Rep. John YarmuthJohn Allen YarmuthTexas Democrat Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson announces retirement at end of term Dems brace for score on massive Biden bill Midterm gloom grows for Democrats MORE (D-Ky.) slammed Rep. Thomas MassieThomas Harold MassieThe Memo: Rittenhouse trial exposes deep US divide GOP Rep. Clyde racks up ,500 in mask fines Industry pushes back on federal, congressional cybersecurity mandate efforts MORE (R-Ky.) on Saturday for a photo Massie tweeted celebrating guns in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Michigan this week.
“Merry Christmas!” Massie’s tweet said, adding “ps. Santa, please bring ammo.” The accompanying photo pictured Massie and his family members holding various types of guns.
“I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive a**hole,” Yarmuth tweeted in response.
“I’m old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy,” he added. “Now they openly rub the murder of children in our faces like they scored a touchdown. Disgraceful.”
I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive asshole. https://t.co/8NjWJpdXIF
— Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) December 4, 2021
Massie’s tweet came just days after four teenagers were killed and seven other injured in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 17-year-old daughter Jaime was one of 17 people killed in a 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., responded to Massie’s tweet as well.
Guttenberg said “since we are sharing family photos, here are mine.”
“One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting,” his tweet added. “The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well.”
.@RepThomasMassie, since we are sharing family photos, here are mine. One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting.
The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well. pic.twitter.com/MsQWneJXAp
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) December 4, 2021
Anthony ScaramucciAnthony ScaramucciAnti-Trump Republicans endorsing vulnerable Democrats to prevent GOP takeover ‘Only the Rich Can Play’ documents how Republican program to help the poor didn’t Want to evaluate Donald Trump’s judgment? Listen to Donald Trump MORE, former communications director for the Trump White House, also replied to Massie’s tweet on Sunday, writing, “If you are running against this a-shole please contact me I will give you dough.”
Ethan Crumbley, the alleged shooter, is facing charges including a count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to commit murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony. He will be charged as an adult.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, his parents, pled not guilty this weekend to four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
“Merry Christmas!, ps. Santa, please bring ammo,” read the Saturday tweet by the Republican representative from Kentucky, which showed everyone in the photo holding various types of guns.
The reaction of parents who have lost children in school shootings was swift.
“@RepThomasMassie, since we are sharing family photos, here are mine,” tweeted Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was one of 17 people who died in the 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. “One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting.”
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin also died in the Parkland shooting, told CNN’s Jim Acosta Saturday Massie’s tweet is “the worst taste ever.”
“This is also something that should teach us who should we elect and not,” Oliver said. “It’s a very nasty post.”
CNN has reached out to Massie and a spokesperson for the representative for comment but has not yet received a response.
On Tuesday, four students were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, and seven people were wounded. A 15-year-old boy is accused of the shooting and faces murder, terrorism and other charges, and his parents face four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting.
The attack was the deadliest US school shooting since eight students and two teachers were slain in May 2018 at Texas’ Santa Fe High School, according to a CNN tally. There have been 48 shootings this year on K-12 campuses, 32 of them since August 1.
A US congressman has posted a Christmas picture of himself and what appears to be his family, smiling and posing with an assortment of guns, just days after four teenagers were killed in a shooting at a high school in Michigan.
Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”
Ethan Crumbley, 15, faces charges of terrorism and murder after the deadliest school shooting in the US this year. His parents were arrested on Saturday in connection with the killing of Tate Myre, 16, Hana St Juliana, 14, and 17-year-olds Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling at Oxford high school near Detroit. Six other students and a teacher were wounded in Tuesday’s shooting.
Massie, who represents a solidly Republican district, posted the picture of himself and six others holding firearms resembling machine guns and semi-automatic weaponry, some of which are made to look almost identical to fully automatic weapons.
Under US law, weapons such as machine guns are restricted to the military, law enforcement and civilians who have obtained special licenses for weapons made before May 1986.
Jonathan Van Norman, a campaign manager for Massie, did not immediately reply to a request for comment via Twitter.
The Democratic US Representative John Yarmuth condemned his fellow Kentuckian’s post. “I’m old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy,” Yarmuth tweeted, apparently referring to calls for gun control laws.
“I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive asshole,” he added. The shooting in Oxford, Michigan, was the latest in a string of such incidents that have prompted fierce debates over school safety, gun control and gun rights.
A judge in Michigan set bail at $500,000 (£378,000) each for Ethan’s parents, after authorities arrested the couple on Saturday after a manhunt.
Appearing by videolink from jail for their arraignment, James and Jennifer Crumbley both pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald told the hearing the Crumbleys withdrew $4,000 from an ATM while authorities were searching for them and remained a flight risk.
“These are not people that we can be assured will return to court on their own,” McDonald said.
Authorities began searching for the Crumbleys after prosecutors said on Friday that the couple would be charged with manslaughter in connection with the shooting. Prosecutors said the Crumbleys bought a handgun for their son as a Christmas present and then ignored warning signs including on the day of the shooting.
The judge, Julie Nicholson, said on Saturday she had “some concern about the flight risk” posed by the couple after they did not appear for the Friday arraignment. The Crumbleys’ lawyers have said the couple never sought to evade authorities.
“Our clients were absolutely going to turn themselves in,” one of the lawyers said at Saturday’s hearing. “It was just a matter of logistics.”
Detroit’s chief of police, James White, told reporters on Saturday that the couple had been found hiding in a commercial building on the east side of the city. He said they had not broken into the building, but were let in by somebody. White said the couple’s vehicle had been outside the building.
Four days before the shooting, Ethan accompanied his father to a gun shop, where James Crumbley bought a 9mm handgun, prosecutors said. Ethan posted photos of the gun on social media, writing: “Just got my new beauty today,” and adding a heart emoji. The next day his mother posted that the two of them were at a gun range “testing out his new Christmas present”, McDonald said.
The prosecutor detailed a number of other warning signs that she said the parents failed to act on. On 21 November, a teacher found Ethan searching for ammunition online on his phone and alerted school officials, who left messages for his mother that went unreturned. His mother later texted him: “LOL, I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
On the morning of the shooting, a teacher discovered drawings by Ethan that depicted a handgun, a bullet, and a bleeding figure next to the words “blood everywhere”, “y life is useless”, and “the thoughts won’t stop – help me”.
Ethan told school counsellors the drawings were for a video game he was designing, and that he wanted to pursue video game design as a career, according to a letter that the Oxford community schools superintendent, Tim Throne, sent the school community on Saturday.
“At no time did counsellors believe the student might harm others based on his behaviour, responses and demeanour, which appeared calm,” Throne said.
School officials summoned the Crumbleys and instructed them to get Ethan into counselling within 48 hours, McDonald said. She added that the parents resisted the idea of taking their son home, and did not search his backpack or ask him about the gun.
