Read This Portland Restaurant Owner's Idea of 'Grace'

As many of us have felt compelled to do this week, Anne Verrill, Maine restaurateur and owner of the Foreside Tavern in Falmouth and Grace restaurant in Portland, Maine decided to make make her opinion known via a bold statement in the wake of the shooting in Orlando, FL.

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Brace yourself for a strong dose of liberal tolerance. 

The original declaration, now deleted, read:

“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’s post read accompanied with a picture of a gun similar to the one used in the Orlando shooting.

“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,” she continued. “I cannot, in good conscience, accept anyone inside of my restaurants who believes that this is OK.”

After the original post was taken down, Verrill posted a new message on the Grace Facebook page to address the swift backlash the business took immediately following her new anti-gun policy:

In part, her new post insisted: “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.”

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Verrill followed up with a final post:

“I have read everything written on this page. I have read the interesting and thought provoking comments, the beautiful kind support and the most hurtful things that have ever been said to me in my life. I hear you all because I am listening. I hope the larger issue of a safer America can become a bigger focus than this small facebook page.”

Brilliant. Verrill finally made an intelligent and valid point: the larger issue of a safer America should become a bigger focus than her ignorant facebook page. The fact is, an armed America is the safest America we could ever hope to have and I, for one, am not comfortable with anyone infringing on the rights our ancestors sacrificed life and limb to afford us as citizens of this great nation.

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