Former United States President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is selling apparel that mocks Alec Baldwin’s accidental shooting on his website.
The T-shirts feature the tagline “Guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people,” in a spoof of a pro-Second Amendment adage that guns themselves are not harmful. Baldwin has been an advocate for firearms regulations.
Alec Baldwin accidentally fired a live round from a prop gun, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, on the set of the film “Rust” last week. Investigations involving the incident are ongoing and culpability for the incident remains unclear. Baldwin expressed remorse for the incident, saying his “heart is broken” in a Twitter statement.
Baldwin was celebrated for his impersonations of former US President Donald Trump on NBC's comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live," which drew the public ire of Trump and his eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.
Since the fatal shooting, Donald Jr. has regularly shared provocative memes mocking Baldwin and the tragic incident on his Instagram page. Last week he posted “Let’s all watch Alec Baldwin blame the gun" with the caption, "It’s only a matter of time" on his Instagram. He also posted a meme that exclaimed “That look when an anti-gun nut kills more people with a gun than your extensive firearm collection ever has."
Donald Jr. has picked up his social media activity ever since his father was banned from Facebook and Twitter last January amid claims he instigated his followers to storm the US Capitol Building on January 6th. He has 5.2 million followers on Instagram, where he is most active, and typically posts politically conservative meme-based content.