Philadelphia – Nothing says Christmas quite like a glittery black handgun hanging from the tree.
Urban Outfitters Inc. – no stranger to controversial products – is offering a 5-inch-long, Chinese-made gun ornament for $6 in its stores and catalogs this year.
“Bust a cap in your tree with this superglittery ornament in the shape of a handgun, complete with a satin ribbon for hanging,” the online description of the revolver says. It is meant, the retailer says, as an “ironic twist” on the holidays.
“Twisted” is more like it, said Kate Philips, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s spokeswoman.
“The governor doesn’t find it humorous or clever to display weapons that are responsible for taking hundreds of lives each year as if they are decorations,” she said.
The “Glitter Gun Ornament” is one of several “dark-humor items” the company is selling this year, it said in a statement. There are devil sock monkeys and light-up skull ornaments – a roguish companion to the light-up Jesuses – and shiny cheeseburgers.
“This specific ‘Glitter Gun Ornament’ is by no means condoning the violence that we face in our city, or any city, for that matter, and is not meant to celebrate guns or gun violence,” the Philadelphia-based company said in a statement. “It is meant only to ironically celebrate the holidays.”
Urban Outfitters’ edgy sense of humor has drawn fire before.
Various groups have protested two T-shirts – one said, “New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular Mexico,” and the other paired a dollar sign with the words “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl” – and a board game, Ghettopoly, that spoofed Monopoly by featuring crack houses and housing projects.
Capt. Benjamin Nash, spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department, couldn’t resist calling the gun ornament “outrageous” but wondered if he and the media weren’t doing exactly what Urban Outfitters wanted: drawing attention to the company’s website and catalog.
“It has the potential to raise their profile,” he said, “and that’s just wrong.”
Duane “Sadat” Alexander, an outreach coordinator for Men United for a Better Philadelphia, was initially speechless when told of the ornament.
