Duke Basketball and Guns a Good Mix? Photo Shows Players Posing with Guns
Duke University's storied basketball program has come under fire after pictures were posted on the schools website showing the school's basketball team posing with guns during a team-building visit to West Point.
The team visited West Point – the alma mater of coach Mike Krzyzewski – during a week-long team-building trip, according to WRAL.
The team took time while at West Point to use a combat simulator and afterword's posed with the simulator's weapons.
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Duke freshman Tim Campell insisted that he didn't think the pictures were a good idea for the basketball team.
"I don't think it's a good idea to attach that image to the basketball team," he said.
School officials, however, stated that the pictures of players with guns have been taken out of context.
Jon Jackson, associate director of athletics, stated the image was taken out of context and that the basketball program was not glorifying guns or gun violence.
"They were given the opportunity by the Army personnel to take some pictures," Jackson told WRAL. "If you take the image by itself and it's taken out of context, it could be seen as are we somehow glamorizing gun violence or something like that. Clearly, not the case."
Jackson said the publicity around the pictures prompted a discussion among athletic department members about the use of social media. The pictures were removed from Duke's picture sharing website. The pictures remaining show the team walking around the West Point campus and playing basketball.
With the ongoing debate regarding gun control evangelical Christian leaders in America have expressed their support for stricter gun regulations.
In a poll conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), 73 percent of church leaders agreed that there needs to be stricter gun regulations.
"Evangelicals are pro-life and deeply grieve when any weapons are used to take innocent lives," Leith Anderson, President of the NAE, said in a statement.
