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(courtesy facebook.com)

“I have spent 12 years, intentionally, not being political on this page,” Portland, Maine restauranteur Anne Verrill wrote on Facebook. “Let me be clear, this is not a political issue. This is a human rights issue. If you own this gun [an AR-15], 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.” Ms. Verrill made the “love makes me shun you” pronouncement after the Orlando spree killing. Late last night, she removed the original posts and put this up instead:

My facebook post last night was born from a simple question from my younger sister which was about whether my daughter was going to march with her worthy organization in the PRIDE parade in Portland this weekend. My response was, “No.” No, because I just don’t want to run the risk of having my daughter in a group of happy and proud people celebrating equality in a public space in a city that I love because I am scared. I let the fear win. I let the actions of dozens of lunatics over several years change the way I look at the world around me. My first thought about large gatherings was fear. It was then I realized that I am living in a world I don’t even recognize anymore.

When my children grow up and they ask me what I did to help change the course of gun violence will I say to them, I liked some face book memes and talked to like- minded people about our outrage and sadness. I signed some petitions relatively anonymously and held moments of silence? I felt sorry for the children in elementary school and children in movie theatres? Or will I say that I used the loudest voice I knew to shout my outrage and condemn the violence and beg for change in the most effective way I could see. Will I stand on the right side of history?

I don’t want to take away guns of responsible gun owners. 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. I want our government to be able to deny someone they can put on the “no fly” lists to not buy a semi-automatic weapon. 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. As long as my doors are open I will believe that love is love. And when my children ask me where I was on this, I will say I was right there, fighting for a better world for us and for all those people who lost their lives.

Let it not go unsaid, the vitriol spewed to my original post validates my fear. However, I am still in control of my reaction. My reaction is the love that I have for my family, friends, employees and loyal guests whom I hope to constantly shower with respect and human decency regardless of what is said of me.

Anne Verrill

Note: Mr. Verrill’s original post dis-invited Granite State gun owners who own or support ownership of “military-style” rifles. Not just people who want to bring their rifle into “Maine’s most romantic restaurant” or Ms. Verrill’s tavern, should such people exist. As for the vitriol posted on her Facebook page, we condemn it, just as we seek to keep TTAG a flame-free zone. That said, the truth hurts. As Ms. Verrill will discover as her till receipts take a hit.

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114 COMMENTS

  1. That’s too bad, Robert. You can’t deny a biological fact. And what’s more, all she needs to do is worry more about serving good food (if that’s what it is) and less about her patron’s politics.

    Tom

    • It’s really just a feel good, do nothing measure.

      But…you could inform her.
      Go eat at the restaurant. After you finish eating, ask to speak to the owner/manager. Explain that you own several semi-automatic firearms, and better yet, you’re legally carrying one right now. If she’s true to her convictions, she’ll ask you to leave. Free meal! 🙂

    • I wish I was near there so I could say: “I have a 7PM reservation, and I’m an AR15 owner.”

      of course, this would probably be construed as some kind of threat in magic rainbow unicorn land.

      • That’s really the way to go about it: make reservations, which will tie up prospective table space. Then show up for your reservation and say “I own an AR-15.” Leave. (Have other reservations at a place nearby!) Lets them know A) they just lost a customer, and B) wreaks havoc on their table space planning.

  2. So, is she going to ALSO pen a post about now wanting Muslims, who obviously have NO LOVE for gays/lesbians? How can she teach her child LOVE when you the attack was specifically against homosexuals?

    Call it a hunch but I doubt it. The left’s love of all things Islam boggles many minds – including those some among that community (Milo for example)

    • Add to this their fascination with monarchies and aristocracies and titles of nobility. Champions of the people my ass. Rulers of the people is more like it and they consider themselves the privileged aristocracy.

  3. Well, she’s a moron and she’s dead wrong, but frankly, I do have to respect her honesty. She knows it won’t be a popular move, but she is speaking out for what she believes in.

        • I’m referring to the one in Maine. It’s not much different than the one in Oregon. At least in my personal experience there.

        • I’ve lived in Portland, Maine for the last 46 years. The number of Bernie2016 stickers on bumpers is amazing. Or would be if I hadn’t lived in the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Portland, Maine for the last 46 years.

        • Her children will grow up skeered of everything, like many US children these days.
          Unfortunately, the world is coming after us a the looming fight cannot be avoided.

    • But it is that what she believes in is stupidity and foolishness. People have the right to believe whatever they want, even down to the flat earth society and the anti gunners, but they DO NOT have the right to force that idiocy on anyone else.
      She has the right to ban whomever she pleases from her own private property, but others all also have the right to point out her brainless foolishness and boycott her business.
      Its called “liberty”…

  4. Time for a “gay cake” style lawsuit.

    Pay attention to these people. Their idea of supporting “love and kindness” is to empower the government to enslave and murder any who don’t show her brand of “love and kindness.” Like all leftists, they’ll commit genocide to show how loving they are. In modern America, your neighbors are your worst enemies.

    • Isn’t it wonderful – she just advertised to the whole world that she is “all in” for the LGBT community and that both of her restaurants are aggressively Gun Free Zones. What could possibly go wrong?

      • I would make some smartass remark about avoiding her restaurant because of this or that, but that would be dishonest. I will never be caught dead in Portland, Maine, so her mental defects are unimportant to me.

  5. Another one most likely to raise a ruckus when the police are not on her doorstep or at her business as soon as she feels “threatened”.

    I’d be proud to not eat in her establishment (had I any thought of doing so beforehand).

    Nice blatant attempt to draw new business, though. Methinks that is the real reason for the “rant”,

  6. When my kids ask my what I did to change the course of gun violence…. I stopped there and laughed. There’s no way her kids are going to ask that, no one is going to ever ask anyone that. But let the free market speak and it will

    • Don’t worry, she did a lot! She talked. And…and… Oh, liked a few Facebook pages. She really is an inspiration.

    • I laughed about that too: apparently she can now tell them she told everybody how scared she was and nobody could come to her restaurant of love. When have children ever asked their parents what they did during whatever time. If I asked my dad what he did about civil rights in the 1960’s, his response would most definitely be “Uh, I got a draft notice 2 days after I graduated high school and went to Vietnam.”

  7. Meh. Don’t care, lady. Will “love” protect you when the barbarians come through the door?

    Besides, I have no intention of ever putting a foot in any Atlantic or Pacific Coast state. The jury is still out on the Gulf Coast.

    • When SWAT arrives to deal with a situation in her restaurant will she require them to leave their AR15s outside?

      • Don’t know the answer to that, but recent evidence suggests she’ll have about 3 hours to prepare them a nice hot meal before the come in.

  8. This may be the dumbest form of “activism” yet. Just really, really dumb.

    I can just picture the smugness, too, as she imagines all the AR-15 owners chucking their rifles into a roaring fire so that they will be allowed to come in to her restaurant again.

  9. Doesn’t this silly woman realize that EVERY hunting rifle in existence was at one time or another a “weapon of war”? All bolt action rifles, all lever action rifles, all single shot rifles………at one time were the latest technological innovation and used for armed conflicts.

  10. When she says “I let the actions of dozens of lunatics over several years change the way I look at the world around me.” she is talking about Minorities, Islamist’s, and left wing radicals who are responsible for 90% of all shootings correct?

    • This is the kind of delusion wrought by someone who wants to “teach their kids love” by hatefully shunning innocent people. Those poor kids are going to grow up to be just as vicious and hateful as her.

  11. I love when fascists openly support oppressing and enslaving people, then bemoan the vitriolic reactions as proof that they were correct. What sick, twisted people.

    This woman is pure evil in the sense that she doesn’t even know what an enabler of violence she is.

