NRA urges Americans to wrap guns for under the tree this Christmas

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The National Rifle Association has urged Americans to wraps guns for under the tree this Christmas.

The gun rights advocacy group posted a picture of a sparkling handgun in a festive gift box to its Twitter account.

And it gave its 895,000 followers a seemingly tongue-in-cheek “pro-tip” on how to get a weapon this Christmas if their husband, wife or partner is against the idea.

“Buy the gun you want. Wrap it and mark it from Santa. Your spouse will have to along with it or they’ll ruin Christmas for the kids,” they tweeted.

Social media users were quick to attack the group for the advert.

“Can you find *one* reputable gun safety expert who thinks a box with a handgun and some loose bullets in a gift-wrapped box under the Christmas tree, placed amongst gifts that are presumably toys for Santa-believing aged children, is responsible gun ownership? Just one?” tweeted a user called WellRegulatedMilitia.

“Putting a gun under the Christmas tree in a box that any kid could open has to be a new low in promoting a completely unsafe and unsecured gun practice,” tweeted @committovote.

“The NRA used to present itself as being pro gun safety. Now they just want a gun in every hand."

The US had seen 42,067 gun deaths in 2020 as of 21 December, with 38, 327 people injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Of that number, 284 children below the age of 11 were killed and 670 were injured by guns.

There were also 602 mass shootings and 18 mass murders across the country this year.

The NRA did not immediately return a request for comment.