By Jack Minor –
An anti-gun group funded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is demanding bill boards featuring a semi-automatic rifle as being just as American as apple pie and baseball be taken down, calling the message “harmful.”
The billboard in question is sponsored by Slide Fire, a firearms parts manufacturer in Texas and features a baseball mitt with a ball, an apple pie and an AR-type of sporting rifle with the words “Pure American.” The billboard is a take on the phrase “As American as baseball, apple pie and mom.”
The ad has drawn fire from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, which is founded by Bloomberg. The group is calling for the ads to be taken down claiming that they feature “assault rifles.” Nicole Chen, head of the group’s Illinois chapter stated she was “shocked” that the ad “removes ‘mom’ from the idiom ‘as American as baseball, apple pie and mom,’ and replaces it with an assault rifle.”
The problem is despite Chen’s claims, the rifle featured is not an assault rifle. An assault rifle is a fully automatic weapon which continues firing rounds as long as the trigger is pulled or the magazine is emptied. The rifle featured in the ad is a semi-automatic, meaning a shooter has to pull the trigger between each shot.
Gun control advocates have attempted to define an assault weapon as any kind of gun that looks like a military rifle, regardless of actual characteristics.
Laura Shackelford, chief executive manager of Slide Fire told the Washington Times that it is ironic that gun control groups oppose the ad being displayed in Chicago when the city has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nature, while also having one of the highest crime rates.
“Chicago is the number one place in the country that shows gun laws don’t work,” Shackelford told the Post. “We specifically put the ad up there to show that a firearm is normal Americana. We have to stop allowing a small group of anti-gun people dictate how we think about guns.”
Anti-gun lawmakers have frequently demonstrated ignorance of firearms even while pushing for laws that restrict them. During last year’s legislative session Colorado lawmakers passed a law limiting large capacity magazines. However under the initial wording of the bill the language would have outlawed a large number of shotguns that could be legally modified to hold more than eight rounds. Democrats were forced to modify the bill after being unaware that their language included the shotgun ban.
New York also passed a ban on high capacity magazines that made it illegal for police officers to carry their weapons without violating the law. Lawmakers had to modify their own law immediately following the governor’s signature because of their ignorance of firearms.
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