The sociopolitical landscape has been set ablaze with gun-control rhetoric, thanks to a rash of homicidal massacres that have left families torn and lives buried in their wake. If you’re Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, what’s a better time than the convergence of Christmas and spates of violence to make your mark on the holidays with an extremely tasteless social media stunt?
Fiore is getting some backlash for her recent posting of a Christmas card (see above) that depicts her family brandishing firearms. As far as the Second Amendment goes, everyone had their own passionate opinion, and this is not the space in which I’m trying to ignite those fuels for debate. (There are other places for that.) The real crime here is the notion that it’s okay to arm a 5-year-old child with a gun in order to cement one’s stance on gun rights, and the criminality of such a move stands on several fronts.
First, it is not okay to give a gun to an impressionable minor who now will go through life thinking that guns and Christmas go hand-in-hand, or, at least, will think that firearms are festive talk-pieces. Secondly, now is not the time to give a child a weapon, no matter how strong your stance on gun control is. People are dying — that is a fact. Like religion, gun control is a fiery topic, one that demands thoughtful and earnest pedestals for discussion. Delivering that debate to the front of a Christmas card is more than a showing of bad judgment; it’s offensive to those striving to bring a strong oratory to the discourse on defense and the right to bare arms.
Let’s leave Christmas to gift-giving, and please leave the guns out it.
(Via Facebook)