The outrage over the replica gun on the back of a patriotic jeep is the left trying to attack guns and your # 2A rights. I will not back down in the face of a snowflake meltdown and outrage culture. https://buff.ly/2kNFdR8 # kslegpic.twitter.com/TEtyFtQ7rT
– Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says the outrage over his appearance in a parade atop a Jeep with a giant replica of a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on the back is "the left trying to attack guns" and the Second Amendment, the AP reports. A pastor who was at the parade says there were "audible gasps" as people caught a glimpse of Kobach in his vehicle, per the Kansas City Star. "Why was that necessary sir?" Johnny Lewis wrote on Facebook to Kobach, adding that he respects different perspectives on the Second Amendment but that his 6-year-old daughter and other kids at the parade have been scared lately due to recent school shootings. "My child didn't need that today." The Republican gubernatorial candidate, however, said in a tweet Sunday that he will "not back down in the face of a snowflake meltdown and outrage culture." And Kobach's spokeswoman, Danedri Herbert, said in a text to the Star that "the gun is a replica" and that "the Secretary says those who use the excuse of school violence to restrict the right to bear arms are deeply misguided. We need to ... recognize the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." The Kansas City suburb of Shawnee apologized in a statement to those who felt unsafe after Kobach's appearance at the Saturday morning parade. The Kansas Division of Emergency Management says someone subsequently hacked its Twitter account and sent a message that read: "Hey Kris, I think you are a bad guy with a gun. Also, maybe worse, you a dumb guy with a gun."