Washington(CNN) Jeb Bush is taking a shot at wooing South Carolinians by appealing to their Second Amendment support.
The former Florida governor on Tuesday tweeted a photo of a firearm emblazoned with a personalized insignia on top of the gun that read, "Gov. Jeb. Bush."
And the tweet simply read: "America."
Bush appeared at FN Manufacturing, a high-security firearm company in Columbia, South Carolina, for a town hall on Tuesday morning, where he again shared his credentials on the Second Amendment. Speaking to reporters in Leesville later Tuesday, Bush said he didn't know about the tweet but said it was a tribute to his appearance at the company.
"The purpose was we went to a gun manufacturing facility where lots of jobs are created, high-wage jobs. And I received a gun and I was honored to have it," Bush said.
Bush commonly touts his gun record as governor of Florida, and it is a calling card in South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on Saturday. Military issues have long been dominant in South Carolina politics, and Republican candidates in recent days have looked to one-up one another with displays of machismo and national security toughness. Bush notched 10% in the latest CNN/ORC South Carolina poll released on Tuesday, good enough for fourth place there.
The New York Daily News teased Bush in their Wednesday cover, featuring the gun photo and the headline, "Desperate Jeb gets ripped for tweet suggesting guns are 'America.'"