Illinois "response" to Rosenthal-style billboards

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

From Clayton Cramer (excellent gun rights/history blogger):

If you are too young to have any idea what the "Burma Shave" signs were--read this first! (And oh, does it make me feel old to have to tell you young people about this!) Anyway, a reader saw what seems to be the modern political equivalent of the Burma Shave signs while on a trip through Illinois:

Two weeks ago while traveling through Illinois with my family on I-57 between Champaign and Effingham, we noticed signs in three different locations which promoted a very pro gun message. The signs were in groups of three, rectangular and white (with black letters), and about 7 times wider than the height. They were so well worded we wrote them down. With adequate warning I would have photographed them.

The first set of signs read:

Here is something you should ponder - An armed citizen as first responder - www.gunssavelife.com

The second:

Shooting sports are safe and fun - There's no need to fear a gun - www.gunssavelife.com

The third:

On unarmed citizens the thugs do pray - The Illinois law keeps it that way - www.gunssavelife.com​

What are the odds (round up to the nearest 0.00%) that you'd ever see that on the side of the highway in Kennedy Country? You'd be brought up on hate speech charges just for trying.

 

[Gabe]

I'm not sure about there being legal repercussions, but what I would expect is that the billboard owners would turn you down, because their other customers would threaten to pull their business unless the pro-gun messages were taken down.

So I think I would put it at about 1% chance.

 

[anthonyne]

I wonder if any pro-gun groups, like GOAL, have ever tried something like this. A lot of billboards in MA are owned by out of state companies. I don't know if that means anything.

 

[dwarven1]

The third:

On unarmed citizens the thugs do pray - The Illinois law keeps it that way - www.gunssavelife.com

Shame that they misspelled a word; it should be "On unarmed citizens the thugs do prey".

 

[dwarven1]

Just hit the website - that's GREAT. Wish we could put some of those up here in MA.

 

[Bruce for NH State Rep]

From the website:

In 1999, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) send threatening letters to nearly all of the landowners displaying Burma-style signs.

Of course they did. That's what bloated bureaucratic totalitarian fascists do best - bully the weak into submission for failing to follow the socialist game plan.

Can you imagine the throbbing veins on thetemples and foreheads of the gun banning elitist pukes in MA if anyone was successful in doing something like that. I'd pay good money to watch the ensuing hysterics.

 

[Ripach]

GOAL should definitely get something like this going in MA, the Antis would soil themselves.

 

[dwarven1]

Hey, maybe we can do some more fundraising and ask GOAL to do that very thing with the funds. You all DID see the picture of Derek giving the check to Nancy Snow in this month's Outdoor Message, right?

 

[Gaffer]

The idea of fundraising for GOAL to do this is worthy. Some states have laws against roadside signs and bill boards, however I think that signs on private property approved by the landowner might be OK if no remuniration is involved.
The gun owners of Massachusetts need to get a backbone and go after the antis. To remain silent and only bitch on this forum is not good enough. The reason that you are in trouble now is you didn't squeal loud enough that the politicians would let you alone.

Remember... "... it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate tireless minority keen to set brush fires in peoples minds..." Samuel Adams

and...The limitation of tyrants is the endurance of those they oppose. — Frederick Douglass

 

[dbhn]

Most controversial billboards make it up to start out and then end up getting pulled or covered up after the SHTF. This adds a tremendous amount of publicity to the message if they squelch them. I think cleverly done pro-gun boards would get a lot of pr regardless or not if they pulled or refused them. At least I'd hope so. Rosenthal gets treated like the governer when he switches the creative on his board.

I do think professionally done boards with GOAL as the clear advertiser wouldn't not have a problem. A couple of the local board companies are very small and the big player is ClearChannel.

I work in advertising and would be willing to help out and make this happen if it came to light. I could treat GOAL as a probono client (as long as the agency owners are OK with it and I'm about 90% sure of that). If so, we'd be willing to do the creative and handle the media buy.

If somebody gets the funds going or if GOAL wants to discuss billboard costs, etc. simply get in touch with me...

How sweet would it be to buy one on the expressway that you read right after passing Rosenthal's! But, those are upwards of 20K a month.

-Derek

 

[Gaffer]

The price of freedom and the 2nd Amendment is worth considerably more than 20K/month, don't you think? At least I do!

