As we noted earlier, San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications had donated billboard space to anti-gun org Stop Handgun Violence for an ad push to support the Bay State’s over-the-top gun laws. That’s a move any reasonable observer might see as a political statement on the part of Clear Channel. Now, however, CCC has had a change of heart. As bostonglobe.com is reporting, “The advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor on Thursday took down the billboards it donated to a campaign against gun violence, arguing that its support had been ‘misconstrued as a political position’ by gun-rights advocates who mounted an online protest against the advertisements.” As a famous person once advised, when you take a shot, you have to punch back twice as hard. Winning?
“Misconstrued as a political position”…now how in the world could that happen??? smh…
Just testing the water…………………….
Silly us – misconstruing a donation of advertising space to a political group that advocates gun control laws as a donation to support gun control laws.
The Gun Ban Lobby
Writing letters is “bullying”… Anything pro gun activists do is considered bullying. Because anyone who would want to own a gun must be a bully.
Now, the ironic part? This outcome is a legitimate example of market forces causing a business to change course – which of course will lead to the disarmists on the left to cry foul. But at the same time, those same disarmists on the left would likely be cheering for the “market forces” applied against a small-town pizzeria in Indiana, which were not “market forces”, but rather criminal threats and criminal interference with the business.
So, to summarize, to the left, calling a business and voicing displeasure over a policy decision is bad, but arson/death threats, hacking business computers, maliciously tying up phone lines to prevent orders, malicious domain-name squatting, fraudulent reviews/ratings, and defacing search results are just “market forces”.
I make this point not to bring that other debate here, but rather to draw attention to the hypocrisy and duplicity of those on the left who wish to disarm us. The tactics used against a pizza joint are largely the same tactics they would use against a business that dares to promote a pro-2A argument.
That’s also why it is all the more important to make use of actual market forces to stand behind the Krogers of the world.
Yup. I think the only thing left to do, is to pass a law against illegal behavior. Seriously, technology will catch up with this, eventually. 20-odd years ago I set the cops on a guy making obscene phone calls to my wife, when the guy (a cop from another area) and my own cops did not have any idea that it was suddenly really easy to positively identify what phone was making those calls. My cops asked me repeatedly, finally listened to me telling them to call the phone company, it was not a secret. They responded as though I had invented time travel.
Sooner or later, making death threats will be so transparent that you will ALWAYS be caught and prosecuted, that kind of crap along with “swatting”, false reporting of crimes for pure harassment, and such will disappear. It can’t be too soon.
I did the same thing, called the cops after a guy repeatedly called my wife, an elementary teacher. It turned out to be the president of American University making the calls. Life is stranger than fiction, and perversity knows no class boundaries. I have to say it was weird and gross to listen to one of his calls, but highly motivating…so I put in a good silent recording system.
CCC has grown very rapidly over twenty years. Policy coherence still isn’t there. Many of their executives are operating in regions they do not really understand. Pressures bubble up from recently added groups and the key decision makers get sold on “public service” bits they don’t comprehend.
It’s our job to make sure such mistakes don’t last.
that example was the first thing I thought of when I saw this title. People should strive for honesty. Everybody is worth the small price of the truth.
Chip, you get to keep the soap box for the day…well said good sir
Good job Chip. That was real common sense.
Ah, the old liberal homosexual mafia.
“misconstrued as a political position”
How can this be construed ANY OTHER WAY!? Seriously.
Yeah, boy, it’s crazy how a valuable donation to one side of a contentious political debate was somehow perceived as support of that side’s agenda… How could such a thing happen?
Massachusetts gun laws save lives? They do? I thought they were there to harass and punish good citizens who just want to own exercuse a right and own a gun.?
So that each citizen can exercise their Constitutionally articulated right to “keep and bear arms” in furtherance of their natural right of self defense, and as a protection of one’s freedom from criminal tyranny.
Most anti-gun laws are senseless restrictions on those protections designed to pave a path to disarmament of honest, law abiding citizens, without any serious benefit to society.
Here in the Commonwealth we’re all about gun laws which keep affordable guns out of the hands of poor people. You’re welcome. Our AG drafted a bunch of regs under consumer protection statutes in order to “certify” hand guns for sale. Those that don’t pass aren’t allowed to be sold retail. As you might imagine the certified list is pretty damn short.
Sounds like the CA Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale.
Ever hear of “micro-stamping”.
Shouldn’t be long…ya’ know, ‘if it saves just one child’ and all.
MA actually has two sets of requirements to surmount. First, there’s the big list of guns. Getting on the list requires destructive testing for drop safety. Two guns that are identical except for color must be tested separately. Insane, no?
Then there are the AG’s regulations that prohibit sale by an FFL of DA handguns with a pull measuring less than 10 pounds. Also, the AG throws his or her own spin on the requirement of a loaded chamber indicator. Ruger’s “up when loaded” indicator passes. S&W’s witness hole qualifies. But Glock’s witness hole doesn’t qualify. Why? Because the Stone Cold AG says so, that’s why.
