<p>Gun rights activist Linc Sample received far more attention than he expected when he planted a sign in his front yard reading <strong>Black Rifles Matter YES We Have &lsquo;Em NO You Can&rsquo;t Take &lsquo;Em.</strong></p>
<p>Sample lives in the scenic resort community of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and his message has convinced some tourists to leave. ;</p>
<p>Sample built the sign in irritation after he saw a local ad supporting a ban on assault weapons. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s really a trigger for me &ndash; the assault weapons ban,&rdquo; he said. ;&ldquo;We have AR-15s, or what the press generally calls &lsquo;assault weapons.&#8217; Everyone knows I&rsquo;ve got guns.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sample, who has displayed controversial signs in his lawn in the past, explains that the sign is simply &ldquo;a tongue-in-cheek way of saying, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not taking them.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s a rallying cry for the Second Amendment.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He ;insists the sign has nothing to do with race, and the cardboard &ldquo;Black Lives Matter&rdquo; sign you can see in the above picture was added by someone else. ;Sample play ;on words was intended only to draw attention. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re [Black Lives Matter]  ;being targeted because of their appearance, fair enough. So is my rifle,&rdquo; says Sample. &ldquo;If anything, they should be flattered I used the phrase [Black Rifles Matter].&rdquo;</p>
<p>The sign has not been interpreted as flattery, however, and Rick Prose of the district&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce says there have been multiple complaints. ;Prose calls the sign &ldquo;racist,&rdquo; &ldquo;insensitive,&rdquo; and &ldquo;not welcoming.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Boothbay Harbor is a vacation community and Town Manager Thomas Woodin argues that some visitors &ldquo;have cut their vacation short and left early&rdquo; because of the sign. ;</p>
<p>Sample has not broken any laws, however, and Woodin admits that &ldquo;there isn&rsquo;t much the town can do about it.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Not all visitors were offended by the sign. &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re doing the right thing,&rdquo; says tourist Jeremy Plasse. &ldquo;Massachusetts has a ban right now, and I think they should lift it.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Firearms ;laws will be a ballot issue in November, and Maine&#8217;s voters will decide whether to require background checks for the purchase and/or transfer of firearms.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> We don&#8217;t normally cover &#8220;antics&#8221; by individuals, but this is an example of how a small issue can blow up by touching a liberal media nerve.</p>