San Antonio Distillery Pulls Plug on Gun Owner Concert Days Out
Rebecca Creek Distillery in San Antonio canceled a Friday night concert sponsored by Gun Owners of America – Texas, and the country singer booked for the stage, Creed Fisher, will not perform. The distillery announced the cancellation on Facebook without giving a specific reason. Later, owner and founder Steve Ryan posted a comment under the announcement saying he pulled the event because the organizer refused to keep political rhetoric off the program. GOA disputes that account. The group says the concert was always a GOA event meant to bring the Second Amendment community together, and it says the distillery knew that from the start.
Key Details
The facts on the table are short, and they cut against each other.
- Venue: Rebecca Creek Distillery, San Antonio, Texas.
- Event: A Friday night concert sponsored by GOA – Texas.
- Performer: Country singer Creed Fisher.
- Announcement: A Facebook post citing "committed to delivering performances that reflect our brands and community standards."
- Ryan's explanation: He says he did not know the event would be a political rally, that the organizer refused a request to avoid political rhetoric, and that the distillery employs 30 people as a family-owned business.
- Ryan's self-description: He calls himself a gun owner and a believer in free speech, and he says the business wants to be "family friendly" and "animal friendly."
- GOA's response: In its own Facebook post, the group calls the concert a long-planned GOA event for the Second Amendment community.
- Patriot Talk 920: The Houston radio station says the distillery knew the event benefited GOA and that Brandon Herrera would take part. Herrera is running for Texas's 23rd Congressional District.
Ryan's comment does not name any specific remark or speaker. It also does not say when the organizer refused the request. Neither side has produced a written agreement or a copy of the original booking terms. The dispute now comes down to what the distillery knew, and when it knew it.
Background
Private venues have always controlled their own stages. The First Amendment restricts government censorship, not the decisions of a private business about who books its space. A distillery can cancel a show for any lawful reason, and that holds true whether the reason is sound or thin. Texas has no law that forces a bar or event venue to host a particular group.
Texas moved hard toward gun rights over the past decade. The state adopted permitless carry in 2021, and Texans can now carry a handgun without a license if they are legally allowed to own one. That shift made firearms culture more visible in everyday life, from concert series to gun shows. It also made venue bookings more contested. Groups like GOA and political candidates with gun-rights platforms now show up in places that never hosted them before. Some businesses welcome the traffic, and others worry about customers on the other side of the issue.
The Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen set the modern test for Second Amendment challenges. Under Bruen, the government must show that a gun regulation fits within the country's historical tradition of firearm regulation. That test applies to laws, not to a distillery's booking decisions. Still, the case shaped how the public talks about gun rights as a mainstream civil liberty.
Why It Matters for Gun Owners
If you organize a range day, a gun club dinner, or a candidate meet-and-greet at a bar or restaurant, this story applies to you. A venue can cancel a contract on short notice, and the contract often offers the organizer little recourse. Read your agreements. Look for clauses on content, speakers, and cancellation fees. If a venue asks you to limit political speech, get that request in writing and specify what counts as a violation.
Gun owners who run events should also expect this kind of friction to continue. A Texas business with 30 employees can decide that a gun-rights crowd costs more than it earns. Whether that is fair or foolish, it is the reality of booking space in a politically divided market. Gun owners who want to buy from or support a business should also weigh how that business treats its customers. Money moves toward venues that treat gun owners as ordinary guests.
Watch the next few days. If GOA publishes the original booking terms, or if the distillery releases the organizer's messages, the facts will become much clearer. Until then, anyone planning an event at a private venue in Texas should confirm the terms before promoting it.
DownRange Analysis
Ryan's own words undercut his position. He says he did not know the event would be political, yet he also says the organizer refused a request to keep political rhetoric off the stage. Both statements can be true only if the distillery understood that the event carried a political angle from the start. If Brandon Herrera's campaign was the real problem, the distillery should have said so plainly. Hosting an artist is not an endorsement of every opinion that artist or organizer holds.
Under Bruen, the question is not whether a private business violated anyone's constitutional rights. It did not. The question is whether a business that books gun-owner events should expect pushback once it hosts them. The answer is yes, and the cancellation shows why organizers should lock down terms early. Gun owners should not treat a single venue's decision as a verdict on the broader community. They should, however, take it as a reason to diversify where they gather and to vote with their wallets.
