurant. Over the past several years, big chains such as Starbucks, Chipotle, and Panera Bread have implored customers in “open-carry” states not to bring their firearms into their establishments.
But Verrill wants to refuse service to people who simply believe that Americans should have a right to carry rifles. Some have noted that the situation is similar to a baker refusing to serve a gay couple on religious grounds. Such incidents sparked a wave of lawsuits and general outrage on the left, which usually rails against discrimination.
But maybe it’s just a certain kind of discrimination they don’t like. Consider the following thread:
https://twitter.com/LoganDobson/status/760103701981822977
https://twitter.com/LoganDobson/status/760116708078186496
https://twitter.com/LoganDobson/status/760117918067810304
Verrill wrote a follow-up post on Facebook, insisting that she wouldn’t stop “fighting for a better world” even if it costs her business.
“If evil and hate want to boycott my restaurants then so be it—because I believe good will be on my side on this,” she wrote. “As long as my doors are open I will believe that love is love.”
