The photo shows 22-year-old Brenna Spencer wearing a pink "Women for Trump" shirt with a handgun in the front part of her pants.
The photoshoot was taken outside the Hunter Museum of American Art, but she didn't go inside the museum with her handgun.
"I know the Tennessee state gun codes," Spencer, who is set to graduate in May with a major in communications and a minor in political science, said.
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She posted it on Twitter Saturday with the caption "I don't take normal college graduation photos."
She told ABC News that she wanted the photo to "show who I am as a person."
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She said the public response has surprised her.
"I did think that it would get a little attention but not to this degree," she said. "It was really, really surprising to see the amount of hate that I got."
The tweet has generated more than 9,000 retweets with some negative responses, while others applauded her knowledge of Second Amendment rights.