A Maine restauranteur is refusing service to anyone who owns an AR-15 or even supports the carrying of the specific semi-automatic type firearm. The decision was made after the anger and frustration she felt from the deaths of 49 people during a terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June. Despite that fact that an AR-15 was not even used in the Orlando nightclub shooting.
The owner of the two Portland, Maine restaurants, Anne Verril, 38, said that no one does anything “outside the box” regarding gun control and that people only write Facebook posts and “talk about it with people who basically agree with us.”
On a Facebook post, which has since been taken down, Verril wrote that she wanted to set a good example for her children.
“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,” Verril wrote with a picture of an AR-15 beside it.
An overwhelming number of people criticized her post and called it ignorant. Hundreds of people boycotted and wrote negative reviews for her restaurant, which are regarded as some of the best in the state. Her two restaurants are “Grace” and “Foreside Tavern.” The AR-15 is not much different than most rifles, it just looks “scarier.”
After the social media backlash, Verril took down the post and issued an apology but still stuck to her opinion saying that she no longer wants to stay silent and doesn’t want people to own AR-15s.
“I want people to not have the power to own weapons of war,” Verril wrote in her apology. AR-15s are not weapons of war so many people were confused by what she meant.
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In Maine, a person without a permit can legally carry an AR-15.
