A New Jersey shooting club is under fire amid claims that its billboard depicting a kneeling soldier is racist, but the owner is taking a stand.
To combat the NFL players protesting the national anthem, one gun range owner in southern New Jersey decided to put up a billboard that says, “The only time we take a knee.” In conjunction with the words, the billboard also displayed shows a picture of a person all in black holding a rifle.
Because it appears to be mocking NFL players who chose to take a knee to fight police brutality and racial inequality, liberals in the area are highly upset. Many have claimed that the billboard is “racist.”
Despite mounting pressure, the gun range has stood by its message, saying it has “nothing to do with race” and everything to do with expressing “support for our veterans.”
Wesley Aducat, the owner of the South Jersey Shooting Club in Camden County denies racist allegations by dozens of liberal protesters, and is refusing to take calls to put down two of his billboards along the county road – one near Route 73 in Voorhees Township and the other one located at Routes 73 and 130 in Pennsauken.
Although the gun range owner attests that his advertisement does not have anything to do with race, locals are still offended.
In response, MoNeke Ragsdale posted an image of the billboard with a message urging others to call the gun range and demand that the billboard be taken down:
Please call!
This billboard on Rt. 73 in Voorhees. Tell them this billboard is racist. Taking a knee is a protest to say NO to police brutality. The women of SJWPC are taking a knee to support black and brown people. Take it down! The Manager is Carmen Console: 609-704-9500.
The NAACP’s Camden County East chapter and the South Jersey Women for Progressive Change have joined the movement to pressure the shooting club to take down the billboard — pressure which the range has thus far resisted.
“We’re talking about police murdering unarmed black people,” said NAACP member Keith Benson Sr., The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Like Ragsdale, Benson urged people to call the club and urge them to take it down.
“They deserve all the disrespect they’re going to get as a result of putting it up,” said Benson of the gun range. “But they probably thought they were clever. They probably thought they were strong, patriotic Americans.”
Aducat said that though he supports the NFL players’ right to protest, he does not agree with what the protests stand for.
Source: AWM, The Philadelphia Inquirer