The National Rifle Association has rescheduled a fundraiser in Brooklyn for Thursday evening — less than two months after the event was canceled by the hosting restaurant amid public backlash.
The Friends of the NRA group scheduled the dinner at the Dyker Heights Knights of Columbus, set to start at 6 p.m., according to the Brooklyn Borough President’s office. News of the dinner was first reported by Brooklyn Reporter.
Information about the event was not posted on the group’s Facebook page or website, and a representative for the group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A phone call to the Dyker Heights Knights of Columbus was not immediately returned.
“We are disappointed to learn in the 11th hour of an NRA fundraiser in Dyker Heights, especially after our neighbors in Coney Island and South Slope expressed their deep displeasure with having this benefit take place in their communities,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said in a joint statement with Council Member Justin Brannan. “The lack of notice as to its rescheduling indicates a desire to fly under the radar and avoid the scrutiny of a rightly concerned public. The NRA does not value the safety and security of our neighborhoods, putting deadly assault weapons above innocent lives; it is no friend of Brooklyn. Our protest of the NRA and their campaign of chaos continues.”
The event comes just weeks after the Coney Island restaurant Gargiulo’s canceled a planned fundraiser on March 1 that would have included a raffle for guns. The event was scheduled to take place just weeks after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed.
The Grand Prospect Hall in Park Slope was also slated to host the event, according to reports, but canceled on the NRA.
