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Billboard company pulls down anti-gun ads

The Globe reports Clear Channel took down the billboard messages paid for by local developer John Rosenthal - who had long had an anti-gun message on a garage he owned along the turnpike - after protests from gun groups.

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Clear Channel would have never put up a controversial political ad for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, gay marriage, or abortion. Shocked they stuck themselves in the middle of an issue like this and risk boycotts.

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One of the billboards actually used the word pro-life. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/04/02/companies-r...

"We're not anti-gun. We're pro-life."

Imagine the outrage among uhub libs if there were an actual pro-life billboard.

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There was one on Somerville Ave near the car wash for a long time. Instead of being outraged, I just chuckled at the waste of money involved in trying to change anyone on Somerville Ave's mind.

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That's still Horse Crap.

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Clear Channel doesn't kill stations, people do.

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I'm pretty sure radio killed itself.

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It's been long said that video killed radio.

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I heard it was just the radio star.

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It was a gravitational collapse of the star, and everything's gonna go along with it.

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Another legalized monopoly. And if you disagree with that assessment, look at the notation underneath nearly every billboard in the state.

But sure, let's place a distracting and obnoxious message shilling cheesy products and unnecessary services every 500 feet along all our major highways. After all, it's private industry promoting this practice, so it MUST be good for society.

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How can anyone not realize that the question of gun ownership is a political question. What they had no idea that the NRA owns most of Congress where guns are concerned? Or that much of the NRA board of directors are highly placed lobbyists, former senator and power behind the thrown types? I chuckled when I read that Larry the Toe Tapper Craig sleeps with Grover "Drown Government in a Bathtub" Norquist. If they are not a political couple then who or what is?

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The NRA, like the SEIU, has how many millions of members which pay dues every single year to represent their interests?

John Rosenthal is nothing more than another rich bigot living by his own set of rules and demanding the little people live under another in the process of self promotion. If he really cared about the issue he'd be putting his own money into renting billboard space rather than soliciting donations.

At least Michael Bloomberg puts his money where his mouth is to promote causes he believes in.

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What's the break down of NRA funding between dues paying member and donations from Corporate Overlords who will go to great lengths convincing you they care about your "Constitutional rights" just as long as it also perfectly aligns with their ability to sell billions and billions of dollars of inventory to you?

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The industry lobby is the NSSF. Get your facts straight.

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In the time you took to post your response, you could have found out yourself:

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/01/do-assault-weapons-sales-pay-nra-salaries/

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I find that an odd choice of evidence - I'm sure it's not the clearest answer to MattL's question "What's the break down of NRA funding between dues paying member and donations from [industry]" you'll find on the internet.

The factcheck article rebuts Sen. Murphy's statement that "NRA executives 'pay their salaries' by taking 'a cut' of assault weapons sales," but later says less than half its income is from dues & programs:

The National Rifle Association of America, on the other hand, reported $227.8 million in revenues in 2010 — nearly half of which came from member dues ($100.5 million) and program fees ($6.6 million). . . [G]un manufacturers are major contributors to the NRA. Smith & Wesson in May became a member of the NRA’s “Golden Ring of Freedom,” which is for donors who contribute more than $1 million. In 2008, the Beretta Group . . . exceeded $2 million in donations.

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**How can anyone not realize that the question of gun ownership is a political question.**

How can anyone not realize that sending the message to the criminal world that all these house sitting waiting for you to rob....are clear of legal guns?

Want to rob anyone? They are there for easy pickins'! The worse that could happen is you might get hit with a baseball bat or stabbed.
(How much do you want to bet that the guy breainking INTO the house has an illegal gun?)

How would you like to be ASSURING the criminal world that something like THIS would never ever happen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZbW2Q92MM

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I would rather be assuring people that something like this will not happen again:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/15/justice/michigan-woman-shot-charges/

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Or this apparently.

http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/crime/8-horrible-crimes-stopped-by-legal-gun-ow...

Again, you want to tell every criminal that all the law abiding houses are free to rob. What do you bet roberies #'s will go up?

You want to tell criminals that every law abiding citizen they want to mug or rape has no repercussions? What do you want to bet the number of muggings go up?

Make everyone easy pickings....by assuring criminals they will be safe.

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Burglars don't enter occupied homes, and they love homes with guns. They're easy money. What cops say about guns for home protection:

Facts About Guns For Protection in the Home:

* Most people who have guns in their homes for protection do not practice with them and are not qualified with their use
* Many tragic accidents with guns occur in homes where guns are accessible. Domestic (family arguments), children playing with guns, shooting family members by mistake.
* Most guns kept in the home are stored in the bedroom. Night tables, dresser drawers and under the mattress. all places where burglars look.
* People who have guns in their homes are providing the potential to arm burglars.

So advertise your gun collection. Burglars will love you for it!

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"Burglars don't enter occupied homes" this actually made me laugh. You really should listen to Boston PD on a scanner sometime. I feel for the people when I hear the police dispatching a car, knowing at this moment someone's cowering and afraid in their own home.

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Burglars don't enter occupied homes, and they love homes with guns.

That's just simply not true. I live in Dorchester and actively listen to the C11/C6 freq as well as B2/B3. There have been many cases where someone attempts to enter homes. It's scary how long it takes the cops to get there...by no fault of their own. As they say - "when seconds count, the police are minutes away." This is just from listening there. It happens all over the place.

