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Twitter disagrees with Jeb Bush over the definition of 'America'

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has tweeted out his definition of America: A picture of a gun with his name engraved on it.

America is a picture of Jeb Bush's name on a gun, according to Jeb Bush

CBC News ·
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush inspired people from across the world to share what they feel best represents 'America' by tweeting a photo of his gun. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Jeb Bush shared what appeared to be his definition of "America" on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon: An image of a gun with the name "Gov. Jeb Bush" engraved on it – no exclamation point.

Some online took the image as distasteful, and disagreed with Bush assigning all of America the transitive property of a gun.

Instead, they pushed forward a variety of alternative possibilities. 

Perhaps this food is America?

Or maybe these fine gentlemen are?

Some suggested a variety of social issues would be more representative of America as a nation. The Flint, Mich., water crisis, for example, or the #blacklivesmatter movement.

They also noted that it may be irresponsible for a presidential candidate to tie together the nation with gun violence, given some of said previously mentioned social issues.

As people shared photos of what they thought best represented America, a response grew among the people of our home and native land:

"What is Canada?" 

Is it universal health care?

What about this man? Is he Canada?

The answer may lie in the snow.

Regardless of the country in question, some on Twitter grew tired of the semantic argument, and rather quickly.

Others to focus on the man responsible for the meme. They questioned if perhaps Bush was confused about his country of residence.

And if the tweet would alienate America from its allies.

Bush himself has yet to respond to the controversy (or 18,000 retweets) his gun photo inspired, though he has since tweeted three times about his campaign.

The most recent Twitter update, which links to Bush's website, reads simply "As Commander-in-Chief, I'll be determined to deal with threats before they become catastrophes."

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