Gun Range Billboard - An image of Santa Claus packing heat has literally been too hot for some residents of Butte County to handle.

The gun range billboard ad, which is stationed on Highway 99, features a grim-looking Santa clutching closely to an AR-15 rifle. The image is captioned with words: We build AR's for Santa.

Despite the controversy brewing around the Santa gun range billboard ad, Steve Dyke, one of the co-founders of Down Range Indoor Training Centre, which commissioned the ad, says he doesn't see anything wrong with it and wouldn't have taken it down immediately.

 

"Well, you know, some people get toys and stuff like that for Christmas.  Other people, when I was growing up, I got guns from Santa Claus. I mean it's just a matter of where you're from," Dyke argues. "Some people get firearms. So and when Santa needs help putting together an AR rifle, we can definitely help him out with that."

Dyke admits that he and his partner thought the Santa gun range billboard ad was funny and commissioned it to share the humor - while advertising. But some critics have described the Santa gun range billboard ad as "sad" and "contradictory."

At least two residents of Chico - a teacher and a mother - have complained about the effects of the Santa gun range billboard ad on the conception that young children have of good ol' St. Nick.

The AR-15 is one of the rifles that activists have been unsuccessfully urging authorities to stop selling as an ordinary handgun or a hunting rifle. Critics say the AR-15 is a combat weapon, which can unleash up to 30 bullets per second and penetrate body armor. This is the same type of weapon that Adam Lanza used during the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

But the founders of Down Range Indoor Training Center say the ad was not meant to be offensive. "Santa has got his eye protection on, his finger of the trigger, the guns pointed in a safe direction," says Will Clark, the co-founder of the company. "We also have archery. So we almost should have had Mrs. Claus on there with some bows and arrows talking about how she can shoot targets as well."

Dyke and Clark say they have gotten lots of positive feedback from the Santa gun range billboard ad. They say they plan to reinvent the idea with other mythical figures in future ads.