"Santa, please bring ammo": Kentucky congressman tweets Christmas photo with family brandishing guns

A U.S. congressman posted his family's Christmas photo – showing himself, his wife and his kids brandishing guns. On Twitter, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, captioned the photo "Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo." He is now facing criticism for sharing the post in the wake of a school shooting in Michigan.

Gun control activists condemned Massie's photo, including Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "Since we are sharing family photos, here are mine," Futtenberg tweeted, sharing one photo of Jamie before she died, and one of her gravestone.

"One is the last photo that I ever took of Jaime, the other is where she is buried because of the Parkland school shooting," Guttenberg wrote. "The Michigan school shooter and his family used to take photos like yours as well."

The Parkland shooting was one of the most fatal school shootings, with 17 people killed. 

Last week, a shooting suspect opened fire at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, leaving four students dead and seven other people wounded. The suspected shooter, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, faces 24 charges, including four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism causing death. His parents were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, to which they pleaded not guilty.

Following the tragedy, six teenagers in Michigan allegedly made violent threats against multiple schools and now face charges. Another has been charged for allegedly possessing a weapon in a school zone, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office announced Saturday.

A woman who said she is from Oxford, Michigan, also replied to Massie's tweet. "Here's a photo. It's my home town in mourning. I live in Oxford Michigan," wrote Pauline Criel, sharing a photo of what appears to be people gathering for a large vigil. 

Massie began tweeting responses and retweeting people who weighed in on the gun picture, including President Trump's former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci, who was critical of Massie on Twitter.

Massie also retweeted people who supported him, including conservative commentators Todd Starnes and Candace Owens, who wrote in part: "Can somebody explain to me how they worked out that the Michigan school shooting is @RepThomasMassie's fault because he shared a picture of him and his family holding legal fire arms?" 

CBS News has reached out to Massie for comment and is awaiting response.