Elon Musk set his own personal social media platform ablaze Monday with a photo from his bedroom.
The picture showed what Musk said was his bedside table, which was cluttered with four empty caffeine-free Diet Cokes, a bottle of water, and a pair of handguns. One pistol looked to be a replica historic flintlock in an open wooden box with a picture of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River on the inside lid. The other gun looked to be the world’s wealthiest man’s last line of defense, but some online had their doubts.
“There is no excuse for my lack of coasters,” Musk quipped on his Twitter platform.
Eagle-eyed Twitter users pegged the historic gun as a non-firing piece of the “George Washington Boxed Set,” available online for just $124. As for the other gun, sleuths including country music star John Rich noticed something unusual: It has no trigger. That led some to speculate that it is a replica prop from the 1982 film “Blade Runner.” Others said it was a replica of a Diamond Back .357 revolver from a video game called “Deus Ex: Human Revolution.”
But even if Musk doesn’t sleep with a working pistol within an arm’s reach, it doesn’t mean he isn’t in favor of the Second Amendment.
No trigger on that hog leg?
— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) November 28, 2022
“I strongly believe that the right to bear arms is an important safeguard against potential tyranny of government. Historically, maintaining their power over the people is why those in power did not allow public ownership of guns,” Musk told CNBC in an email in May.
Musk weighed in on gun control on Twitter following the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre. Although he backed the right to own guns, he said people should be subject to “tight background checks,” and that so-called “assault rifles” merited more safeguards.
“Assault rifles should at minimum require a special permit, where the recipient is extremely well vetted [in my opinion],” he tweeted in response to a question from a user.
“How about a middle ground, where the licensing standard for semi-auto rifles is a driver’s license, age 21 and no rap sheet?” Musk continued. “Basically, what is a reasonable way to make it harder for people with homicidal impulses to obtain body count maximizing weapons?”