Republican congressman Thomas Massie quietly asks Santa for ammunition and poses armed with this year’s family Christmas photo. Now he gets criticism from both gun opponents and gun owners.
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Kentucky top politician Thomas Massie, who represents the Republican Party in Congress, is attracting attention with this year’s Christmas picture. Four days after that four students were shot and killed in America’s deadliest school shooting since 2018, he posted the following prayer to Santa Claus on Twitter:
– Merry Christmas! PS. Santa, please bring ammunition.
Together with his wife and five other family members, he poses in front of a Christmas tree. Everyone is holding a firearm and looking at the camera.
The case was first reported by the British newspaper Independent.
The Christmas card has created a storm on social media. Both opponents of the weapon and supporters of the weapon pepper Massie with criticism and accuse him of insensitive behavior.
Strong reactions
Four schoolchildren were killed then Ethan Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School in the small town of Oxford, Michigan. He was himself a student at the school.
The 15-year-old is charged with killing four students aged 14 to 17 and injuring seven others in the attack on Tuesday. Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are charged with negligent homicide by aiding and abetting the killings. They deny criminal guilt
Among those who react strongly is Fred Guttenberg who lost a daughter during a school massacre in Parkland. He shares a photo of his late daughter Jaime with her tombstone and addresses himself directly to the top politician:
– @RepThomasMassie, since we first share family photos, here is mine. This is one of the last pictures I took of Jaime, the other picture is from her gravesite after the Parkland school shooting, Guttenberg tweets in his response and adds:
– The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take pictures like yours.
A person calling himself Beks has reacted by posting a picture of the four victims in Tuesday’s attack, and writes quite simply:
– Their parents would disagree.
Several gun owners also punish Massie for what they call “gun fetishism”.
– I’m a gun owner, but I do not understand the gun fetishism of @RepThomasMassie. It seems extremely unethical this week, tweets a man named Steve Metz.
Former British talk show host Piers Morgan is also shocked. Morgan, who is not unknown for his own controversial opinions, seems to think that Massie goes too far:
– A week after another horrific school shooting incident in America, an American congressman posts this. I am, unusually enough, empty of words, writes Morgan.
Supported Kyle Rittenhouse
Last week, Massie supported the controversial release of Kyle Rittenhouse (18) who shot and killed two men and wounded another during the riots in Kenoshah, Wisconsin, last summer. He defended Rittenhouse’s action even after the arrest last year, writes Newsweek.
A female Twitter user believes Thomas Massie does not represent most Americans.
Massie was also one of 21 Republican congressmen who voted to award a medal of honor to congressional police officers who defended Capitol Hill during the January 6, 2020, attack by Donald Trump fans.
After the attack, Massie stated that he was “happy to be armed during hours of barricading in the office with our staff”.
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