GOP Rep. Thomas Massie Slammed For Posting ‘Gun Fetish’ Tweet Following Deadly School Shooting

United States Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) sparked outrage over the weekend after he tweeted a picture of himself and each of his family members holding guns and asking Santa Claus to bring them bullets for Christmas.

“Merry Christmas!” Massie wrote on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. “P.S. Santa, please bring ammo.”

Massie’s post appeared less than a week after a 15-year-old student murdered four of his classmates in a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, prompting a backlash on social media by people – including fellow GOP lawmakers – who viewed it as ill-timed and insensitive.

“I’m pro-Second Amendment, but this isn’t supporting right to keep and bear arms, this is a gun fetish,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), a combat veteran who serves on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, fired back at Massie.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime lost her life in the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, compared Massie’s family to that of the Michigan gunman.

“Since we are sharing family photos, here are mine,” wrote Guttenberg.” One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting. The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well.

Guttenberg was not the only horrified onlooker to make that analogy.

“This is my son Christian, who was killed by a gun on 9/5/21,” Bruce Petillo replied. “Perhaps you can reflect on the meaning of the Christmas season and find empathy in your heart for families like mine that will have an empty place in our Christmas photo due to senseless gun violence.”

Others drew parallels between Massie’s weapon-wielding kin and images of armed insurgents and wondered why the Massies need so much firepower to defend their family home.