  12. Makes me want to eat there and then leave a really crappy tip along with a Daniel Defense bumper sticker.

    • Don’t penalize the poor waiter for the owner’s stupidity. Tip them, personally, in cash and “walk the check” with the suggestion above of calling for the owner to inform her of your AR ownership so she’ll throw you out.

  13. “The Granite State” is New Hampshire. Maine is “The Pine Tree State” or “Vacationland.” I know the New England States are small, but they are separate entities.

  14. “I want people to not have the power to own weapons of war. ”
    –Anne Verrill

    We are at war, Ms. Verrill.

    I’m sorry if that fact of reality abuses your fragile sensibilities, but it is a fact.

    If you oppose the citizens of American owning ‘weapons of war,’ you are condemning them to death in battle.

    What kind of “love” is that?

  15. If she wants to use the internet to spread her hatred and intolerance, the fair thing to do is to use that very same internet to damage her business.

    Go on *every* internet restaurant review site and *slam* her restaurant.

    Say you saw the place crawling with roaches.

    Complain about the quality of the food.

    Gripe about rude wait staff.

    Get *creative*

    If she wants to stomp *my* civil rights, I will stomp her greasy spoon… 🙂

  16. Need a few dozen people to show up wearing Bushmaster, black rifles matter and other AR-15 shirts to eat.

    • Better yet, as Maine is an open carry long gun state, make reservations for a party of 10. Then all 10 show up toting AR pattern rifles. And T-shirts that read “Peace through superior firepower”

  17. Will it be love she is showing her children when she makes me leave screaming at the top of her lungs?

  18. Like with “gun control” she favors, she relies too heavily on the honor system, with no way of knowing what patrons have ignored her wishes, and while discounting the actual honor of those that she is demanding it from.

    She’s converted a church into a place for eating and b.s. She serves the latter.

    ME is a target state, I believe it’s one of the places 9/11 hijackers came into the US.

    It is full of liberal cr_p, and that is unsustainable.

    • Sad thing is, I was born and raised in Maine- In the 80s. When a shotgun rack in your pickup was normal for teens in high school.

      • Despite the ankle grabber (R) votes [and I wanna see a list], I always say, this is a lib_prog_comm (D) problem, and it ain’t just those in office, as they are only 1/100th as bad as the people that voted them in.

        If you ‘live’ in a Blue state, you may be part of the problem. If you have a (D) after your name, are a liberal, progressive, communist, then THE PROBLEM IS PART OF YOU. You are permanently damaged and your mother owes us an abortion.

  19. Let me be clear, this is not a political issue. This is a human rights issue. If you own this gun [an AR-15], 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.

    ISIS terrorists don’t need our bullets – they need our love. Lots of love. We all need to put down the guns and let loose the love. While they are shooting us and slitting our throats and draining the blood into pails, we should be pacifists about it and feel the love. Non-violence people. Love them while they kill you. Just keep that love running, and everything else will go A-OK. Love people. That is what we need. I mean – you might die and many others too. But eventually the ISIS terrorists will see that pacifism, non-violence, and love is the way to go, and you should sacrifice you and your families’ lives to allow them to see this.

        • Make mine 124 gr @ 2300-2400 fps.

          I want to go into her restaurant and show her a pic of my AK collection and say “Look, no AR15s!!! I sold the one AR-15 in my collection, during a stupid gun buying panic, so what’s cooking’ shugah?”

  20. Brainwashed individuals don’t know that they’re brainwashed. And it starts young. I’ve experienced antigun indoctrination since elementary school. Luckily for me, INTP’s don’t follow trends.

      • +1. I was indifferent to guns until my sophomore year of high school, when I was going to ask my grandpa to buy me a Mauser and just ship it to my house, because I thought we still lived in the 50’s. Then I read a history of gun control since ’34 and sighed. Then I looked up NJ gun laws and nearly flipped a table. I’ve been a 2A absolutist ever since.

