Gun control poster campaign is pulled by Clear Channel after protests

The poster featured a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle with a white surrender flag in the barrel.

But pro-gun supporters mounted an online campaign against the posters and Clear Channel had second thoughts - saying its support had been “misconstrued as a political position” by gun-rights advocates .

Clear Channel said that it did not intend to take sides on gun control. It owns 25 of the 36 billboards planned for the campaign, which was organised by the group Stop Handgun Violence. It was unclear whether the three other companies that offered to donate space would also pull the ads, said the Globe.

“This campaign has become politicized and misconstrued as a political position by our company, so we have taken it down,” Clear Channel spokesman David Grabert said in a statement.

Grabert said the company had received “a number of messages expressing concern” about the signs.

Many of the messages the Boston Globe reported came as part of an effort by the Gun Owners’ Action League, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, which demanded that the billboards come down — or that the companies displaying them give equal time to gun-rights advocates.

“I’m certainly glad they have decided to pull the ads. I hope they’re doing it for the right reasons,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League. He called the ads “inaccurate and misleading.”

John Rosenthal, cofounder of Stop Handgun Violence, said he felt that his message in opposition to violence was one that everybody could agree on. He described the gun group’s tactics as “bullying.”

“It’s the same intimidation tactics that have worked for GOAL so effectively before,” he said.

Stop Handgun Violence organized the statewide billboard campaign as it prepared to remove its iconic, 252-foot billboard from the side of the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park, where it had been for 20 years.

The other companies that donated space for the billboards were Logan Communications, Total Outdoor, and Outfront Media, according to Stop Handgun Violence.

Rosenthal said he reached out to Clear Channel Outdoor about purchasing the ad space to keep the messages up, but did not have a deal Thursday afternoon.

Rosenthal had sought the new space as he faced a deadline to remove the massive billboard from the side of the turnpike.

He once owned the garage that supports the sign, but he has since sold it to Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Red Sox.

John Henry, principal owner of Fenway Sports Group, also owns The Boston Globe.

In a Globe interview this week, a Clear Channel official cited the removal of the longstanding advertisement on the Mass Pike as the impetus for the donation.

“When we realized he would no longer have his . . . billboard to get out the message about gun control, we offered to utilize some of our space,” Stephen Ross, president of the company’s Boston division, said.

On Thursday, Ross referred a request for comment to Grabert, who said the company initially considered the billboards within the scope of its “social responsibility” program.

“We also respond swiftly to crises with weather notifications, AMBER alerts, and support for law enforcement in cases like the Boston Marathon bombing,” Grabert said.

Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, is majority owned by two large Boston private equity firms — Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Peter Ubertaccio, director of The Joseph Martin Institute for Law and Society at Stonehill College, said it was “hard to imagine” that Clear Channel didn’t see this controversy coming when it agreed to run the ads.

Wallace, of the Gun Owners’ Action League, said there are other ways to advocate for gun safety.

“In the future, if they want to put ads out about firearm safety — how to properly store a gun or get the right training — we would work with them on that.”