Texas will honour American sniper by celebrating 'Chris Kyle Day'

Texas will officially celebrate 2 February as “Chris Kyle Day”, in honour of the Navy Seal whose portrayal in the movie American Sniper has caused intense controversy while breaking box-office records.

Kyle, reportedly the most lethal sniper in US military history with 160 confirmed kills out of 255 “probables” during four tours of duty in Iraq, is played by Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood’s film, which has six nominations for this year’s Oscars and earned almost $250m in its first two weeks in cinemas.

The film has delighted conservatives and enraged some liberals. Even first lady Michelle Obama has addressed the controversy.

“While I know there have been critics, I felt that, more often than not, this film touches on many of the emotions and experiences that I’ve heard firsthand from military families over these past few years,” she said on Friday.

Greg Abbott, the new Republican governor of Texas, announced the creation of Chris Kyle Day in a speech at a veterans event in Austin on Friday. According to a statement from the governor’s office, Abbott said his decision had been taken “in honour of a Texas son, a Navy Seal and an American hero – a man who defended his brothers and sisters in arms on and off the battlefield”.

Kyle, who was shot dead at a Texas gun range in February 2013, has become a divisive figure. Public statements suggested he relished his job, and in his book of the same name as the film, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, he portrayed the Iraqis and Islamic insurgents he killed as “savages”.

The film of American Sniper has thus drawn criticism from liberal commentators inside and outside the movie industry, the director Michael Moore vociferously among them.

“Kyle was a national hero,” Donald Burton, president of the Texas Disabled Veterans Association, told the Guardian on Saturday. “Taken in the context of the numbers alone, of his confirmed kills, I think the war would be over a lot quicker if there had been a few more Chris Kyles.”

Burton, who said he preferred to speak in a personal capacity than for the association as a whole, said criticism of Kyle as a racist was not justified.

“I do not believe that at all. I believe that his role was that of saving lives,” he said.

However, Burton will not mark Monday’s new commemorative honouring of Kyle with any special celebration.

“I prefer the man [to] rest in peace,” he said.

A marine corps veteran, Eddie Ray Routh, is set to stand trial in Texas on 11 February, accused of Kyle’s murder. Routh reportedly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors are not asking for the death penalty.

In the same month, the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood will see American Sniper among contenders for the most prized awards, including best picture and best lead actor. The film is shifting tickets in a way no R-rated film appealing to American conservatives has done since Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, in 2004.

Kyle’s story has also fueled controversy on social media, where advocacy groups have detected a disturbing rise in Islamophobic comments and anti-Muslim threats inspired by the movie.

Among comments criticising the concept of Chris Kyle Day on social media on Saturday, one Twitter user said: “Chris Kyle Day, aka invade a foreign country and slaughter as many civilians as possible day. Texas sucks stupid.”

Many comments, however, especially those from Texas, were ecstatic. Some were also aggressive. One read: “Awesome but I’m sure he would be sad to know it now has muslims in Texas because I am!!!” Another wrote: “My flag will be at half mast every February 2.” Others urged the rest of the US to adopt Chris Kyle Day.

One commentator wrote: “I imagine blindfolded children swinging at Michael Moore piñatas on Chris Kyle Day.”