        • Similar story here. Indifferent until mid twenties, moved out of NJ and realized gun stores existed, got into and then did some research into gun laws…including my former home state’s. Went absolutist and never looked back. It’s come with many, many days of deep depression and despair seeing how Constitutional rights are handled these days, but that bell in my mind can’t be unrung.

        • “Let me be clear, this is not a political issue. This is a human rights issue.”
          It sure is, especially if you live in a place when you’re barred from your natural right to self-defense.
          I’ve always thought firearms were cool until the birth of my first child. Then I realized that having firearms was a moral imperative.

  21. Free speech and free association, rights just as important as the right to bear arms. If she doesn’t want gun owner’s money, fine someone else will provide the service.

    • Most romantic restaurant? Personally I would find it difficult to focus on romance in a place that I knew for a fact had absolutely no concern for my or my romantic partner’s life or security.

      I’d feel better at Chipotle’s or even McDonald’s.

      • “I’d feel better at Chipotle’s or even McDonald’s.”

        It’s only later, after the E. coli kicks in, that you would feel much, much worse…

  22. “[AR/AK firearm advocates] may no longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love.” — Anne Verrill

    So, Anne’s idea of only teaching love involves hating people who are “different”. Got it.

    If you really want to teach love Anne, how about teaching your children to love people who are different from you? Nah, Progressives can’t do that. When they preach “tolerance”, what they really mean is that Libertarians and Conservatives must tolerate Progressives while Progressives do everything in their power to eliminate Libertarians and Conservatives.

    • “When they preach “tolerance”, what they really mean is that Libertarians and Conservatives must tolerate Progressives while Progressives do everything in their power to eliminate Libertarians and Conservatives.”

      Sounds a lot like a certain other fanatical ideology, doesn’t it?

      • That would go a long way to explaining why Progressives are so supportive of Islam … since they share so much in common.

    • While complaining about the backlash inn an interview with the local paper she actually said “Since when could people not have different opinions?”

      …. This is after she just banned people from her restaurant for nothing more than having a different opinion!

  23. Whatever. It’s her restaurant, she can do as she pleases but she better also remember that all decisions have consequences.

    I give it few months before the her inevitable whining starts when she sees her customer base slowly go bye-bye.

    LOL!

  24. I don’t get the point of her doing this.
    There’s absolutely no way for her to know anything about her patrons.
    Maybe she just wants the faux excitement that’ll come from her choir cheering and her enemies trolling? That’s just stupid. Very third-grade schoolyard.

  25. if you dig a little, it is revealed that the (recently) ex husband is no angel http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/19/news/portland/over-police-objections-divided-portland-council-approves-liquor-license-for-restaurateur-convicted-of-drunken-driving/
    further, the father in law is a direct link to restaurant funding as VP of major north east bank (TD Banknorth), and she is a New York transplant. essentially, it is the same old North East descendants of the financial elite liberal playbook. it would be a safe bet that she does not like to shoot and thinks hunting is “quaint”.

  26. Has anyone considered that the Orlando “Homocaust” may have been a “false flag” op to strip away our Second Amendment rights?

    • You are entitled to say your piece, but I’m also here to tell you that a) “Homocaust” is pretty tasteless and b) perhaps more to the point, there’s no need to call it a ‘false flag’ when it’s simply a set of tragic circumstances that traitors and tyrants are merely taking advantage of, no more, no less.

      Tom

  27. I don’t want to take away guns of responsible gun owners.

    Cough cough. Unless they own AR15s – Americans favorite rifle.

    I don’t care if you have 12 hunting rifles if you are a responsible hunter.

    I sometimes hunt with an AR15. That’s cool right??

    I want people to not have the power to own weapons of war.

    AR15s are not weapons of war. They are the civilian version of the military M4. I’m not aware of any war anywhere, where an AR15 was used.

    I want our government to be able to deny someone they can put on the “no fly” lists to not buy a semi-automatic weapon.

    I want our government to arbitrarily shut down restaurants I don’t like – but that isn’t a free country is it?

