Dorney Park, an amusement park in Allentown, Pa., was on the receiving end of customer complaints after visitors found that a park gift shop was selling personalized bullet cartridge keychains. The item, a rifle bullet in an embossed leather holder with a keychain, had on its packaging the words “The Right to Keep and Bear Arms” and a picture of an eagle.
imagine an amusement park thinking a personalized bullet would be a cool souvenir! Its what Dorney Park in Allentown was selling at their gift shop. Like wtf are people thinking ??? pic.twitter.com/Dqc5LX4q67
— matthew (@bulldurham60) May 30, 2019
After receiving complaints from visitors, the park pulled the item from the shop.
“This is not OK,” Sarah Keller, a visitor to the park, told Lehigh Valley Live in an email. “We shouldn’t normalize this.”
“Offering kids a bullet with their name on it at an amusement park gift shop is already the most ill-advised thing to happen this summer,” Twitter user Lisa Boswell posted. “Who green lit this? Imagine a shooting survivor encountering this.”
She added that in a current climate where children are regularly carrying out active shooter drills at school, it feels particularly tone deaf from Dorney Park.
She and another friend emailed Dorney Park about the items, and received a reply that it would “evaluate the products being sold.” Once Boswell took her concerns to Twitter, the @DorneyParkPR account responded and indicated that the items would be removed from the park.
“We ceased offering the merchandise because we believe we can offer our guests products that are more suitable for our family friendly environment,” the park said in a statement.
This kind of item isn’t exactly unusual, so it’s more likely that the venue is what caused visitors to take notice. While a personalized rifle bullet keychain might not seem out of place at, say, a Civil War museum gift shop or an outdoor recreation center, it seems more questionable at a family amusement park.
