Arizona club offers photos with Santa -- and guns
Dec. 1, 2011 |
When a member of the Scottsdale Gun Club walked into the club dressed as Santa last year, other members wanted their picture taken with him. Since then, the club has offered holiday photo sessions. / Gordon Murray/Associated Press
By Jacques Billeaud
Associated Press
PHOENIX -- These aren't exactly the photos you took with Santa as a kid.
An Arizona gun club is offering a chance for children and their families to pose for photos with Santa -- with guns.
The photo op starts with Santa in a wingback chair, a Christmas tree behind him. The scene can be decked out with a holiday array of weapons, including an $80,000 machine gun, a tripod-mounted rifle and an AR15 with an attached grenade launcher.
Ron Kennedy, general manager of the Scottsdale Gun Club, said the business got the idea for the photo sessions last year when a member came in dressed as Santa and other members wanted pictures taken with him while they were holding their guns.
"Our customers have been looking for a fun and safe way to express their holiday spirit and passion for firearms," said Kennedy, noting that photos have been used for Christmas cards and Facebook posts. About 500 people showed up Saturday to take 150 photos.
In one, Santa cradles a toddler dressed in camouflage, while a man and woman stand close by with rifles. In another, young women pose with the AR15, an AK47 variant and other rifles as they surround old St. Nick.
Kennedy, whose club sells and rents guns and has an indoor shooting range, said the event wasn't aimed at children, but the club supports the right of parents to include kids in photos.
The guns in the photos aren't loaded and have had their firing pins removed, Kennedy said.
Democratic state Rep. Steve Farley, who proposed an unsuccessful ban on large-capacity gun magazines such as the one used in the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said the photo op was inappropriate.
"To involve machine guns and Santa in a celebration in the birth of Jesus Christ is the worst kind of heresy I can imagine," he said. "I would suggest that the people who created this read some of the New Testament."
Kennedy said the club is simply trying to provide a safe holiday event. "It's more of a celebration of their Second Amendment rights," he said.
He said the club plans another photo session with Santa on Dec. 10. Club members pay $5, nonmembers $10.