Gun T-Shirt Post By Freehold Twp. School Board Member Shocks Critics

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ — Township Board of Education member Renata Brand has been called out on Facebook for posting a picture of a T-shirt with a message about guns on her public page.

The post has since been taken down, but it said "Since We're Redefining Everything, This Is A Cordless Hole Puncher," with a drawing of a handgun with four bullet casings ejected from it after it's been fired. It was printed on a T-shirt held up by an unidentified woman.

It appears to be a re-post by Brand. You can view the T-shirt here, on the internet.

Brand was elected to the board in November and sworn in earlier this month.

The post created, for the most part, a backlash on Facebook.

Theresa Turner of Spring Lake is co-leader of the New Jersey Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and she said the post was brought to her attention by several volunteers for the organization in Freehold Township.

"This is a woman who represents thousands of children as a member of the Freehold Township Board of Education, and she posts this at a time where gun violence is the number one killer of children in our country," Turner said.

The post was "shameful," Turner said.

Brand did not return an email request to comment. When reached by phone on a number she provided Patch during her campaign, a woman who answered the phone said it was a wrong number.

But Brand did respond on Facebook early this weekend when people began to comment on her post:

In a response to Turner, Brand said "It's Satire on the cancel culture that thinks they have a monopoly on speach (sic). Get over words and deal with life."

Turner had commented: "Wow. You're representing the board of Education and you're glorifying guns, which are now the number one killer of children in the United States. I wonder how the parents of Sandy Hook, Uvalde and Parkland would feel if they ever saw this. Shame on you."

Brand asked for "facts" regarding the "number 1" killer comment. Turner then provided a screen shot of Centers for Disease Control information to Brand.

Turner said in an interview that for 2020, the latest year for CDC data, 5 of 100,000 children ages 1 to 19 were killed by guns, a 30 percent increase over 2019. There is a reference to the data here.

The data accounts for accidental deaths, suicides and murders with guns, as well as school shootings. Turner said for the first time, loss of life for children in auto deaths has been surpassed by gun-related deaths.

"This is not something to joke about," Turner said.

The appropriateness of the post was questioned by some on Facebook. One person said it showed "poor judgement and lack of humanity."

Brand responded that her "heart goes out to ALL people who have suffered through violence, but this is a post about Freedom of Speach (sic) and expressing political Satire."

In her self-prepared comments as a board candidate to Patch in October, Brand had said that "the central issue that I see facing my district as well as the state of New Jersey is the government hijacking of the curriculum. The government has taken an active and dominating role in imposing its own version of social, ethical, moral and economic values in the classroom."

Turner said Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America includes mothers, fathers and all people concerned about gun violence.

She said each state in the U.S. has a chapter, representing 10 million people.

There is a Board of Education meeting next Monday, but Turner said protests at such a forum are not the emphasis of her organization. Local members may complain to the district, but her group creates educational events and "campaigns to raise awareness," she said.

One local volunteer, Deb Turi-Smith, was not available Tuesday to comment, but said in a Facebook response to Brand that "As a Freehold Township resident I am horrified by this meme. Your apparent desire to present this as satire, in view of all the senseless killing of children in schools . . . is deeply concerning."

The post concluded: "This is about judgement pure and simple, and I am without confidence in your leadership on our BOE," Turi-Smith said.