There is controversy in the US after Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman representing Kentucky in the US House, posted on Twitter a photo of six of his smiling family members carrying various types of assault weapons in front of a garlanded Christmas tree. “Happy Christmas. Ps. Santa Claus, please bring ammo as a gift, ”is the comment accompanying the image.
A move that has sparked criticism and indignation from several Democrats and parents of victims of school shootings, such as the one that just took place in Michigan, the worst since 2018 (four dead and seven injured). “Scandalous,” wrote the dem John Yarmuth. Activist Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting in 2018, responded by posting a “family photo” of her next to where she was buried. Manuel Oliver, father of another victim of the same massacre, declared that this image represents “a large part of the problem” and “should teach us who to elect.”
Disagreement even on the part of some Republicans, such as Adam Kinzinger, according to which “it is not a question of support for the right to possess weapons” but of “fetishism”.