Indecline, an activist art collective, is taking credit for altering a Las Vegas gun range’s billboard to call attention to gun control.
The Battlefield Vegas billboard near Interstate 15 and Spring Mountain Road was changed overnight from its original form, “Shoot a .50 caliber only $29,” to “Shoot a School Kid only $29.”
The group says it carried out the act to draw attention to the need to reform gun laws following mass shootings in October in Las Vegas and more recently at a Florida high school. By 9 a.m., the billboard was restored to its original form.
“As these mass shootings continue, our cities aren’t given ample time to mourn the loss of their friends and family before the next assault rifle rips someone’s life apart,” a member of the group, who did not wish to be identified, said.
“Indecline engages in many different forms of social and political injustices, but this is by far one of the most pressing at the moment,” he said, noting that while people might initially find the message shocking it is meant to get them thinking about the issue.
“As more news outlets report on this, Indecline is particularly interested in gauging the public’s ability to understand the message as opposed to their tendency of being shocked into a paralysis when it comes to facing subversive, thought-provoking and otherwise shocking protest art,” the group member said.
Indecline created a large mural that was placed at the Las Vegas welcome sign in the days following the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip.
In 2012 it grabbed headlines with its Dying for Work stunt in which dummies were hung from a billboard to protest unemployment and Wall Street excess.