Win on N.C. Billboard a Sign of Things to Come?

A billboard for a North Carolina gun range with a "pansies converted daily" slogan is being taken down after gay rights activists complained it was offensive. And now Equality North Carolina is praising the small win, earned via social media, as a "sign of what grassroots activism in N.C. can do."

The Pro Shots gun range decided to remove its billboard after getting a steady stream of complaints from folks who heard about it from Equality North Carolina, which shared a picture of the billboard on its Facebook page.

"Seriously?" asked one outraged commenter. "YUCK!" screamed another.

Kathy Clark, the woman who took the picture and shared it on the Equality North Carolina's Facebook page, later announced in a post that the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which had given Pro Shots a grant for the ads, was surprised by the billboard and "genuinely appalled by it."

Then Pro Shots shared a statement on its own Facebook page.

"We have spent a good part of our day reading and listening to your comments," the gun range wrote in a statement. "We have also answered numerous phone calls and emails. To be clear, when we realized the potential offensive implications, we decided to take down the board. Yes, the NSSF asked us to take the board down, but our management group had already decided to take it down. Our aim (no pun intended) was NEVER to offend anyone."

Equality North Carolina reacted on its Facebook page and called on North Carolinians to put the same energy into defeating a ban on same-sex marriage on the state's ballot in 2012.