MONTCLAIR — A group of activists is asking to paint a pro-gun mural on an NJ Transit underpass as a counterpoint to a mural with an anti-violence message recently created by a pair of teens.

The Montclair Republican Club, which is vocal in its support of the 2nd Amendment's right to bear arms, said it plans to ask NJ Transit for permission to paint its pro-gun rights mural facing the teens' "Never Again" mural, which they see as "overtly political."

"It's a question of equal time," said the group's president, John Van Wagner. "If a public agency is going to display a mural that is being used for political expression, it is only fair that there is the opportunity to answer that with another point of view."

The "Never Again" mural depicts six students with their arms raised; three have targets on their backs. It is underneath a railroad trestle owned by NJ Transit, which gave permission to the two high school students who painted it, May Li and Aneekah Uddin.

Li spoke last month about the work, whose title echoes the name of a group of survivors of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting who support gun restrictions. "We don't want our school to be a place where we feel fear," she said. "We don't have the right to vote, and art is a place we can express ourselves."

Van Wagner said his group's mural would not depict guns, but "tastefully" address the Second Amendment and provide a counterpoint to the implied message that more gun legislation is necessary.

One idea, he said, is for the mural to depict a cityscape of Chicago, which has strict gun control laws, along with a display of its high murder statistics, to show the "ineffectuality of gun control laws."

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Our mural "is very much in the embryonic stage but we do have an artist in mind," Van Wagner said.

And if NJ Transit refuses their request? Van Wagner said that in that case, the group would ask that the students' mural be painted over.

He said the club agrees with gun control advocates that mass and school shootings are a tragedy that has to end.

But, he said, "It's a slippery slope when you restrict political expression on community and public property."

A spokesperson for NJ Transit said the agency has not been contacted by the Montclair Republicans.

Last month, a spokesman said the agency "approved the mural project, led by a group of Montclair High School students to depict an anti-violence message. NJ Transit supports anti-violence messages.”

Email: jmartin@gannettnj.com