The American Rifleman, the official journal of the National Rifle Association, has deleted a tweet that appeared to make light of Friday's shootings in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of "Dark Knight Rises."
"Good morning, shooters," the message, published at 9:20 a.m. ET on the American Rifleman's Twitter feed, read. "Happy Friday! Weekend plans?"
Not surprisingly, the tweet sparked considerable outrage, with hundreds of users--including Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann--pointing their followers to it.
The American Rifleman deleted the tweet several hours later but has yet to issue a formal apology.
It's unclear whether the tweet was intentionally insensitive, or if the magazine's tweeter was unaware of the shootings that left 12 dead and 50 wounded.
"Is there a way they wrote this without seeing the news?" Audrey Wauchope asked on Twitter.
"This is what happens when you don't read the news," the Columbia Journalism Review said.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesman for the NRA said that "a single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context."
The NRA wasn't alone in appearing insensitive to the tragedy.
CelebBoutique.com--"the online boutique loved by your fave celebs"--took the "Aurora" trending topic as an opportunity to promote its Kim Kardashian-inspired dress:
"#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;)," the boutique wrote on its Twitter feed Friday afternoon. "Shop: http://t.co/IYGHqVsK."
"Classless," Ken Fang wrote on Twitter. "Just classless."
The tweet was deleted several hours later. The shop did not respond to an email from Yahoo News seeking comment, but issued a statement explaining the public relations company responsible for updating its Twitter feed was unaware that "#Aurora" was related to the shooting.
"We are incredibly sorry for our tweet about Aurora," the company wrote on Twitter. "Our PR is NOT US based and had not checked the reason for the trend, at that time our social media was totally UNAWARE of the situation and simply thought it was another trending topic. We have removed the very insensitive tweet and will of course take more care in future to look into what we say in our tweets. Again we do apologise for any offense caused this was not intentional & will not occur again. Our most sincere apologies for both the tweet and situation."
Earlier Friday, author Salman Rushdie faced a backlash over comments he made on Twitter following Friday's massacre.
"The 'right to bear arms' is the real Bane of America," Rushdie wrote in an apparent reference to Bane, a "Dark Knight Rises" character who some witnesses speculated the suspected shooter was dressed as at the time of the shooting.
That wasn't quite as offensive as Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, who chose to link the Aurora shootings to an assault on Judeo-Christian values.
During a radio interview Friday morning on the Heritage Foundation's "Istook Live!" show, Gohmert was asked to explain why he believes acts of violence such as this one take place.
"You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place," the Texas congressman told host and former Republican Rep. Ernest Istook.
Gohmert later said some of his comments from the interview were taken out of context.
ABC News issued an apology after investigative reporter Brian Ross suggested on "Good Morning America" that the suspected shooter, James Holmes, was a member of the Colorado tea party. (It was a different James Holmes.)
"ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted," the network said.