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Chrissy Teigen Criticized For Tweet About Ottawa Shooting

Model Criticized For Tweet About Ottawa Shooting
Model Chrissy Teigen arrives at the ESPY Awards at the Nokia Theatre on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Model Chrissy Teigen arrives at the ESPY Awards at the Nokia Theatre on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Chrissy Teigen found herself in hot water on Wednesday after she tweeted about the Ottawa shooting. The 28-year-old was criticized for cracking a joke amid the tragedy, where a gunman fatally shot a soldier on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill before being killed by law enforcement.

While Parliament and the city’s downtown area were in lockdown, the model tweeted:

Despite the fact that the Sports Illustrated cover girl was trying to draw attention to the gun control debate in the U.S., her tweets were met with backlash from her followers. One Twitter user said: “Thanks for the neighbourly love in this time of pain in Canada. Acts of terror are not funny.”

Another wrote: “You should probably stick to having your picture taken for a living.”

In response, to the criticism John Legend’s wife wrote: “Sorry you don't understand that is a knock at America and our issues with gun control. No one is minimizing the Ottawa shooting. I'm not apologizing. If you take it wrong, that is your fault.”

While many users were offended by Teigen’s tweet, others understood her viewpoint, but felt it was not the time or place to do so.

“Anyone reasonable can see what you meant,” one user wrote. “Some of us Canadians may be a little raw right now.”

In the end, the Sports Illustrated model apologized for pulling focus away from the Canadian tragedy and putting it on America instead. In her final remarks on the matter, she wrote: “I've lost faith in this world. Sorry if it comes off as being unemotional. There is just so much bad.”

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