A ME town finds itself an unwilling center of controversy after a resident placed an offensive sign on his front lawn that mocked the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Linc Sample created the sign and claims he’s not bringing race into the discussion but rather created the sign in support of gun rights.
The sign’s owner Linc Sample was inspired to paint his sign after a local newspaper ran an ad supporting an assault-style weapons ban.
The display of a large sign promoting gun rights along a main thoroughfare of a ME vacation town is drawing scrutiny for playing off of the Black Lives Matter protest movement.
“If anything, they should be flattered I used the phrase”, he told New England Cable News.
Now #BlackRiflesMatter is trending on Twitter, with many pointing out how offensive the sign is, but others defending Sample’s First Amendment rights.
“We have received a frew complaints from visitors to the region”, Rick prose, the Boothbay Region Chamber of Commerce director, said.
He added that the sign is strictly a message about gun rights.
Tourists visiting the area have had mixed opinions.
Town Manager Thomas Woodin told NECN, “Some of these people have cut their vacation short and left early”.
Paul Mayor, once such tourist, said: “People are ignorant”.
Numerous town’s visitors, however, are not flattered by the sign’s message.
But tourist and gun enthusiast Jeremy Plasse said: ‘They’re doing the right thing.
The riff on the Black Lives Matter movement – which protests police brutality, and especially police shootings, against black people – was deliberate, he told NENC.
Mr Sample said he regularly changed the hand-painted signs outside his property and would replace the Black Rifles Matter sign when he was ready.
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However, the sign won’t be in place for long.