Of course the police are going to tell you that you don't need guns and to just use the telephone....they have their own guns at home. Maybe it's fun for you to paint the narrative of old granny grabbing the unsecured .38 out of the bedside table and shooting up the shadow of the tv stand. I secure my weapons, have a range membership, and practice regularly. And no - I don't advertise that publicly.

By the way -- since you're interested in what cops have to say about "not practicing" with firearms and not being "qualified with their use" -- it might surprise you to learn what crappy shots many of them are from only having to qualify yearly.

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But no, it does not surprise me that not all cops are sharpshooters. Cool story about the granny and the TV stand, BTW. Did you make that up yourself?

Your anecdotes about what a responsible gun owner you are also don't interest me very much, because they don't negate the point that lots of gun owners leave their guns unsecured and loaded, even when they aren't home.

Here's a question about your secured weapons: If they're locked up, what makes you so sure you can get to them, unlock one, and load it before the home invaders get to you? Seconds count, as you say. Or are you actually with Granny, and keep one under your pillow?

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or reasonable discussion? You might loosen you girdle together and take a deep breath. Or at least tighten your bloomers before they become parachutes that carry you away.

Should no one have guns? Should everyone have guns? Two diametrically opposed extreme positions. The NRA pretty much argues the latter (with the possible exception of people behind bars). I know of very few people who argue the former. I do know of many people who argue that firearms are a dangerous and lethal device that easily maims and kills without the user having to put some skin into the game as they would with a knife. The same people argue for mature, responsible handling and management of guns, by both the owner and the state. The same kind of mature, responsible handling and management that hopefully would be applied to cars.

Whoops! In a city such as Boston there are plenty of car drivers who are immature and irresponsible with their cars. Does that mean that the same standard should apply to gun ownership? I honestly don't know but hope not. Driving is treated as a nearly inviolable, sacred right. Should gun ownership be accorded the same value? Or does it make more sense to put the scare tactics that gun worshippers (as opposed to responsible gun owners) aside and treat guns with a rational mind instead of acting as though guns were given by God and the 2nd Amendment (utterly fouled and wrongly interpreted by one of the worst Supreme Courts of the 20th C) was the 2nd Commandment.

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I and my loved ones have been in car accidents too numerous to count.

I don't know anyone who's been shot.

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The car analogy is not really a good one. That is because an irresponsibly operated car [or just poor luck] can result in injuries or fatalities. But it's purpose is still transportation, not killing. Where a gun is designed to deliberately result in injuries or fatalities.

My constitutional position is that only a well regulated militia [police, guards, and army] should have guns. Because nobody else needs one. And the argument that criminals have them [illegally] so everyone else should too is specious. Criminals have access to guns because they were manufactured to be sold legally. Less legal guns = less illegal guns = less guns all around.

Think of what all the money spent on buying guns, and what the NRA spends every year, could do if applied to help people instead. That money, spent to give better economic opportunities, could result in far less criminals than trying to shoot them all.

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No guns at all other than police or military? Just one catch - real jail terms instead of slap on the wrist that we have nowadays, and none of that cutesy evidence suppression bullshit. Caught walking around with a gun? Ten years, no parole. Caught committing a crime while in possession of a gun? Thirty years, no parole. Deal?

As for spending more money to "help" people, look how well that has turned out so far. Spend more money on education, not on giving people more reasons not to become productive members of the society.

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I like the part where you called one argument "specious" and countered with this specious argument:

Less legal guns = less illegal guns = less guns all around.

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Less legal alcohol = less illegal alcohol = less alcohol all around.

How did that work out for you?

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Why are you opposed to allowing individuals their enumerated right to the choice?

A lot of "common sense" "logical" laws started out with the likes of Jim Crow.

Ulterior motives are everywhere in politics and there's good reason why the Bill of Rights was written to secure individuals in their person and property from government trespass. Something which is too often forgotten until a really egregious violation wakes the public from a slumber of apathy to protest the erosion of rights.

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by design, and have no other legitimate purpose. Cars are not.

Big difference here.

And nail and paint "guns" are not classified as weapons.

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Take a walk through a hardware store sometime and look for powder actuated tools. You'll be surprised to see what looks just like a firearm and is chambered for what is a .22 round:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ramset-MasterShot-0-22-Caliber-Powder-Actuate...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hilti-0-22-Caliber-Yellow-Booster-100-Pack-50...

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Wow, thank you for the novel weapon idea for a movie! Just like No Country for Old Men!

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Your tool/weapon idea is better. No pneumatic coiling (and compressor!) to have to carry around everywhere.

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See my revised posting above.

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It's unfortunate that the strongest voice in a serious issue (the power of the government to infringe on the people bearing arms) is dominated by the NRA. Instead of focusing on the core issue about limited government power, they distract from the core and instead focus on weird facets with arguments like "guns are useful for hunting" and "guns help defend you from criminals" and making crazy denials about guns being used in murders.

In a more perfect world, the people at the ACLU would defend the 2nd amendment the same way they defends the 1st. Instead all the defense for the 2nd amendment seems to be led by rednecks at the NRA.

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So is that intelligence test billboard being removed from the pike finally?

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"We're not anti-gun. We're pro-life."

When I saw that my first thought was "Geez - you really don't see people put their stance on abortion on a huge billboard."

Then I realized that it was about not killing people with guns.

My bad.

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"Geez - you really don't see people put their stance on abortion on a huge billboard."

You don't if you stay in New England. Drive through PA and points South, and you'll see lots of such billboards. Here's a sampling. I'm sure they have a terrific impact on all those women contemplating having an abortion for fun.

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