Republican congressman Thomas Massie has been met with widespread outrage after posting a bizarre Christmas card that sees he and his family posing with guns - just days after a school shooting killed four students in Michigan.
Posting his family photo to Twitter, Massie wrote: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo,” as he smiles alongside six of his family members.
Each of them holding guns resembling an M60 machine gun, AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Thompson submachine gun in front of a Christmas tree (because nothing says Christmas like modelling a deadly weapon).
Merry Christmas! 🎄
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 4, 2021
ps. Santa, please bring ammo. 🎁 pic.twitter.com/NVawULhCNr
Massie shared this photo just days after four students were shot dead - Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17 - by suspected teenage gunman Ethan Crumbley when he opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan.
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Crumbley will be tried as an adult and has been charged with 24 felonies including four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, have pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Massie was instantly confronted with outrage online over his holiday photo which one person described as “monstrous”.
Here’s a photo. It’s my home town in mourning. I live in Oxford Michigan. pic.twitter.com/wiV82NSTIK
— Pauline Criel (@pecriel) December 4, 2021
When will republicans love their kids more than their fkn guns? 🤬 https://t.co/VD85Qs5JgG pic.twitter.com/DYPgvKBEHl
— KTYGraphics cartoonist🇺🇸✍🏻 (@CathyGraphics3) December 5, 2021
Considering the timing with the Oxford High shooting, this is monstrous#GunReformNow https://t.co/0e0Yk9Qzsn
— DrDinD 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 (@DrDinD) December 5, 2021
John Yarmuth, a Democrat congressman who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, slammed the photo posted by his fellow Kentuckian.
“I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive a**hole,” he tweeted before adding in a follow-up post:
“I’m old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy. Now they openly rub the murder of children in our faces like they scored a touchdown. Disgraceful.”
Bro. This is like right after a school shooting. Are you for real? Weird energy. https://t.co/WQjh6uMUN7
— NeoTalk (@StrayLambRei) December 5, 2021
I guess this is to trigger the libs and get the base excited but it’s two days after a school shooting pic.twitter.com/PkLe7NDeVV
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 4, 2021
This was taken, what, two days after multiple students were killed in a school shooting? Imagine being so tone deaf https://t.co/JPjbS52cB5
— frosty the blowman ❄️ (@PacharyZhillips) December 4, 2021
How does Rep. Thomas Massie think the families in Oxford Michigan feel about his brand new tweet? pic.twitter.com/yeiZrobdwy
— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) December 4, 2021
We just had a 15 year old shoot up a school in Michigan but you go ahead and do you Congressman Massie. pic.twitter.com/RcL8BiH3PH
— Detroit Steel (@DetroitSteel_) December 5, 2021
Fred Guttenberg, a father whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg was tragically killed in the Parkland school shooting in 2018 highlighted how a photo like Massie’s is harmful.
“The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well,” he added in his tweet.
.@RepThomasMassie, since we are sharing family photos, here are mine. One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) December 4, 2021
The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well. pic.twitter.com/MsQWneJXAp
Elsewhere, people were also noting how if this photo had not have been a white family, then they would have been described as “terrorists,” leaving some to wonder what the reaction would have been if another congressperson such as Democrat Ilhan Omar has posted a photo of her family holding guns.
If this was an American Muslim family, y’all would be crowing terrorists and terrorism. https://t.co/wKyt7MxshO
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) December 5, 2021
Omg same! this is my family on our classic post-Turkey walk! ❤️ https://t.co/9INnnNJrap pic.twitter.com/IUFIGx8TcZ
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) December 5, 2021
I really want Ilhan Omar and her family to recreate this portrait. https://t.co/UaFWmiV3n4
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) December 5, 2021
If llhan Omar tweeted a photo of her family holding guns and asking Santa for ammo not long after a shooting in which 4 died, the same conservatives that find Massie’s photo hilarious would likely have a very different attitude towards it…
— David Ferguson (@DavidRF34) December 5, 2021
While others pointed out that the Christmas card looked like something out of the dystopian horror film The Purge and also argued that it’s not in line with the Christmas spirit since it’s hard to imagine that Jesus would’ve been the gun-touting type.
Alexa, show me everything that's wrong with America in one photo
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) December 4, 2021
This looks like a promo poster for a new Purge movie https://t.co/iXS8STkcCC
— kira ~ (@Sadcrib) December 5, 2021
Wonder what Jesus would say about this gun fetish display to celebrate his birthday? https://t.co/GYA9P5sKt6
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) December 5, 2021
This looks like the last photograph of a family that paid to hunt dinosaurs at Jurassic Park https://t.co/1B1KqlXtvs
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) December 5, 2021
When you spend all your money on guns and can’t afford a whole couch. https://t.co/6He6dY6jw0
— Tim Dillon (@TimJDillon) December 4, 2021
This most certainly is not what the Christmas message is about. This is sick. https://t.co/eZbenp14pL
— Ian Blackford (@Ianblackford_MP) December 5, 2021