    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.

    It took police/SWAT some 4 hours to enter the building/respond. He could have used a bolt action 22 and likely achieved 49 deaths as well. You guys are blaming the AR15 (again), instead of law enforcement handing the issue, or the gov preventing the people within the establishment the capability to protect themselves.

    • To be pointlessly pedantic, the M16 is a military version of the civilian AR-10. So the AR-15 is a civilian version of a military version of a civilian version. Hope that’s clear. Admittedly, it is kinda roundabout…

      • The AR-10 was developed for military trials, in direct competition with what would become the M14, and originally select fire.

  28. What we have here is a political issue, which she conveniently and unilaterally recasts as a human rights issue. The purpose is to quell dissent and silence debate through self-censorship over an issue which now can have no debate.

    Then she conveniently and unilaterally characterizes anyone who does disagree with her as being evil and hateful.

    And these are the hostile and intolerant people whose ideas we should adopt? These divisive, demonizing, and reactionary statists are the sort before whom we should lay down our arms, genuflect, and just trust will not abuse their newfound, unchecked power to exterminative effect? Seriously?

  29. She probably just made her restaurant a target for the jihadis. Someone looking for another soft target now has this wrapped up with a nice ribbon around it and handed to him by the owner of the restaurant.

  30. I grant you the rights that I see fit and if you don’t like it, you are evil. My discrimination against you is OK because you don’t agree with my assessment of what is good and you don’t agree with what is bad.

    Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness applies only to my family, not to yours.

    You are not allowed to protect yourself or your family from being killed, EVER and the AR 15 is only for killing other humans and therefore my rules, the gun and its owners are evil, I spit on you all; don’t disagree with me again!!!

  31. So she wants to preach love and tolerance while calling people that own an inanimate object evil and full of hate… I’ll just stop there.

  32. LMAO……

    The only “difference” she is making is to her bottom line.

    Wonder if she forbids alcohol since so many people die as a result of it?

    What a maroon!

  33. We’ve reached an evolutionary stage where reason against evil no longer exist and submission to fear overrides ones liberties while her values are imposed on others. Love and peace is noteworthy, however under tyranny, perhaps there’s a burka in her future.

  34. My wife and I are considering moving to Maine, and likely Portland in the future. While I understand that we’ll be “surrounded” by a sea of blue states, Maine seemed like a fairly safe place to move to with it’s largely rural population and existing laws… constitutional carry, no NFA restrictions, suppressors legal for hunting, etc. Any Mainers or ex-Mainers on here have insight into whether the state is worth moving to? I understand all major cities in pretty much any state are liberal thus I don’t really care if Portland itself is liberal, as long as State Law overrides idiotic city/county ordinances. I figure if importing more Pro-2A’s helps keep Maine constitutionally sound, I’ll do my part.

    • Barring the cities, Maine is a beautiful state. I’ve lived here for most of my life. The winters are kinda long, cold, and dark; but the beauty outweighs that.

      The State of Maine preempts firearms laws. What that means is that municipalities and counties may not enact ordinances which change State firearms laws.

  35. Hmmm….

    So gun owners as a whole are to blame for any lunatic who misuses one. But Islam as a whole has nothing to do with a homicidal jihadist shouting “glory to Allah” as he murders 50 innocent people.

    Got it.

  36. I got an idea! Put ’em outa’ bidness…Yelp,Google and bombard ’em. I wonder if they include cops/military in their unicorn worldview?

  37. Dear Ms. Verrill,

    1. Thank you. I now know to avoid your restaurants.I make it a policy to avoid doing business with people who will give up our civil rights for the illusion of safety.

    2. On the off chance I have a change of heart, how will you know I’m one of those evil hateful people who supports AR-15 ownership? Will you ask everyone who walks through the door? If we are as evil and hateful as you say, do you really think we will give an honest answer when you ask? Or do you think we all wear NRA jackets and you will know us that way? Congratulations on creating an unenforceable policy. Ironically, unenforceable is the nature of gun control.

