‘Santa, please bring ammo.’ KY rep. condemned for posing with guns in Christmas photo

Rep. Thomas Massie went viral on Twitter Saturday when he posted a photo of himself and family members holding firearms around the Christmas tree.

“Merry Christmas!” Massie wrote in the tweet. “Ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”

The Republican congressman’s tweet had nearly 50,000 retweets and nearly 65,000 likes Sunday morning. It drew criticism from both sides of the aisle and others who thought it was disrespectful to the victims of the Oxford High School mass shooting which happened in Michigan Tuesday.

Fellow Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth reacted to the tweet by tweeting “I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive a*****e.”

“I’m old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy,” Yarmuth, a Democrat representing Kentucky’s third district, said. “Now they openly rub the murder of children in our faces like they scored a touchdown. Disgraceful.”

Massie, who represents Kentucky’s fourth district, has been a vocal advocate for the right to carry guns before.

Tom Elfers, the chairman of the Kenton County Democrats, said Massie’s photo was “morally reprehensible and makes a mockery of victims of gun violence across this country and here in the commonwealth.”

“The fact that a sitting U.S. congressman would post something so insensitive when the families of four teenagers are currently grieving the loss of their loved ones, only days after being gunned down in a public school in Michigan, is in poor taste and absolutely shameful,” Elfers said.

The Kenton County Democrats asked that Massie take the photo down and apologize.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who represents Illinois, didn’t like Massie’s photo either.

“I’m pro second amendment, but this isn’t supporting right to keep and bear arms, this is a gun fetish,” he tweeted.

Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as White House communications director under Trump, said he’d help anyone who’s running against Massie.

“If you are running against this a*****e please contact me I will give you dough,” Scaramucci tweeted.

Others replied to Massie’s tweet with photos of the victims in the Oxford, Mi., high school shooting which happened on Tuesday. The shooter killed four students and left others injured, according to multiple media reports.

The suspect in the shooting was a 15-year-old student.

British broadcaster Piers Morgan said Massie’s tweet left him uncommonly speechless.

“In the week of another horrific school shooting in America, a U.S. congressman posts this,” Morgan tweeted. “Words, unusually, fail me.”

After receiving backlash, Massie retweeted a tweet from conservative political commentator Candace Owens, defending Massie’s tweet.

“Can somebody explain to me how they worked out that the Michigan school shooting is (Massie’s) fault because he shared a picture of him and his family holding legal fire arms?” Owens asked in the tweet.