Virginia Republicans slam gun-control hoaxers who used photo of children’s shoes at Auschwitz
Republican politicians in Virginia Beach scrambled to assure their Facebook followers that a post by an impostor group comparing anti-gun “walkout” protesters to the Nazis was in fact a hoax.
A Facebook page claiming to belong to the Republican Party of Virginia Beach published a post on Sunday – riddled with spelling mistakes and accompanied by a photo of children’s shoes at Auschwitz – that claimed the Holocaust could have been prevented if Europe’s Jews had guns.
“To all the kids that walked out of school to protest guns. These are the shoes of Jews that gave up there (sic) firearms to Hitler. They where (sic) led into gas chambers, murdered and buried in mass graves.”
The post proceeded to warn student protesters that the same fate would befall Americans if they gave up their Second Amendment rights.
While it has since been deleted, the copycat page was verified by Facebook, and went by the name “Virginia Beach Republicans.” The party’s real page is called “Republican Party of Virginia Beach.” Reposted messages from local Republican politicians after the hoax message went viral.
Virginia Republican Senator Bill DeSteph described the post as “insensitive and offensive,” while Congressman Scott Taylor urged his followers to make sure they were following the correct page.
“Some people like to stir things and love attention and/or relevancy,” Taylor added. Neither politician mentioned the timing of the post – Sunday was April Fool’s Day.
One reply to DeSteph’s post alleges that an admin of the hoax page had previously worked as a volunteer for the senator’s campaign. Another alleges that the hoax page had three times as many followers as the official Republican Party of Virginia Beach page.
This issue of gun control has dominated US media since the Parkland school shooting in Florida last February. The “March For Our Lives” campaign, organized by a group of teenage survivors of the tragedy, brought around 500,000 people to Washington DC to protest against America’s gun laws last month.
