“Gun Culture” may be the biggest boogie man to the anti-2A political left (yes, maybe even more than the NRA). Anti-2A zealots have the crazy idea that people who actually like firearms, that want to own them, shoot them (safely), and carry them are to blame for firearms-related deaths.
And they couldn’t be more wrong about that.
Liking firearms, and liking to both carry and safely shoot firearms, has nothing to do with either criminal use of firearms (as in “gun crimes”) or in suicides that involve firearms. They aren’t even remotely related.
What is related to gun deaths in general? Two things: glorifying violence and not following gun safety protocols, such as the four laws of gun safety that you can find here. When you do those two things, then, you end up with tragic stories like the one today. Cortney Weil writes,
A teenager in Virginia has died after shooting himself in the head while filming a social media video.
Last week, 17-year-old Raleigh Freeman III, better known on the local rap scene as Rylo Huncho, was on an Instagram livestream when tragedy struck.
While talking to the camera, Huncho was flashing a handgun with a built-in laser. He then said, “F*** y’all, n***a,” pointed the gun at his head, and apparently accidentally pulled the trigger. The gun discharged with the livestream video still going.
Huncho was immediately raced to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Suffolk, Virginia, the Direct reported, and it appears he clung to life for some time. Hours later, Twin Porter, described as a close “associate” of Huncho, reported on Facebook that Huncho had died.
This whole situation is horrible, tragic. Awful. This isn’t something that I would wish on anyone, especially happening to a kid.
But here we are, and those on the political left will take a situation like this and try to blame you and me, legal gun owners who teach and live by the four rules of gun safety, for what happened in this awful situation which was the result of violating those rules and from glorifying violence.
It’s awful situations like this that make it clear that we have to educate everyone, maybe even especially those who aren’t traditionally thought of as gun owners, about gun safety. We don’t want these types of tragedies repeating themselves.