Is an “f-bomb” inappropriate for Main Street?

F-Bomb Ordnance recently opened a firearms retail store in downtown St. Croix Falls, Wis., and its signage has prompted complaints about the public display of a euphemism for a certain four-letter word.

During an unusually packed-house city council meeting last week, about a dozen people spoke out against the signage, Mayor Brian Blesi said.

“Residents have expressed that our nuisance ordinance contains language that this graphic violates,” he said, adding that the city council will take up the issue during a meeting Monday.

Amy Klein was one of those who spoke out against the business’s name at last week’s meeting.

“The innuendo around it is enough that it really lowers the standards in this community,” Klein said Friday. “I just think that we as a community need to hold ourselves to higher standards.”

F-Bomb Ordnance’s owners say they’re not trying to be inflammatory and that the business should be able to display its name and website — f-bomb.net — on the outside of the building.

“We don’t think it offends the morals and decency of the community,” co-owner Dr. Geoff Gorres said.

Blesi said he’s received a number of calls and emails in support of the business, but most have expressed concern. Mayor for the past three years and city council member for several more, Blesi said he can’t recall the last time the city of about 2,100 faced an issue this contentious.

Gorres said F-Bomb Ordnance — which operated for the past several years in nearby Amery, Wis. — didn’t set out to be controversial or offensive. A euphemism, he said, is a word that is used in place of one that is considered offensive.

“But we don’t control how other people are offended,” he said. “There are a lot of things that offend me in America, and I just have to deal with them.”

Gorres said he and other owners believe they have “the moral high ground.”

“We won’t be changing our name,” he said. “We won’t be moving. And I think it’s unlikely that we’ll be changing our signage in the near future.”

Both Blesi and Gorres said there is another issue influencing the backlash against the business: concern by some about F-Bomb Ordnance selling firearms. Gorres said that is “absolutely” a factor in the uproar over the name.

“If the name of our business was F-bomb Records, I don’t think that we’d be having this discussion,” said Gorres, who is an emergency room physician.

Klein, however, said hunting is part of the culture in St. Croix Falls and the fact the business sells guns “is really not the issue here.”

“The issue is the innuendo around the name itself being really offensive,” she said.

Main Street, she added, is in need of businesses, but it is seeing some revitalization. To call a business “F-Bomb” is out of place with the effort that’s being made downtown, she said.

“It just reflects such an inconsistency with what we want our community to be,” said Klein, who has lived in St. Croix Falls for 13 years.

The business focuses on the popular AR-15 rifle system and has a customer base that includes many in law enforcement, Gorres said. One of the business’s co-owners is a Polk County sheriff’s deputy and another is a military veteran, said Gorres, who served in the U.S. Navy.

“The active members of our business … have all sworn an oath to uphold and defend people’s constitutional rights, and we take that seriously,” he said. “We just expect the same respect of our rights.”

Mayor Blesi, however, doesn’t see the business’ signage as a First or Second Amendment issue.

“It’s a local ordinance issue, and it’s related to how visitors and people within the community perceive a business on Main Street,” he said. “What perception do we want visitors to our community to have and to leave with?”

Andy Rathbun can be reached at 651-228-2121. Follow him at twitter.com/andyrathbun.