Whole Family Packs Heat in Lawmaker's Xmas Card

Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore has wished America a merry Christmas from her, her family, and their guns. In a Christmas card posted on her Facebook page, the Republican lawmaker poses with family members who are holding an assortment of firearms, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which notes that Fiore is a member of pro-gun groups, including the NRA and Second Amendment Sisters. Four generations of Fiores can be seen holding guns in the festive photo, including the lawmaker's adult daughters and her grandson Jake, who holds a Walther P22 handgun. "It's up to Americans to protect America. We're just your ordinary American family," Fiore wrote in a Dec. 1 post accompanying the photo.

Fiore's views were already well-known—she released similar photos on occasions like Mother's Day, and she stars in her own Second Amendment-themed calendar—but the Christmas card has proved controversial, BuzzFeed reports, especially amid the intensified gun-control debate after the San Bernardino shootings. Fiore tells CNN that she doesn't regret having posted the photo the day before the massacre. "What's regrettable is governing and forcing innocent people to be defenseless while allowing and inviting terrorists into our country knowing the murderous outcome," she says in an email to the network. (Eleanor Roosevelt said she didn't like guns, but she carried one and knew how to use it.)