Police Criticised Over Santa’s Concealed Carry Gun Permit
Published
Colorado police have been criticised after sharing an image of a man dressed as Santa Claus while receiving his concealed carry gun permit.
As well as a round belly, you might guess that Father Christmas’ coat conceals some mince pies to keep him energised, spare wrapping paper for his gifts or a wallet holding a picture of himself and Mrs. Claus.
Learning that he might actually be carrying a gun, however, somewhat strays away from the idea of him as a child-friendly, magical bringer of presents.
The thought of Santa concealing a weapon probably never crossed anyone’s minds until it was presented by El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, who shared an image of a man resembling the festive figure as he sat with a staff member from the force.
The man was dressed in a colourful shirt and red overalls, and completed his look with a thick white beard and round glasses.
Alongside the image, the sheriff’s office wrote:
Guess who came in to receive his Concealed Handgun Permit today?
Did you know the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has issued 49,750 Concealed Handgun Permits with another 2,560 awaiting to be issued?
Social media users were quick to criticise the office for the tweet, with one describing the post as ‘disgusting’.
Another commented: ‘Santa has a fvcking [sic] gun is what you’re going with? Should I show my child this pic? Will it comfort them? Will they love Santa more? Who is this tweet for?’
Following the backlash, the sheriff’s office responded to the tweet to say that it had ‘intended to highlight our staff in the Concealed Handgun Permit Office, not to be insensitive.’
It continued: ‘Santa correlates to the month of December and we thought he would help to recognize our hard working staff.’
The tweet remains live at the time of writing, December 4, in spite of the backlash.
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