Texas Gun Range Santa Poses With Kids And Guns

Lewisville, TX – A Texas gun range has had a long tradition of children on Santa’s lap posing with guns. The annual Christmas photos are likely a bit startling for gun ban advocates to view. In the wake of the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, the nation is extremely sensitive about anything to do with weapons. The loss of innocent lives and the heroic actions taken by school staff will forever be ingrained in our memories.

Although most folks feel that children and guns don’t or shouldn’t mix, the Texas gun range is reportedly attempting to use the Christmas gathering as an educational and safety experience for youngsters. Children have been routinely subjected to lockdown drills at their schools for nearly a decade. The drills are unfortunately necessary to teach students how to react if faced in a deadly situation during the school day.

Teaching children from a young age that guns are not toys and about the serious harm which they can do to themselves or others when putting a gun into their hands could help prevent either an accidental or intentional incident.

Eagle Gun Range owner had this to say about the controversial gun-toting Santa photos during an interview with WFAA-TV News:

“I think it’s extremely important to train children, to educate them, and take the mystery out of the guns. That’s one of the reasons we opened the range, to educate children to train in the correct way to use them. If people want to hurt another person, they can use a baseball bat.”

Reverend Peter Johnson opposes the gun range’s philosophy and has been active in gun buy-back programs that have taken 22,000 firearms off the streets in the past two decades, Radar Online notes. Reverend Johnson had this to say about gun violence in America.

“We have to begin to talk about our love affair with violence. We are not going to be able to take all the guns out of Americans’ hands, but we must begin to talk to America about violence itself.”