Cherokee Guns, a gun store located in a small North Carolina town, on Monday took down its incendiary billboard attacking progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The billboard came down after a weekend that saw two mass shootings that left more than 30 people dead in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. However, that’s apparently not why the gun shop owners took it down.
They told local CBS affiliate WDEF that they made the decision to do so after allegedly receiving death threats online.
“As of Monday, the billboard has changed,” the owners posted on Cherokee Guns’ website. “The socialist 4 horsemen message went nationwide very quickly…and the positive support received was, and is really amazing. Of course you have those in their parents [sic] basements trying to put a spin on the real message.”
The store’s Facebook page, where Cherokee Guns had touted the billboard and encouraged followers to share, appeared to have been deleted.
Before the billboard was removed, a Cherokee Guns sales manager insisted to TPM last week that the billboard wasn’t a “direct threat of violence” and didn’t promote “hatred toward anybody.”
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