NRA Gun Raffle Canceled By NYC Restaurant After Criticism

CONEY ISLAND, NY — An outcry from advocates and officials led a Coney Island restaurant to cancel a National Rifle Association fundraiser it was scheduled to host. Gargiulo's Restaurant on Thursday said will no longer house the April 12 event at which Brooklyn's Friends of NRA planned to offer guns as raffle and auction prizes.

"As a long-standing member of the Coney Island community since 1907, the Russo family of Gargiulo's Restaurant has provided a venue for thousands of community events and family celebrations. They have never had a national political issue land on their doorstep," an unnamed lawyer for the restaurant's owners said in a statement posted to the Gargiulo's Facebook page.

"They thank everyone for their interest in this important dialogue and have decided it best to cancel the event."

Brooklyn's Friends of NRA was planning to hold its second annual fundraiser at Gargiulo's benefitting the NRA Foundation, an subsidiary of the gun lobby group that reportedly gives money to gun sports programs and to the NRA itself.

Guests could buy a gun for a high enough ticket price, and at least half a dozen firearms were set to be auctioned or raffled off, according to a flyer for the event.

South Brooklyn activists and officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, urged Gargiulo's to cancel the event. Some said it was tone deaf for such a well known venue to play host to an NRA group so close to the deadly Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which has sparked calls for stronger gun control laws.

It's unclear whether Brooklyn's Friends of NRA will now hold the event at a different venue. Vincent Sallustro, who's listed online as the point of contact for the group, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday morning. The NRA also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Advocates praised Gargiulo's for ultimately declining to lend its space to the NRA, an aggressive and powerful organization that opposes stricter gun laws.

"They’re a community landmark in #ConeyIsland, and their decision reflects the voices of our community," Adams, a Democrat, said of Gargiulo's on Twitter Thursday evening.

Mallory McMahon, a co-founder of the progressive activist group Fight Back Bay Ridge, said the decision shows the restaurant's owners' willingness to respond to community concerns.

"It really does show that a community that works together toward positive aims can be successful," McMahon said.

McMahon said she's urged anyone who left Gargiulo's a negative Yelp review over the fundraiser to replace it with a positive one. Her group's members also plan to dine at Gargiulo's to reward the restaurant, she said.

(Lead image: Gargiulo's Restaurant is pictured in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Image from Google Maps)