KUSA — Billboards are meant to catch your attention.
Lindasue Smollen hopes the billboard she bought will get you to start a conversation.
The sign, which sits along the northbound lanes Highway 93 just south of Highway 128, is a simple black and white message.
It reads:
“More Americans have died of gun violence since 1970, including murders, suicides, and accidents (1.4 million), than in all the wars in American history (1.3 million.) Stop the thoughts and prayers.”
“I think they’re facts that people need to know and digest, and start a conversation about gun violence,” she said.
“I don’t want this to be political. It’s not a debate, it’s a conversation I want started so we can say, right, let’s do something.”
Smollen, who lives in Boulder, said gun violence is an issue that has bothered her for a long time. She cited several mass shootings, specifically, that prompted the billboard idea, including Sandy Hook, Las Vegas and Parkland.
“The motivation [for the billboard] really was the lack of action by our elected officials and their refusal to do anything each time there was one horrific mass shooting after another.”
Smollen points to Hollywood as her inspiration for using a billboard to showcase her message. She enjoyed the movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.”
“I saw the movie the day it came out, and it was just fabulous,” she said. “And you sort of go, wow, think outside the box. There [are] other ways to get your message out.”
Her billboard went up this week. Smollen acknowledges there will be some people who will disagree with her message, or maybe her method.
“There’s definitely some people that don’t like it. Right now, the response that I’m getting, that is the minority,” she said.
“I would say the feedback I’m getting is 98 percent positive, which shocks me. And I think that if they disagree with it, that’s their First Amendment right to disagree with it, and I support their right to the First Amendment freedom of speech.”
Smollen said the numbers on the billboard - the data about gun violence and war casualties - come from a New York Times article published a few years ago.
Those numbers were also verified by PunditFact, which describes itself as “a project of the Tampa Bay Times and the Poynter Institute, dedicated to checking the accuracy of claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers, political analysts, the hosts and guests of talk shows, and other members of the media.”
Smollen said she bought the billboard for $3,000, which covers the cost of one month. She said, already, people have contacted her asking if they can contribute money for future payments. She is still considering how long to keep the billboard up.
For now, she just hopes it sparks a conversation as drivers pass.
“The goal is they go to work, they go home, and say, ‘I saw this billboard and did you know? Those were the numbers? That’s pretty bad.’ Start the conversation, that’s all.”
