We all know about the Easter bunny, but here's the Easter GUNNY! Apologies for the crude joke, but you have to laugh at the crassness of the manufacturers who are selling an Easter egg in a mug with a handle shaped like a handgun.
Not surprisingly, the 'novelty' gift has been slammed as 'bad taste' and inappropriate for children. The story of the gun emerges from Whangaparaoa in New Zealand where The Warehouse is selling the Make My Day Gun Mug, both in-store and online, for $14.49.
Shopper Sue Bates, who spotted the Dirty Harry-themed mug, told the NZ Herald: "We were both shocked to see that kind of thing on sale. I couldn't believe Warehouse were happy to sell that sort of egg.
"I thought it was in bad taste and inappropriate for children, guns should not be promoted to youngsters, especially at Easter and with the recent shootings in the US."
However, Warehouse public relations manager Gretchen Lowe defended the product: "We have sold a range of movie star images on a variety of products over the last few years for events such as Easter, Christmas and Father's Day.
"This mug is purely a novelty item in a similar vein, themed with a well known phrase from the film Dirty Harry featuring Clint Eastwood.
"As a customer-focused retailer we ensure that we offer a full Easter range to meet all budgets and tastes, helping our customers to celebrate and enjoy this event," she said.
"While we acknowledge the tragic events in America we feel very comfortable in this context that we are presenting our product as a novelty item only, an item which in the past has not raised any concerns."
Jo Kelly-Moore, who is the Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell said connecting a gun with an Easter egg went totally against the true meaning of Easter and send the wrong message.
"The message of Easter is totally the opposite to the imagery concerned with this egg, the festival is about hope and new life and having a gun on an egg promotes violence and the ending of life.
"This is not an image we should be promoting in our world, we already have enough negativity around and this is just adding to it. Christ came to Earth to give us hope and peace and this goes against the true meaning of Easter and all Jesus did for us. We just don't need this kind of imagery in our community."