Brandon Herrera may be running for Congress, but he’s a gun guy first and foremost. He makes his living with firearms and he made his name talking about them and using them on YouTube.

So it should come as no surprise that he posted a picture of himself holding a gun on X, formerly Twitter.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I hope you have a safe one with family and friends.

Extra style points thanks to @retrorifle pic.twitter.com/RgobFQQ2T9

— Brandon Herrera (@TheAKGuy) December 25, 2023

Now, I’m going to come right out and say it: I have a problem with this post.

My problem with it is that this is pretty much my dream gun and there’s Herrera posing with it like it’s no big deal. Yes, it’s pure, unadulterated jealousy.

I’m man enough to admit it.

But other people had a completely different problem and Newsweek wants you to know all about it.

The picture quickly sparked outrage from those who pointed out that 21 people, including 19 children, were killed with an assault rifle in the May 2022 mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School.

“Uvalde’s future congressman?” attorney Sara Spector posted in response to Herrera. “See anything upsetting here?”

Uvalde’s future congressman? See anything upsetting here?🤷🏻‍♀️👇 https://t.co/m8jMDkb129

— Sara Spector (@Miriam2626) December 25, 2023

“After the tragic shooting in Uvalde, this just speaks VOLUMES about the total disregard and disrespect that Republicans have for the grieving parents,” posted user @susan52132641.

After the tragic shooting in Uvalde, this just speaks VOLUMES about the total disregard and disrespect that Republicans have for the grieving parents 😥

— susan 🟧 🟦 (@susan52132641) December 25, 2023

 

Of course, they want you to see as many tweets as they can manage.

However, it should be recognized that it’s not like any of these accounts were going to support Herrera and suddenly decided not to because of his post.

That’s literally not how it works.

Nor should it, really, because these people are clearly demented.

Look, what happened in Uvalde was awful. We’ve spilled a lot of proverbial ink talking about what all happened that day. For some of us here at Bearing Arms, it evoked some painful memories of losing people were cared about in other shootings.

But life goes on. People are still free to like the things they like and are free to post pictures of themselves with those things. Since these are people who didn’t do the awful thing in question, why should they keep themselves in a closet and enjoy things in secret?

They shouldn’t.

In 2021, a driver plowed into people at a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people. My question to these folks is whether someone in Waukesha should be blasted for taking a picture of them with their car?

I’d imagine they wouldn’t think that would be a big issue. Even a few days later, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Why? Because they weren’t driving the car that killed six people, that’s why.

As such, Herrera has no reason not to pose with his AR-15 besides not making humble Second Amendment writers jealous.

And again, it’s not like any of these people were going to vote for him.

Spector’s X feed is filled with anti-GOP stuff already. Susan who commented, with the orange box meaning she favors gun control, isn’t exactly a Second Amendment supporter either.

Herrera lost no support at all from this, no matter how Newsweek tries to spin it. Especially since there are plenty of tweets supporting Herrera as well. They just tried to downplay most of that, thus making it look like Herrera somehow crossed a line.

He didn’t.

But Newsweek keeps going out of their way to make sure we know where their biases remain.