    3. I don’t own any AR-15’s. I have a very nice M14 clone, which shot-for-shot is far deadlier than the AR-15. What’s even more scary is it’s disguised in a traditional wood stock, so it looks like one of those dozen hunting rifles you support owning. Anyway, it seems you wouldn’t know a weapon of war if it walked through your door. You know only the memes repeated by gun control groups on your Facebook page, and you are mindlessly spewing their distorted information. You have no real knowledge of the subject, and you don’t care to learn. They told you to hate the AR-15 and now you do. Congratulations on finding somebody to do your thinking for you.

    4. If I put a “No Muslims” or “No Homosexuals” sign on my business, you would be first in line screaming “Racist!” and calling for the government to come down on me with the full force of the law. You can’t stand bigotry, except when it’s your own. You stereotype all AR-15 owners as evil, hateful people while calling for an end to bigotry. The irony is rich, and probably lost on you.

    5. Keep sheltering your children from events where there might be danger, and especially from being exposed to opposing points of view. You want to make sure they grow up as ignorant and naive as you are. Fortunately most East Coast universities are “safe spaces” these days, so you won’t have to worry.

  38. Lol, she can’t stand the thought of sitting idly by and simply “liking” a Facebook meme…. So she responds by doing something just as meaningless. Liberal logic right there people.

  39. Golly !!! Now that she has shunned 150 million law abiding gun owners that were just minding their own business, no gun violence can ever happen at her restaurant and everybody there will be extra safe in a cocoon of love and happiness. This new utopia will spread across the land like a dewy spring breeze. All homicidal maniacs everywhere will see the error of their ways and will turn into angels and no one will need the ability to protect themselves ever again from anyone. Then we can have love, hugs and understanding for everyone. Except people who like rifles with detachable magazines. Those people don’t agree with her. No love and understanding for those people. We will hate and shun those people.

  40. That’s fine. Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, and Illinois (I’m probably forgetting a few) aren’t welcome in my country. If you oppose freedom, I’ll oppose you.

  41. After reading that, I’m feeling micro-aggressed.

    I need to retire to my safe space. There I can still my breathing and gently ring a gong until my spirits lift.

    (It’s about 2 ft in diameter and 200 yards out)

  42. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t many (or possibly even most) “hunting rifles” considerably more powerful than an AR-15?

    • Yes, but the power of the round, much like the fact that ARs are NOT select fire, and therefore NOT an assault rifle(or weapon) are FACTS, something the antis are ever on the run away from. Its why they will never agree to an open debate, despite the fact that they constantly ask for one.
      And that is called hypocrisy. Big time hypocrisy. One might almost use the word flaming, if that word were still allowed.

  43. Oregon has been a scum sucking Liberal He$$hole for years. I’ve been there a couple of times in the distant past, but they won’t get another dollar out of me.

  44. Can’t we all just take a step back…..take deep breath.
    Pray for the dead , hunt the bad guys down.
    Let’s all stay civil….disagree? Sure but stay civil….we are all Americans.

  45. So let me get this straight. A bakery is forced to make a cake for a same-sex wedding but this person can deny service based on the hatred of a constitutional right? Hypocritical lately?

  46. lol… So, is it just the AR-15 then, Miss whatever? How do you feel about the AK platform? Or the M1A? Are Pistol caliber carbines ok? Is the SCAR acceptable to you? What about VEPR-12’s? 🙂

    …what a twit. lol. If I want to come in your restaurant, I’ll remember to wear my NRA shirt 🙂 Now run along and make me up a sammich or something.

  47. So are her mind reading powers magic wand based or does she have mutant powers? And who the hell told her that restaurant was romantic? Its brightly lit and none of the tables have any privacy.

    • No, it’s not mind reading nor magic wands. Much like all other forms of an anti’s ‘thinking’, it’s wishy thinking, perhaps combined with starmaps, like in this clip:

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