Posted on December 14, 2004

Mankato Store to Pull ‘Mung’ Bumper Stickers

AP, Dec. 14

MANKATO — A store that sells custom bumper stickers said it would stop selling one that appears to advocate violence against Hmong people in light of a fatal shooting in Wisconsin.

Custom Now, a store in the River Hills Mall, has been selling a bumper sticker that reads, “Save a Hunter Shoot a Mung.”

Though misspelled, the slogan was seen as a reference to last month’s shooting in Wisconsin. St. Paul resident Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong man, has been charged with murdering six deer hunters after a dispute over a deer stand.

Shopper Jessica Flatequal said she complained to store management and was told that the store sells many offensive items.

A store manager who declined to give his name said the word “mung” in the bumper sticker was actually an acronym for “minuscule unseen naughty gnat.”

Later on Monday, River Hills Mall managers issued a statement saying the store would stop selling the stickers.

“We were unaware the item was being sold,” the mall’s general manager, Paul Wilke, said in a news release.