Politics: Black Lives Matter responds to chilling National Rifle Association video that was seen as an 'open call to violence'

"We demand that the NRA immediately remove their dangerous propaganda videos," a Black Lives Matter representative said in the response video.

Black Lives Matter activists issued a video response to a chilling advertisement published by the National Rifle Association, and demanded that the NRA take its video down.

"We demand that the NRA immediately remove their dangerous propaganda videos narrated by conservative radio hosts Dana Loesch and Grant Stinchfield," a Black Lives Matter representative says in the video.

The original NRA ad featured dramatic overlaid commentary by conservative media personality and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who urged Americans to join "America's safest place" and called protesters of President Trump members of the "resistance." Business Insider reported that the NRA's video showed footage of anti-Trump protests while Loesch described the demonstrations as "madness" that "shut down interstates and airports," requiring police intervention.

Black Lives Matter's two-and-a-half-minute video begins in a similar fashion to the NRA ad, with a representative speaking forcefully over video clips of police officers, schools, and protests:

"They use their guns to assassinate black people, they use their schools to funnel black students through a school to prison pipeline. They use their state institutions, bought politicians, business conglomerates, and white supremacist domestic terrorists to incite violence over and over again," the speaker says.

But the speaker abruptly stops and changes her tone:

"Wait, hold up. What’s with the aggressive fear mongering video tactics?" she asks, before calming the tone of the video and continuing.

"When the NRA issues a public call to their constituents, inciting violence against people who are constitutionally fighting for their lives — we don’t take that lightly. We know that we are not safe, but we are not scared either. We will continue to produce media, teach students, march, and protest to not only protect the First Amendment as fiercely as the NRA protects the second, but to protect our lives from gun-toting racists," the representative says.

The video ends with a montage of family members of African-Americans killed during encounters with law-enforcement, and the phone number for the NRA, for viewers to call to demand its videos be removed.

The video was produced by the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, Dignity and Power Now, The Reverence Project, RISIST, and Defend Movement.

The original NRA ad prompted backlash from progressives, and has been referred to as "an open call to violence" and "barely a whisper shy of a call for full civil war."

Conservative columnist Anne Applebaum also denounced the ad, saying it called on Americans "to arm themselves to fight liberals. Violence is coming."

Loesh defended the ad, saying in a Periscope video that the "the language of the left is violence" and calling "these people ... the dullest crayons in the box."

Watch the full video below:

Read the full transcript:

"They use their guns to assassinate black people, they use their schools to funnel black students through a school to prison pipeline. They use their state institutions, bought politicians, business conglomerates, and white supremacist domestic terrorist, to incite violence over and over again. and then they use their new president to enact a "law and order administration," all to make them shoot first, to make them ask questions later, to make them scream, "I thought he had a gun in his hand!" And "I feared for my life." And "he matched the description of a suspect." And "she was threatening us." To shoot and kill Philando Castile, Charleena Lyles, Kisha Michael, Keith Bursey, and Wakeisha Wilson. Until the only option left is for black people to disrupt the systems that keep us oppressed and build the kinds of communities in which we want to live. And when that happens they’ll use it as an excuse to kill more of us. The only way we stop this — the only way we save our communities and our struggle for freedom, is to fight this violence with the raged clenched black fist of resistance. We are Black Lives Matter, and we are freedom’s future’s place.

Wait, hold up. What’s with the aggressive fear mongering video tactics? Someone cut the music and bring up the lights. Better. We’re talking about our lives here. When the NRA issues a public call to their constituents inciting violence against people who are constitutionally fighting for their lives — we don’t take that lightly. We know that we are not safe, but we are not scared either. We will continue to produce media, teach students, march and protest to not only protect the First Amendment as fiercely as the NRA protects the Second, but to protect our lives from gun-toting racists. We demand that the NRA immediately remove their dangerous propaganda videos narrated by conservative radio hosts Dana Loesch and Grant Stinchfield."

"We demand that the NRA immediately remove their dangerous propaganda videos," a Black Lives Matter representative said in the response video. Read Full Story