A number of gay bars in Nashville reported receiving fliers with images of President Trump and assault rifles last week in what bar owners believe was a targeted threat.
At least four bars received the fliers, according to WTVF NewsChannel 5. The mailers feature the acronym LGBT, but with images indicating the letters stand for “Liberty, guns, beer and Trump.”
The image of the assault rifle over the letter G is similar to the gun used in the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
{mosads}Melvin Brown, the owner of Nashville’s Stirrup Sports Bar, told WTVF that he sees the flyer as a threat. The images were delivered with a “MAGA” stamp on the back, according to WTVF, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
“When you put a picture of an assault riffle on there which was used in the Pulse shooting and you mail it to every LGBT bar in Nashville, that is coming from a hateful place,” Brown said. “To say that it’s disturbing is an understatement.”
The return address on the envelope is for an empty parking lot, according to media reports.
Chris Sanders, executive director of the LGBTQ group Tennessee Equality Project, told NBC News that the mailers were likely intended to intimidate patrons, especially ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections. He noted that some of the targeted bars have held voter registration drives.
“This has a very aggressive tone about it,” Sanders said. “It doesn’t use many words, but it uses a lot of images I think are meant to threaten us.”
Police are not investigating the mailers at this time, law enforcement told NBC News, but the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has dispatched additional officers to the area where many of the bars are located.