Republican's Gun-Filled Holiday Card Sparks Fierce Criticism After Shooting

A Tennessee Congressman whose district includes the Christian school where several students were killed Monday is facing renewed backlash after the re-emergence of a family Christmas card featuring him and several family members holding assault-style firearms.

On Monday, six people were murdered by a heavily armed 28-year-old woman at the Baptist-operated Covenant School in Nashville, marking the 13^th school shooting since January 1.

According to police, the killings were carried out using two "assault-type rifles" and a handgun, leaving three children and three staff members dead before the shooter was killed by police.

After the incident, Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles, whose district includes the school, issued a statement sending his "thoughts and prayers" to members of the Covenant School community, saying he was "utterly heartbroken by this senseless act of violence."

However, Ogles—whose district is one of several heavily gerrymandered Republican congressional districts surrounding Nashville—rapidly earned more attention not for his statement, but for his previously displayed appreciation for firearms.

Shortly after the shooting, Shannon Watts—founder of gun control group Moms Demand Action—posted a photo of Ogles' 2021 Christmas card from his tenure as mayor of nearby Maury County, a position he vacated in 2021 after Republicans in the Tennessee statehouse dissolved Nashville's previously blue congressional district into several districts that favored Republicans.

The image featured Ogles, his wife and two of his three children holding AR-style weapons in front of the Christmas tree, all with smiles on their faces.

"THIS is last year's Christmas card from Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican who represents the district that Covenant School is in in Nashville," wrote Watts in a post that has since amassed 1.7 million views and more than 12,000 "retweets."

Newsweek has reached out to Ogles' office via email for comment.

It's not the first time Ogles' Christmas card garnered national attention. He'd previously been the subject of a wider analysis in The Washington Post about the use of guns in politicians' holiday cards.

But the timing could not have been worse for a politician who was known for his use of a flamethrower on the campaign trail and once signed a resolution declaring his region as a "sanctuary community for the constitutional right to bear arms."

"Yeah, thoughts and prayers..." Brett Cross, whose son was killed during the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, tweeted in response to the photo.

"Stop worshipping and glorifying AR-15s," Peter Meredith, a Missouri State Representative, tweeted. "They are not a 'god-given right.' They are not a fun family toy, let alone a centerpiece for a family Christmas card. They are designed to kill humans en masse. They are designed for war. And they keep killing our children."

Others, however, jumped to Ogles' defense.

"Too bad none of them were at the school today," conservative pundit Ann Coulter wrote in response to the image. "Crazed shooter might've been stopped sooner."

Monday's incident is not Ogles' first controversy in Congress; Earlier this winter, the freshman Congressman faced some scrutiny after it was found he embellished numerous facets of his resume, including falsely claiming he was an economist despite having no formal training as an economist.