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- After a mass shooting in his district, critics found Rep. Andy Ogles’ gun-filled Christmas picture.
- Another photo from 2016 has emerged from his Instagram account, showing a toddler holding a gun.
- “Weapons training #2ndamendment,” he wrote in a post made in July 2016 on Instagram.
Years before he shared a gun-filled family Christmas message on Facebook, Andy Ogles posted a photo of a toddler holding a large firearm.
“Weapons training,” he wrote in July 2016 on Instagram. “#2ndamendment”
Ogles, elected to Congress six years later, now represents the Tennessee congressional district where three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed Monday at The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville.
Twitter users responded to his message of “thoughts and prayers” for the victims’ families by resharing the photo he posted on Facebook of his family holding weapons by a Christmas tree in 2021.
Since then, Katherine Abughazeleh of the progressive research organization Media Matters for America dug up the additional photo of the toddler from his Instagram account in 2016.
Rep. Andy Ogles’ 2021 Christmas card and Ogles.
Andy Ogles Mayor 2022/Facebook, left, and The Washington Post / Getty Images
Rep. Andy Ogles defended his Christmas message in a brief interview with Sky News after the image was widely criticized by gun control advocates after the shooting.
“Why would I regret taking a family photo with my family and exercising my Constitutional rights?” Ogles responded to the reporter.
