Thread-topic: Republican congressman sparks outrage for family Christmas photo with guns days after school shooting - The Boston Globe
Growing up on a farm in rural MN, I’m not averse to guns, nor hunting, and learned to shoot well enough as a teenager that it helped me qualify as Expert as a Marine Corps Rifleman, 0311. But this photo exemplifies
one more reason why I am now so inalterably opposed to the “Radical Right,” as they personify American Militarism (and I’m happy to debate that). This photo (you may have to open link to see entire article) captures that perfectly. I understand well family
traditions of hunting pre-9/11, but with 9/11, just like with all of American cultural life, we militarized ourselves, with this picture personifying that. And that includes libertarians which I saw when I briefly considered running an insurgent campaign against
Michelle Bachmann in the Republican primary in 2014 (before she withdrew) and asked for help from the MN Chair of the Ron Paul campaign of 2012 as they had opposed her. Through her, I saw how radicalized they had become in the 5 years I had been out of state,
with an "in your face” position on guns of the most radical kind, I can assure you. “Guns” were no longer just “guns;” they were weapons, with hunting the equivalent of military operations, all of which is evidident in this “Christmas” photo. I cannot exaggerate
how repulsive this is, on so many levels. “Good Christians” no longer celebrate Christmas as a time to celebrate, or strive for, “Peace.” It’s a time to show off their weaponry, and how militaristic they are as a family. Notwithstanding how bad militaristic
Democrats can be, they can never keep up with conservatives/Republicans on that score, as can be seen in their unanimity for always increasing military spending (and they copying the weaponry styles for their personal arsenals, as here. This family damn near
looks like a Marine Rifle squad departing on a mission, or SEALs, IDF, etc.
Republican congressman sparks outrage for family Christmas photo with guns days after school shooting
By
Lauren Booker Globe Staff,Updated
December 4, 2021, 9:34 p.m.
Representative
Thomas Massie talked to reporters before leaving Capitol Hill in Washington in March 2020Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Republican US Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky received swift condemnation for posting a Christmas-themed photo of him and his family holding firearms on Saturday afternoon.
The post has been called out as being insensitive given Tuesday’s school shooting in Michigan that resulted in the deaths of four Oxford High School students. The shooting suspect,
Ethan Crumbley, has been charged as an adult with crimes including murder and terrorism. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, each face four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
In the congressman’s image, the Massie family of seven smiled and posed in front of a Christmas tree, guns in hand. Massie, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, posted
the photo with a caption saying “ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”
