“There have been some people that have asked me to take the sign down and I don’t respond to that very well,” Sample told CBS affiliate WGME. “It’s my property, it’s my sign. There’s been some talk that I have hurt tourism. I don’t believe that for a minute.”

Sample told New England Cable News that he created the sign after he saw an advertisement in a newspaper that supported a ban on assault-style weapons. Currently, seven states and the District have adopted such bans, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

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“That’s really a trigger for me — the assault weapons ban,” Sample told the news station.

In July, Sample posted a photo on social media that had the same message about gun rights — but before he added the play on Black Lives Matter.

“Ok I’ve had enough of this ‘assault weapon’ nonsense,” he wrote on Facebook.

He added in the comment section, “I’m going to add Black Rifles Matter to the top I think.”

The next month, he posted a photo showing the “Black Rifles Matter” sign on his lawn. Below the sign, someone had placed a piece of cardboard declaring: “Black Lives Matter.” Sample noted that he would not allow protesters to trespass or destroy his property.

“My initial response was to take it down but my brilliant wife, muse and compass Sarah Sample said I should teach them true equality,” Sample wrote on Facebook. “Here is our response. This sign is on our land, we are permitted for it and pay for it out of our own pockets. This stops NOW, for if it does not and our sign is defaced in any way I will be sure that every thing in my power is done to find you and see that you are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for trespassing, malicious mischief and willful destruction of private property.”

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The issue, it seems, is not with Sample’s statement, but with his play on words.

He said he decided to adapt the “Black Lives Matter” phrase because he thought it would make an impression.

“If anything, they should be flattered I used the phrase,” he told New England Cable News.

Officials in Boothbay Harbor, a small tourist town not far from Portland, said they have received a few complaints from people visiting the area.

“Some of these people have cut their vacation short and left early,” Town Manager Thomas Woodin told New England Cable News. However, Woodin said, because Sample is exercising his First Amendment rights, “there isn’t much the town can do about it.”

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“People are ignorant; they shouldn’t be putting things out like that,” Paul Mayor, who was visiting from Connecticut, told the cable station. “It’s taking a shot obviously at Black Lives Matter.”

But another tourist, Jeremy Plasse, told New England Cable News that he agrees with Sample’s message.

“Massachusetts has a ban right now,” Plasse said, “and I think they should lift it.”