The National Rifle Association's chilling new ad appears to be 'an open call to violence'
The one-minute ad features footage of protesters and marches overlayed with commentary by conservative media personality and NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch.
Loesch describes anti-Trump protests as "madness" and terror that "shut down interstates and airports" and warrant a heavy-handed police response.
Here is the full transcript:
The ad prompted backlash from some progressives, who called it "an open call to violence," and "barely a whisper shy of a call for full civil war."
Conservative columnist Anne Appelbaum also denounced the ad, saying it called on real Americans "to arm themselves to fight liberals. Violence is coming."
Loesch doubled down in a Periscope video posted on Wednesday night, saying that "the language of the left is violence" and calling "these people... the dullest crayons in the box."
The ad's language echoes what NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
"Right now, we face a gathering of forces that are willing to use violence against us," he said, citing "the leftist radical plan to tax capitalism to collapse" and "the ISIS dream of a worldwide caliphate."
"A lot of people, for a lot of reasons, want to blow it all up and tear the whole thing down," LaPierre said. "The left's message is absolutely clear. They want revenge. You have to be punished. They say you are what is wrong with America. And now, you have to be purged."
Watch the ad below: