Last updated on December 14th, 2014 at 11:26 am
A gun club in Georgia is taking gun fetishism and worship to a whole new level as they have scheduled an event for Saturday where children can pose for pictures with Santa Claus while he holds the assault rifle of their choice. WSB in Atlanta first reported Thursday that the Sandy Springs Gun Club and Range is hosting the event for families. Per the range, children under 18 will not be allowed to hold firearms in the photos and any guns displayed while posing with Santa will be unloaded. The club owners also state that children under 12 will be restricted to the lobby of the range.
Of course, the organizers claim that they are totally not sending any kind of pro-gun message with this event. One of the owners of the club, Robyn Workman Marzullo, said she just wanted to do “something different” for the holidays and “give back to the community.” The club is holding this event under the auspices of a canned food drive. However, it seems apparent that they just want to play to their ammosexual base and give some gun nut families the opportunity to further indoctrinate their kids.
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After WSB first ran the story Thursday afternoon, the channel’s Facebook page was inundated with comments from viewers. Some of those responding offered support for the idea, but many wrote of their disgust with it. One Facebook user wondered, “What kind of parent would you have to be to want your child to pose for a picture with a Santa with a gun?” As of Friday morning, the station’s Facebook post had been shared over 400 times and had nearly 300 comments.
Below is the Facebook post:
I just have to ask. What exactly does a gun-toting Santa have to do with Christmas? Isn’t it supposed to be the season of peace and giving? Isn’t Santa Claus supposed to be seen as a symbol of goodness for young children? What kind of message are these parents sending to their kids if they want them to sit on Santa’s lap while he’s strapped with an assault rifle? It just boggles the mind what is going through the heads of the organizers and parents who think this is a cute and fun idea.
Of course, those who work at or frequent the range don’t really see anything wrong with it. They just figure guns are a flashpoint issue and you’re going to see opinions come from all sides, but it’s all for a good cause so why the fuss? I mean, seriously, they’re collecting canned goods. It obviously makes it totally about charity now.
“Firearms are such a hotly debated item that you’re going to have people on both sides of the fence and you’re going to have opinions flying,” said Casey Retterer, who works at the gun range.
One gun club member defended the idea.
“It’s for a good cause. It’s for charity so I don’t see any problem with it whatsoever. If somebody doesn’t want to bring their kid here, just don’t,” said Bret Ciaranella.
Below is video of WSB’s segment on the event:
Image via WSB
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
