Boulder Attorney Pays for Billboards with Gun Control Message

Boulder Attorney Lindasue Smollen was frustrated with the lack of political action on gun control, so last year she took things into her own hands and paid for a series of billboards with messages about gun control, all of which appeared in various locations around the metro area. Currently she has paid for billboards on Highway 34 in Weld County in reaction to the Weld County Sheriff saying he would not enforce the recently signed red flag bill which temporarily removes guns from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

“I think everybody should be passionate about this, not just me, but really what just stuck with me for so long is when we can murder children in their classrooms, and nothing, and nothing, and nothing gets done. Not even universal background checks. We do nothing and that’s just simply unacceptable. The first round was very very positive I would say, and then my second billboard that I put up a couple of months later in the fall was not quite as polite, and, but it was still factual, the amount of people killed and that one was directed at AR-15’s. And that really brought out the ugliness of a lot of people and they felt that I was wanting to take their AR-15’s away from them, and I am.”

The billboards read:

“More Americans (1.4 million) have died in gun violence since 1970, including murders, suicides and accidents (1.4 million), than in all wars in American history (1.3 million). Thoughts and prayers are not enough.”

Now, she’s put up a third round of billboards targeted at the red flag bill as well as Sheriffs who have been vocally opposed to enforcing the bill in the event of it’s passing, notably the Weld County Sheriff..

Smollen says the billboards are trying to cut across political divisions as gun violence impacts everyone.  “I don’t think that this is one political party or another, I say it’s not the Democrats, it’s not the Republicans, it is both of them. We have done nothing, we have failed our population, our children, our schools. We have failed the people that are so fragile that are intent on committing suicide and have access to guns.”

There’s a Gofundme account to help Smollen pay for the billboards, as so far the funds to keep the billboards up have been coming out of her pocket. The Gofundme can be found here.

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