A Kent State joke? It’s still too soon

In May 1970, members of the National Guard in Ohio fired a volley of 67 bullets and took just 13 seconds to kill four unarmed college students because they were protesting a war.

Jeffrey Miller was standing in front of the soldiers and took a single bullet into the mouth. No joke. That’s him on the ground in the iconic photo featuring a 15-year-old girl standing over him.

Photo: John Filo.

Allison Krause, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder also died. One student was paralyzed for life.

These are all facts of history ignored by the person at Urban Outfitters who thought this was a good idea.

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They only sold one, Gawker says, before declaring it was “sold out.”

Update 9:35 a.m. – The non-apology apology:
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Update 9:40 a.m. – Kent State is not amused.

May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever.

We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit. This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today.

We invite the leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two years ago, to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.