A congressional candidate has courted controversy after posting a picture of a gun on his Facebook page along with the message: ‘Welcome to Tennessee Mr Obama’. Some have claimed that the post by Republican Brad Staats – who has also suggested that Mr Obama may be ‘a traitor’ – could be interpreted as a threat against the President. However, the candidate has defended his statement, insisting that the message was in fact a protest against the UN Small Arms Treaty. Mr Staats is challenging incumbent U.S. Representative Jim Cooper in Tennessee’s fifth district, which includes the state capital Nashville. On Friday, he took to Facebook and posted an image of his Colt 911 semi-automatic handgun. The photograph was captioned: ‘Many people in Tennessee keep asking me about my opinion on Second Amendment rights. Apparently Tennesseans are part of that crazy crowd that Obama says “cling to their religion and guns”. Well, then I must be part of that crazy crowd. ‘Here is something that I usually have with me. Welcome to Tennessee Mr Obama, where we appreciate our Second Amendment rights and the Constitution that was wisely given to us by our founding fathers.’ In 2008, Mr Obama told a group of supporters at a fundraising event that people living in depressed areas of the U.S. ‘get bitter, and they cling to guns or religion’.