Photo of Duke basketball players with guns is a miss with fans

(UPI) -- An image of the Duke University basketball team posing with guns during a weekend trip to West Point has not exactly been a slam-dunk success.

Many have said that the photo, which shows players with laser-equipped M4s and M240s in a combat simulator at the Army's West Point campus, glamorizes gun use.

Duke officials are going to try to use the incident as a teaching moment.

"They were given the opportunity by the Army personnel to take some pictures," said Jon Jackson, an associate director of athletics. "If you take the image by itself and it's taken out of context, it could be seen as are we somehow glamorizing gun violence or something like that. Clearly, (that's) not the case.”

He added: “(We'll discuss) the importance of perception and how those images could have been perceived not when taken in context."

The photo was posted on Deadspin with the headline "What Is This Photo Of The Duke Basketball Team Handling Assault Rifles?"

University students are also not quite sold on the controversial shot. "I don't think it's a good idea to attach that image to the basketball team," Duke freshman Tim Campbell said.