Eric Church is still feeling the heat from his recent comments to Rolling Stone regarding the Las Vegas shooting and the NRA. The singer played a headlining set at the Route 91 Harvest festival just two nights before the deadliest shooting in modern American history. Church was personally “wrecked” by the event, but many fans took offense to his controversial view on the tragedy.

“I’m a Second Amendment guy. That’s in the Constitution, it’s people’s right, and I don’t believe it’s negotiable. But nobody should have that many guns and that much ammunition and we don’t know about it,” he told the magazine.

“There are some things we can’t stop. Like the disgruntled kid who takes his dad’s shotgun and walking into a high school. But we could have stopped the guy in Vegas. I blame the lobbyists. And the biggest in the gun world is the NRA. I’m a Second Amendment guy, but I feel like they’ve been a bit of a roadblock. I don’t care who you are — you shouldn’t have that kind of power over elected officials.”

Almost immediately after the article was released, Church was hit with Dixie Chicks-level boycott threats to his music, shows, and merchandise — which was expected. Rolling Stone asked about the blowback from fans about his NRA comments, to which Church responded, “I don’t care. Right’s right and wrong’s wrong. I don’t understand why we have to fear a group [like the NRA].”

Although it’s too soon to see whether #boycottericchuch will impact the singer’s career, any objective observer can understand why fans are outraged: Guns are a huge part of the country music culture, and the NRA is a huge part of the country music industry. The latter is a relatively new development.

Abbi Scott performs at the NRA 2015 annual meeting on April 12, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images) More

Country songs as far back as Johnny Cash’s 1958 single “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” all the way up to modern hits like Luke Bryan’s “Huntin’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ Everyday” have glamorized firearms. Country music thrives on the lifestyle of its fans, which includes guns as much as beer and pickup trucks. But in 2010, fans started associating country music with the largest gun-lobbying group in the country, the National Rifle Association. That year, the group launched NRA Country, a lifestyle brand dedicated to building a “bond between the best and brightest in country music and hard-working Americans,” according to its website.