Dallas restaurant says it got death threats for putting pro-gun control message on receipts

A restaurant in Dallas says it received a series of threats after it posted a message on its receipts supporting gun control measures during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Leadership Forum this week. 

Joe Groves, the owner of Ellen’s Restaurant, told BuzzFeed News that the establishment received calls threatening to “shoot the place up,” and another by a person suggesting that they would set it ablaze. 

“We’ve had people calling and say they’re going to shoot the place up, one that implied he would be burning us down today. Ridiculous people,” Groves said. 

{mosads}

The threats apparently came in response to the NRA telling its members to “steer clear” of the restaurant, because it had printed a message on the bottom of its receipts saying that a portion of the week’s proceeds would be donated to gun control advocacy groups. 

“A portion of this week’s proceeds will be donated to organizations dedicated to implementing reasonable and effective gun regulations that protect citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights and also help reduce needless gun violence. Welcome to Dallas!” the message reads.

Groves told BuzzFeed that he wanted to use the occasion of the NRA convention to ignite a discussion about ways to reduce gun violence. 

” ‘Reasonable and effective,’ in my naive world, is a fairly benign and centrist view,” he said.

The message on the receipts was picked up by the NRA, who tweeted it out to its 665,000 followers, igniting outrage among the group’s members.

Ellen’s Restaurant responded to the backlash in a post on Facebook, saying that it simply wanted to find “common ground and compromise in the fight to eliminate needless gun violence, especially in our schools and against our dedicated police officers.”