A brewery and a barbershop near Buffalo, New York, will operate not far from an AR-15 during a “Back the Brew” event in the wake of two mass shootings that killed 10 people in the city.
Shane Stewart, owner of First Line Brewing, told Buffalo news station WIVB that the raffle announced in March with Armstrong’s barbershop is no longer taking place at the Saturday event. The barbershop shares its name and address with Armstrong’s Arsenal, a firearms dealer whose logo appears in an Instagram post promoting the event (see below).
The brewery wrote in a Facebook post that the event was meant to celebrate first responders and that it called off the gun race “the day before.”
“This is definitely not the time or place to host raffles of any kind. We apologize to anyone we may have offended by this,” the brewery wrote.
The event was supposed to take place at the brewery, and according to the barbershop’s Instagram post, a $25 ticket guaranteed a raffle entry for the “pretty” weapon, along with a pint of beer.
An event poster states that the proceeds from the raffle will go to the local police departments.
HuffPost has reached out to First Line Brewing and Armstrong’s Barbershop for comment.
Instagram users on Friday responded to the post with criticism from event planners.
“Have you lost your mind?? West Seneca is not interested in any such donations. Send this to a charity supporting the victims of the Buffalo shooting,” replied one user.
The canceled gun raffle comes after an assault-style rifle was used in the Buffalo mass shooting earlier this month, and another was used this week in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 children and two teachers. Were.
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