 

[dwarven1]

I agree with you, Gaffer... but the price of telecom techs is considerably less than 20K a month, so I can't afford to put up billboards like that on my own. Unlike JR.

 

[henchmen77]

GOAL wouldn't have the balls to put signs up like that, they only fight the fights they know they can win. Other wise they stay in the corner and say very little.

I think GOAL is a waste of time, sad to say but its true. What has GOAL done for gun owners? We still can't order ammo online,all the gun bills that matter got passed. I mean really?

 

[Fixxah]

GOAL wouldn't have the balls to put signs up like that, they only fight the fights they know they can win. Other wise they stay in the corner and say very little.

I think GOAL is a waste of time, sad to say but its true. What has GOAL done for gun owners? We still can't order ammo online,all the gun bills that matter got passed. I mean really?

Here we go again. At my last club meeting, our legislative committee explained to us that of all the bills that were damaging to gun owners and sportsman, the only one without a vote is Katrina bill. All others were voted down of sent packing.

Let me quess, you are a half empty kind of guy?

 

[Fixxah]

Do tell Martha we said "Hi".

 

[Admin]

GOAL wouldn't have the balls to put signs up like that, they only fight the fights they know they can win. Other wise they stay in the corner and say very little.

I think GOAL is a waste of time, sad to say but its true. What has GOAL done for gun owners? We still can't order ammo online,all the gun bills that matter got passed. I mean really?

I must have missed this post last year.

Ignorant would be an understatement.

 

[digitech]

Hey i hear a billboard group buy here i have $25.00 to put to wards this.

 

[hminsky]

I'll put up $50

 

[Patriot]

I must have missed this post last year.

Ignorant would be an understatement.

Sadly,

This is simply an excuse for not joining the fight. Words are cheap and action costs time and
money so the critics simply sit on the sideline throwing shots. There is a quote from a speech
that TR gave that describes them so well:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles
or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without
error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who
spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high
achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor
defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

 

[theGringo]

Sadly,

This is simply an excuse for not joining the fight. Words are cheap and action costs time and
money so the critics simply sit on the sideline throwing shots. There is a quote from a speech
that TR gave that describes them so well:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles
or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without
error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who
spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high
achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor
defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Nice. Apparently, however, that message had been largely forgotten by May, 1940.

 

[boblik]

We need to make this happen.

Anyone own land on the side of a highway?

Even if its ust a crappy spraypaint stenciled sign, who cares? even if its against regulations of somesort, thats a good thing, it will get more publicity.

one in a serious area of traffic on a real billboard would be great, but how about just trying to put as many out there as possible?

just go around hammering them into the ground on the exit ramps of highways

 

[KMaurer]

GOAL wouldn't have the balls to put signs up like that, they only fight the fights they know they can win. Other wise they stay in the corner and say very little.

I think GOAL is a waste of time, sad to say but its true. What has GOAL done for gun owners? We still can't order ammo online,all the gun bills that matter got passed. I mean really?

What is Truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not wait for an answer.
-- Francis Bacon

"What has GOAL done for gun owners?" you ask. Have you taken the time to look at the legislative efforts by GOAL that have resulted in reduced license fees, a formal appeals process for those denied due to minor offenses in their pasts, and other improvements? Have you noticed the numerous anti-gun bills that are introduced every legislative session that GOAL successfully lobbies against? Or is that fact that Massachusetts hasn't morphed into a libertarian paradise in the past year or two simply a lame excuse for not bothering to lift a finger yourself? [Of course, if it had, that too would mean that your time, efforts and money would not be needed either, so it's sort of a win-win for you, isn't it.]

On second thought, forget the line I quoted from Bacon, and replace it with the sentiments of the Irish playwright:

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
-- Brendan Behan

Ken

 

[JoeT]

count me in for $50 towards a sign too

I don't know if we could do it, but maybe a picture with a bunch of us with our guns and the famous Ted Kennedy / car quote

 

[theGringo]

"We'll have to say that Mary Jo was driving" - Ted K.

count me in for $50 towards a sign too

I don't know if we could do it, but maybe a picture with a bunch of us with our guns and the famous Ted Kennedy / car quote

How about the car-and-diver photo?:

... and a reminder that Teddy was UNLICENSED at the time of the accident.