While some people might believe these fathers are just demonstrating love for their daughters by being “protective,” this behavior takes away the agency of the young women involved. There is a long history of viewing women - and especially young women - as property, and these types of viral comments reflect that misogynistic way of thinking. It’s also worth remembering that gun violence affects women in specific ways according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation - which disproportionately affects women - increases the risk of homicide by 500%. In an era where teens are fighting for gun control and school shootings regularly happen, there’s no room for comments that threaten a teenager, or anyone else, with a gun. The terrifying reality is that gun violence is the third leading cause of death for American children, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Using guns makes it worse such stereotypes diminish the threat of gun violence by turning it into a punchline. The outdated idea that a father must protect his daughter’s chastity perpetuates the belief that a woman’s sexuality is something to be owned - or that it needs to be protected by violence. Sure, maybe some people think it is cute that a father wants to protect his daughter, but looking at the root of these “jokes” reveals far more nefarious themes. Teen Vogue got in on the virtual dog pile, opining that the time has come for dads to stop treating their daughters like chattel. Let’s see…Daddy poses for a photo by standing between daughter and her date, while holding a hand gun!? The clear message is what? That you own a gun? You make a strong case that MANY GUN OWNERS SHOULD NOT OWN A GUN!! Totally irresponsible.Ĭool to know if your daughter has any self agency you’ll shoot her boyfriend.

Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date *a violent reminder that I consider her my property /RDM7SpXBAE You can’t argue with or appease the online pitchfork mafia once you become the target of their aggression. He apparently hasn’t been paying attention. I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue My Daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking. The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke. Trying to use reason and facts to tamp down the controversy, Feely tweeted this: Even mainstream media outlets took notice. This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by Jack McElroy.But Feely’s prom pic appears to have brought even more concern trolls out from under their electronic bridges than usual, no doubt because of the presence of a firearm in this time of post-Parkland hysteria and anti-gun virtue signaling. It appears here in a radically cropped fashion that eliminates the firearms but gives a sense of the clothing pattern and the kids’ attitudes.

Our committee that handles “unpublish” requests met to weigh the factors, including the fact that the girl still was displaying one of the photos on her own Facebook page with the privacy setting on “public.” Because it was a minor who had submitted the photo, though, and because of the danger of bullying, we decided to pull the picture. The girl’s mother also called and requested that we remove the photo from our website. “I am never again purchasing your newspaper.” Several comments that could be taken as bullying toward the students were posted on our Facebook page - and deleted by us - and overnight Facebook sent us a message saying that the photo had been removed because it violated “community standards.” “I was absolutely disgusted that you chose to feature a prom photo of kids with weapons,” wrote one reader.

The pose was whimsical and, we believed, unthreatening in attitude. The girl, a 17-year-old, then sent one of the photos to us, and we added it to our online gallery and put it on our Facebook page. In keeping with that motif, the couple posed with a pair of rifles as the girl’s mom snapped photos. Her gown had a “camo” pattern, and her date wore a matching vest. That was the case this year with a photo submitted by a Grainger County girl.

Prom photo gun