A Colorada Sherriff's department has apologized after facing heavy criticism for tweeting a photo of Santa getting a concealed handgun permit.

El Paso County Sheriff’s Office posted a photo of a man dressed as Saint Nick sitting with the officials for getting his concealed carry permit on their Twitter page on Dec.4. “Guess who came in to receive his concealed handgun permit today?” the Sheriff's office captioned the tweet.

The Sheriff's office also mentioned that they have issued 49,750 concealed handgun permits till now with another 2,560 waiting to be issued. However, the tweet that was meant for advertising the concealed handgun permits issued through their office was not received well by the users. Many social media users expressed their outrage and described the post as "insensitive" in the wake of the fatal school shooting in Michigan that killed four students, The Hill reported.

“I’m sitting here in downtown Oxford, MI, waiting for the candlelight vigil to start to pay tribute to 4 students who were murdered by a handgun smuggled into the school. But by all means, tell kids Santa carries a concealed weapon," a person replied to the post.

“I don't think the idea of Santa needing a handgun is as uplifting as you think it is,” another user tweeted.

"I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be anything other than fun, but with yet another school shooting this week and loads of children worried about that, posting this furthers their fears. And turns parents off. Please reconsider and apologize," another user wrote expressing the disagreement.

Meanwhile, the post was shared more than 3,000 times on Twitter and the Sheriff's office came up with an apology mentioning that they did not intend to be insensitive. "EPSO intended to highlight our staff in the Concealed Handgun Permit Office, not to be insensitive. Santa correlates to the month of December and we thought he would help to recognize our hard-working staff," the Sheriff's office clarified in a tweet.

After the recent Oxford fatal shooting, many social media posts promoting guns have been facing criticism. A Kentucky lawmaker who shared a family Christmas photo on Twitter with each member displaying a gun was slammed as offensive by many critics, NBC News reported. Rep. Thomas Massie shared the post with the caption: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”

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