An Oregon-based exploding target company is suing NBC News and one of its local affiliates for a report featured on the morning program Today which labeled its feature product “dangerous.”

Tannerite, which has manufactured “safe binary exploding targets,” was itself the target of a report by NBC News National Investigative Correspondent Jeff Rossen (pictured above) on Today. The segment initially aired March 23, according to Bearing Arms, which initially broke the story.

Entitled “Bombs for Sale” on his segment Rossen Reports, Rossen contended the product is “basically” a bomb when introducing the report, and said the key ingredient in Tannerite’s product, ammonium nitrate, was the same ingredient that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Bearing Arms refuted several of the claims in the report, including the connection to the Oklahoma City bombing:

The primary use for ammonium nitrate is as an stable inexpensive, water-soluble high-nitrogen fertilizer to increase plant growth and increase crop yields. Without ammonium nitrate, you’d be paying a lot more for all your vegetables (from arugula to zucchini) and for grain products, such as breads.

This “same substance” is a shelf-stable and inflammable oxidizer, every bit as dangerous to handle and transport as sand from the beach.

You can view the NBC News report below. A print story also featured on the Today website was still up as of this publishing.

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WLEX, based in Lexington, Ky., posted an article along with the NBC News report asserting it was illegal to mix the two components of Tannerite, which Bearing Arms noted was factually inaccurate. Unlike the Today article, the WLEX posting has been removed from their website.

On behalf of the firm Mendelsohn, Drucker, and Dunleavy, Tannerite hit both NBC News Universal and WLEX with a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York last Thursday.

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The suit contends the following:

• On March 23, 2015, Defendant NBCU released a defamatory “report” that falsely claimed that Plaintiff’s rifle targets are “Bombs for sale.”

• Defendant’s NBCU’s investigative reporter holding Tannerite products falsely asserted that “Right now I am basically holding a bomb in my hand.”

• On March 24, 2015, Defendant WLEX published an Internet article that falsely asserted that Plaintiff’s targets are “ready made bombs [that] are being sold in sporting goods stores…..”

• WLEX article states: “There is a federal law prohibiting people from manufacturing [Tannerite] products, but none preventing people from buying as much of it as they can carry.” As stated, WLEX’s article falsely asserts that the workers of Tannerite Sports, LLC are breaking federal law when manufacturing Tannerite® products.

• NBCU’s report and video, and WLEX’s article, contain one or more written false statements that were intended to impugn Plaintiff’s rifle targets and Plaintiff’s reputation in the sporting industry.

• Bombs are destructive devices that are strictly regulated by the federal and state governments.

• Plaintiff’s rifle targets are not bombs.

• Federal guidelines allow consumers to purchase Tannerite-brand rifle targets for personal, non-commercial use; and the consumer is allowed, under federal guidelines, to mix the precursors at the target-practice location and shoot the target.

• Tannerite-brand rifle targets can be legally used for sporting activities.

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