A brewery and a barbershop near Buffalo, New York, won’t raffle off an AR-15 during a “Back the Brew” event in the wake of two mass shootings, including one that killed 10 people in the city.
First Line Brewing owner Shane Stewart told Buffalo news station WIVB that the raffle, announced in March with Armstrong’s Barbershop, is no longer happening at the event on Saturday. The barbershop shares its name and address with a firearms dealer, Armstrong’s Armory, the logo of which 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 shut down the gun raffle “days ago.”
“This is definitely not the time or place to host any sort of raffle like this. We apologize to anyone who we might have offended by this,” the brewery wrote.
The event was set to take place at the brewery, and a $25 ticket guaranteed a raffle entry for the “beautiful” weapon along with a pint of beer, according to the barbershop’s Instagram post.
Proceeds from the raffle would go to local police departments, an event poster said.
HuffPost has reached out to First Line Brewing and Armstrong’s Barbershop for comment.
Instagram users responded to the post on Friday with criticism directed toward the event planners.
“Have you lost your mind?? West Seneca is not interested in any such donation. Send it to a charity supporting the victims of the Buffalo shooting,” one user replied.
The canceled gun raffle happened after an assault-style rifle was used earlier this month in the Buffalo mass shooting, and another one was used this week in the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.
