Gun range sparks outrage over billboard of Santa with an assault rifle
A grim gun-toting Santa has been spotted advertising assault rifles on a billboard in California. Steve Dyke, the co-owner of Down Range Indoor Training Center in the city of Chico, commissioned the billboard to catch the attention of drivers travelling along Highway 99 - but some people are not happy about it.
The tooled-up Father Christmas has no jolly smile, is wearing sunglasses, and wields the AR-15 firearm next to the slogan: 'We build AR's for Santa.'
'You know, 'tis the season, so we thought it would be a good idea,' Mr Dyke told CBS. 'We actually got a kick out of it - thought it would be good and other people would think it was funny.'
However, teacher Sara Welday told the TV station she thinks the ad is 'kinda scary'. She said: 'As a teacher, I would not want my students to see that. I don't think you need to put out that as Santa has a gun.'
But Mr Dyke has no plans to take the ad down and says he has received support from customers.
SOURCE
15 comments:
Tacky !
Santa is viewed by many as the embodiment of peace and love in the warm fuzzy (fantasy) sense. He supposedly knows "who's been bad or good", but he always rewards even the bad.
As such, portraying Santa as a serious, life-threatening person (with no hint of appropriate justification) is just really poor optics on the part of the range. Maybe it would have been more appropriate if Santa was reflecting the fun of shooting an AR (really big grin on the face of someone shooting one at a range).
But no matter how low key such a billboard was, someone would find it "scary"; even if it was nothing more than simple text saying, "We build AR's".
As a parent, I would not want my kids to be taught by someone who has such obvious issues dealing with the world around her. I would not want the person being paid to teach them things like math and history to instead, teach them irrational fears. I dont have one problem with this ad. I dont see this as a threat that Santa is going to shoot all the bad little boys and girls this year.. It looks to me like the ad says, "Even Santa enjoys shooting an AR-15. Come and get one for yourself..
Oh goodie, Santa giving out AR's. I can't want for more mass shootings. Thank you, Santa!
I see anon 12:30 has the Christmas spirit. God bless you. Jesus is proud of you.
Santa's been radicalized! - a new recruit for ISIS?
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
— Luke 2:14
Too bad the troll (7:40 and 1:52) keeps pushing for conflict. It's sad to see someone so bitter in a season for celebrating.
BTW, there's a story (which is often accompanied by obviously legendary additions, making it hard to confirm) that during the Council of Nicea, Nicholas—yes, that Nicholas—punched or slapped the heretic Arius right in the face for denying the divinity of Jesus.
Yes Luke - Christians have a long history of internecine aggression! (Didn't Jesus say something about turning the other cheek and loving your enemies? Guess most so-called Christians missed that - and you calling everyone you don't like here a "troll" is somewhat on the aggressive side of 'loving'!
By only citing 7:40 and 1:52 and not the obviously egregious 12:30 just shows how biased "Luke" is - and 7:40 was in any case only being sarcastic or ironic (but that's lost on the blinkered "Luke").
Troll (Internet)
"In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."
!2:50 was just the kind of emotional response the sociopaths known as "trolls" attempt to provoke. (Or maybe it was the typical sock-puppet trolling here trying to increase the conflict. You can never tell when people refuse to Use the Name, and instead hide behind "anonymous" so they can engage in behavior they know is bad.)
As for 4:30, that's just the typical irrational atheist attempt to take a simple failing by one man in a single instance and use it to paint all of Christianity as somehow worse than atheists who have slaughtered people by the millions.
Notice who is trying to stir up the conflict here. Is that the kind of person you really want to be around Christmas; the one who's every post has one purpose, to create conflict and make people angry? I really feel sorry for those who are so angry and bitter themselves that all they can do is try to make others just like them. It's sad.
Peace to you all.
Use The Name, Luke spewed: "Peace to you all*."
* except for liberals, atheists, muslims, dark colored people, and anyone that does not believe in what he does.
Who would Jesus shoot or murder!
Luke is a troll by his own definition.
Centuries of internicine conflict did not involve only one man and his failings - obviously. No mention was made in that post re atheism (the poster could have been a muslim or hindu, but Luke makes a strawman and/or commits the hypocrisy fallacy by pointing fingers at others as being as bad or worse in order to deflect the valid criticism about so-called Christians.
Luke still makes no comment about the very rude and trollish remark by Anon 12:30 PM, which is telling.
Luke thinks he should never be challenged on any opionion he spews out, and calls anyone who does a troll whether they are technically or not.
Naw, Santa should be using, can you guess, a deer rifle and now you know how come that sleigh could get around so fast.
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