It’s totally nuts.
I’m actually happy with making sure guns don’t go off when you drop them. Two guns is a drop in the bucket of what manufacturers SHOULD be doing as testing anyway.
Ralph, does a Glock have a witness hole? I only know of the ‘raised extractor’ indicator. Contrary to purists, though, I like having the witness hole in my various S&W 1911’s.
I assume the ‘no’ to Glock means my Walther PPQ indicator wouldn’t pass MA, nor the one on our Ruger 22/45?
Another reason why I am glad I only had to spend two years there.
I just recognized – the ‘stop sign’ says “Stop HANDGUN violence”. And it shows an AR15.
Subliminal or ignorant slip??
You beat me to it. There are a lot of stupid things with that sign. “We’re Pro-life”? Really? How can you be Pro Life and Pro abortion which is mostly where the left is.
Neither. Typical leftist double-mindedness is all. They put a picture of an AR up because it is “scary” and it was the weapon that was reportedly used at Sandy Hook and they think, rightly or wrongly, that the image encapsulates all the fears the gun muggles (and perhaps the uncommitted folks) have about guns. They call it a campaign against “handgun violence” to reassure all the Fudds that they are only after handguns, not skeet guns or hunting rifles.
It’s a pistol; you can’t see the SIG brace in the picture, is all…
Oh–that’s why it looks so small and easily concealable…
Everyone has a moment where their views seem so clear, before the dichotomy becomes apparent.
I can forgive this lapse – If it was indeed a lapse. I do not hate those who disagree with me, we all have different lives, experiences, and perception biases. Not everyone has had a moment where it has become apparent that security cannot be provided, but must be bought personally- by vigilance and preparedness. Honestly, I hope not everyone has an experience in which that becomes immediately obvious.
Although others cannot see things through the experiences I have paid for, I can forgive those who have not had the same “come to X moment”. Pro-gun IS pro-life, pro-dignity, and pro-choice. Everyone deserves a chance to stand for their rights, life, and dignity. Maybe they haven’t paid or fought for it, but hopefully they see the flaws in their anti-gun stance and aren’t simply covering their asses by pretending to be politically neutral in something controversial.
Being open-minded enough to admit you could be wrong is humility, a virtue in my book. Pretending to be neutral to avoid losing customers is smart business sense, but is not entirely honest. I can respect a neutral approach though, let us all be open to work with even those we cannot see 100% eye to eye with. We have to start from somewhere. Hopefully some day we reach a point where we can respect the lifestyles and rights we disagree with. I’ll respect their rights where they don’t infringe on mine. Mine start with refusing to be a victim ever again.
In general, I agree, but I would add that what I can’t forgive is blatantly lying about the facts in order to advance your position, essentially on any subject. I mostly notice that, these days, on the subject of guns, but it is not restricted to that, some people consider it a normal course of action, up to and including lying to our entire country about a terrorist attack instead being a “simple” response to a video, in order to get votes you haven’t earned in order to continue running our country into the ground. Lies sort of irritate me.
I must be getting senile, because i was under the impression that laws were fully in the realm of “politics”. I’m just waiting for them to come out with a statement saying the response was “double-plus ungood”.
Beware of “double secret probation”!!!
There was a big push by GOAL (Gun Owners Action League). They put out the word on this in Mass and I am glad to see that it worked out.
That is a pretty impressive reversal. Maybe some of these people are not as tone deaf as I thought.
Weird how a left-leaning group used the term “pro-life” on an ad. Sure to alienate some of their potential supporters.
Good, but I feel bad that the signs came down before I had a chance to contact them about how much I disapprove of them.
Don’t feel bad about that….they get instant feed back on lots of things you aren’t aware of. If you deleted iHart radio from your phone and/or tablet they get those numbers every day. What you want to bet that a bunch of folks deleting their app got their attention. The iHeart app is in an area they are pushing hard to expand into so hitting them there gives them feedback they can directly understand!
Yeah +1000000 Chip. Look at the firestorm over so-called religious freedom laws in Indiana. Quite similar to many other state laws. And what happened with the ammo ban BS from last month? I don’t know about winning but if pro 2A folks would get off their dead a##es it would make all the difference…
“misconstrued as a political position”
Translation: Headquarters in TX calls GM in Boston.
The conversation goes something like, “ signs down by the end of the day, and if you ever do something like that without getting an ok from the home office or piss off our advertisers like that again, your ass is out the door!”
Ha Ha. I didn’t think about that but I’ll bet you’re right.
Lamar billboards here were running ads for the Brady hate group when they were trying to get Kroger to ban carry in their stores. I contacted Lamar, as I’m sure many, many other people in this generally pro 2A area did.
5 days later, no Brady ad.
I’m guessing, if you did your digging, you would find that one of the people in the decision tree to donate the builboard is connected to someone high up in that organization. Like how Mr I-Can-Wave-An-Illegal-Magazine-on-National-TV doesn’t get into any trouble, and, surprise surprise, it turns out he is related to the DA.
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