All I Want for Christmas is . . .

Joy to the World.

Peace.

And no guns hanging from the tree.

I wrote about the glittering gun ornament that Philly-based Urban Outfitters is selling this holiday season, in Trim a Tree. The Quaker Agitator also voiced his disgust with the display in Silver bells, silver guns.

The perfect comment about this was from blogger De la Where, You may be Ghetto if....

Maybe FOX will advertise this as the ornament of choice for the War on Christmas.

As a follow up to its initial piece on the pistol, the Inquirer reports on Store targeted over gun ornament, saying:

A leading local antiviolence group yesterday called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters because it is continuing to sell a $6 "glitter gun" Christmas tree ornament.

"Here's a store making money off the misery of the city," said Mark Harrell, director of Men United for a Better Philadelphia, noting that the number of killings in Philadelphia - most by handguns - is approaching 400 for this year.

* * * *

Bilal Qayyum, cofounder of Men United, said he spoke with the manager of the store this week to say how "totally inappropriate" he found the ornament to be, and asked to speak with the store's corporate leaders.

Qayyum said he never heard back from the Philadelphia-based retailer, which has stores across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Urban Outfitters also has local stores at 36th and Sansom Streets, Suburban Square, and the King of Prussia mall. The company's stock is traded on the NASDAQ market under the symbol URBN.

The voice mail of the company's spokeswoman said she would not be back in the office until Monday. A person answering the phone at the Walnut Street store confirmed that the ornaments were still being sold. He declined to comment further.

The company's Web site sells a number of items featuring guns, including an Uzi necklace. It also sells a watch, notebook and wallet featuring an Andy Warhol print of handguns.

As the Quaker Agitator says in his blog, Deck the halls with lines of picket signs...:

And good luck to you, Mr. Harrell. You're doing the Lord's work, and you deserve our support and our prayers. And for all you holiday shoppers out there, if you have one of these places in your neighborhood, do us all a favor this holiday season: shop elsewhere.

Guns & money. It's all about guns & money. I just hope enough people say so long as you go with the guns, you're not getting any of my money.

UPDATE: Not only has it been taken off the tree, but the gun ornament is not on the shelves or the website of Urban Outfitters. Although they haven't officially acknowledged it, the protests by Men United and others appears to have been successful. See Ornament is a sellout.

Some feel that these tacky tactics merely generate free publicity for the company, see Jill Porter's Daily News column, Community howls in outrage, just as Urban Outfitters hoped,and Philadelphia Will Do, Urban's 2006 Publicity Tour Heats Up.

Maybe so, but that's no reason to keep silent in the face of such outrageous offensiveness. It may convince enough people to exercise the power of the wallet but taking their money elsewhere. It's the one thing I'm sure that Dick Haynes understands.

Tags: Philadelphia, Philly, Urban Outfitters