A new billboard calling the National Rifle Association a terrorist organization is getting the attention of many in West Michigan and across the country.
One of the billboards is located along I-94 near Battle Creek. It reads, “The NRA is a terrorist organization,” with white text on a black background.
The billboard is the creation of a political action committee called Mad Dog PAC, which describes itself as a, “Political Action Committee that solicits contributions from concerned citizens to fund billboards against Treasonweasel Republicans.”
The PAC is founded by Claude Taylor, who tells Newschannel 3 that he served as a White House staffer for the Clinton Administration.
Taylor acknowledged the billboard, one of approximately 50 in the U.S., is receiving a lot of attention, both positive and negative.
“It’s not every day I get to talk with folks from Battle Creek so it’s a great way to get the conversation started and talk about assault weapons and talk about if they should be on the civilian market,” he said.
The billboards do have their critics such as Joel Fulton, a co-owner of Freedom Firearms in Battle Creek.
Fulton says the billboards will do the opposite of their objective.
“They want people to quit joining the NRA and make the NRA a negative organization. Make it so toxic that people won’t want to touch it, but it’s not going to happen,” he said.
Fulton, who boasted about NRA’s membership of more than 5 million people, said the NRA is anything but a terrorist organization.
“It doesn’t come close to what the FBI’s definition of what a terrorist organization is,” he said.
Taylor didn’t appear to be backing down when WWMT asked him about those concerns.
“If I had a larger billboard I would have said that the NRA is a domestic terrorist organization,” he said,
He added that he doesn’t see the NRA in the same light as Al Qaeda.
“No, they’re a different kind domestic terrorist organization, that’s what I would say in the rhetorical sense,” he said.
Mad Dog PAC allows people to donate to place similar billboards across the country. Some billboards calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The billboards are being placed during a time when it seems the debate over gun laws in the U.S. is starting to crescendo.
The NRA has recently come under criticism for various ads that show members smashing TV’s with hammers and criticizing media coverage of the organization.
Over at Freedom Firearms, Fulton said the NRA ads being critiqued by some are justified.
The NRA has not yet responded to WWMT’s requests for comment, but in a Facebook post showing one of Mad Dog PAC’s billboards, the NRA said the following:
However, according to Taylor, Mad Dog PAC shows no sign of slowing down. He says he expects at least 100 similar billboards to be place across the U.S.
Read the original article here: http://wwmt.com/news/local/controversial-billboards-ratchet-up-gun-debate-in-michigan
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