A report by NBC suggests that disgust with gun ownership has reached such feverish levels that once-proud gun owners are now destroying their tools of destruction.
In a report highlighted by Newsbusters, “NBC Nightly News” with Savannah Guthrie featured several former gun owners destroying their weapons and announcing their actions on Twitter. “Some gun owners are posting videos of themselves destroying or getting rid of their firearms, declaring ‘one less gun’ on social media,” Guthrie announced.
The ex-2A adherents have posted their gun destruction under the hashtag #OneLessGun. Here’s how reporter Gabe Gutierrez explained it: “On social media, some gun owners are getting rid of their rifles and posting pictures under the hashtag: #OneLessGun. It all started with a Facebook video viewed more than 17 million times of a self-described responsible gun owner with a faded tattoo of the right to bear arms. So moved by the Florida shooting, that he sliced his AR-15.”
The Facebook video originated from a man named Scott-Dani Pappalardo, who told viewers as he destroyed his rifle, “I’m going to make sure this weapon will never be able to take a life … Now, there’s one less.”
Others soon followed in the footsteps of Scott-Dani Pappalardo and also began destroying their weapons. NBC’s Gutierrez highlighted that Mike Russell of North Carolina did more than just destroy his weapon; he handed it over to local authorities.
“As I see more and more AR-15s being part of mass shootings, I don’t want to be a part of that,” said Mike Russel.
Another gun owner, Amanda Meyer of Connecticut, destroyed her handgun after “she watched the horrifying images of the Parkland shooting.” Meyer told NBC, “I hope that some people are inspired by it. At least that they would go out and do the same thing.”
Gutierrez did interview one gun supporter, an NRA instructor named Marco Avalon, who said of the movement, “It’s a scapegoating. There will be another mass shooting right afterwards. So, I don’t see where the solution is coming from with that.”
Gutierrez finished his report by referencing a “renewed debate over the extent of the Second Amendment when it comes to AR-15s, and whether the right is worth the risk.”
