Activists attack gun range billboard to spark debate

A GUERRILLA art collective is claiming credit for changing a freeway-side billboard inviting Las Vegas tourists to fire high-powered assault-style rifles to read, “Shoot A School Kid Only $29.”

The altered advertisement, which had said “Shoot a .50 caliber only $29,” was taken down yesterday and police are now investigating.

A man who said he represented the activist group INDECLINE took credit for the pre-dawn protest and issued a statement from the group that said it changed the sign to spur debate about stricter gun laws.

INDECLINE also took credit for putting statues of a naked Donald Trump in cities around the country in 2016.

Managers at the Battlefield Las Vegas gun range that put up the billboard did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. The billboard is about 5.6km from where a gunman last year killed 58 people and injured more than 800 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

The gun debate in the US gained new momentum last month when Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, stormed into the school and opened fire on his old schoolmates, killing 17.

Cruz killed 12 people inside the school and three outside. Two later died from injuries.