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:
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.
After deleting her original post, Verrill published a second, heartfelt-follow up:
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.
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