A "black rifles matter" sign is making a lot of Maine residents very uncomfortable

Impact

Boothbay Harbor, Maine, resident Linc Sample put up a "Black Rifles Matter" sign on his lawn, New England Cable News reports. 

The sign is a clear reference to the Black Lives Matter movement that works to end police brutality and to implement racial justice. However, Sample erected the sign as a comment on gun control, not race or violence. He placed it there after the local paper ran an ad supporting a ban on assault weapons. 

"That's really a trigger for me — the assault weapons ban," Sample told NECN. "If anything, they should be flattered I used the phrase." 

Many of the town's visitors, however, are not flattered by the sign's message. 

"People are ignorant," Paul Mayor, a visitor from Connecticut, told NECN. "They shouldn't be putting things out like that. It's taking a shot obviously at Black Lives Matter."

Boothbay Region Chamber of Commerce director Rick Prose told NECN that his office has received complaints from visitors. Some people think the sign is putting a blemish on Maine's picturesque landscape. 

Town manager Thomas Woodin said some people even "cut their vacation short and left early." However, Woodin said Sample has the proper permits for a sign that size, so there's nothing stopping him from exercising his first amendment rights to protect his second amendment rights. 

There is hope, however. Sample changes the sign often and plans to replace the "Black Rifles Matter" sign soon. 

Here's hoping he doesn't change it to "All Rifles Matter."