Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has responded to backlash over a 2021 picture exhibiting the congressman, his spouse and youngsters toting rifles in entrance of a Christmas tree.
The picture circulated on social media Monday after the freshman congressman supplied his “ideas and prayers” to the households of three kids and three adults shot lifeless at The Covenant College, a Nashville non-public faculty within the district he represents.
“Why would I remorse {a photograph} with my household exercising my rights to bear arms?” he reportedly replied.
Amid uproar over Ogles’ assertion and the picture on Monday, the 2021 put up disappeared from Ogles’ social media. A spokesperson for the congressman didn’t return JHB’s request for touch upon why it was eliminated.
Hundreds of social media customers shared the picture, together with distinguished gun management advocates Fred Guttenberg and Shannon Watts and lawmakers together with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) and Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).
A 28-year-old was killed by police after fatally taking pictures three 9-year-old college students and three adults at The Covenant College. Authorities stated the shooter was wielding a rifle, an assault rifle-style pistol and a handgun, and had legally bought seven firearms within the years previous to the assault.
Ogles, the previous mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, boasts on his Home bio that he was acknowledged as “Tennessee’s most conservative mayor.” He was uncovered in February for embellishing components of his résumé throughout his congressional marketing campaign, together with his faculty diploma and his alleged work combating worldwide intercourse trafficking.