A prominent billboard in Boston that features an ad mocking gun shows will be replaced today by a much more somber gun-control message, says the Boston Globe. The new look for the 250-by-20-foot billboard along the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park will feature a digital counter displaying the number of American children and teenagers killed by guns daily — a figure that will increase by 8 every day, says John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence.
The counter will begin at 1,624, the number of deaths since the November elections, in which the National Rifle Association spent $6.7 million in a GOP takeover of the U.S. House, said Rosenthal, who has used the billboard to display provocative gun-control messages since 1995. He said 200,000 commuters see the billboard every day. Andrew Arulanandam, NRA spokesman, dismissed the billboard as misguided. “John should spend the money to put up a billboard calling on the Justice Department to prosecute violent felons and drug dealers who misuse firearms,'' he said.