Gun owner destroys his AR-15 on viral video: 'It's not worth a single life'
A video gone viral features a New York gun owner who cuts up his AR-15 military-style assault rifle because it’s time to make a change.
Scott Pappalardo’s AR-15 is the same kind of weapon used in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and injured 15 last week.
“I’ll be honest, it’s a lot of fun to shoot,” Pappalardo acknowledges on the video posted on his Facebook page and viewed 13 million times by Monday evening. “I’ve never killed anything with it except a bunch of targets.”
Pappalardo recalls that, after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 young children and six adults, he told his wife, “I’d gladly give this gun up if it would save the life of just one child.”
Since Sandy Hook, there have been hundreds of school shootings, and “17 more lives lost” last week at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Pappalardo notes.
“So when do we change?” he asks on the video as he sits on the deck of his home. “When do we make laws that say a weapon like this isn’t acceptable in today’s society? ... Is the right to own this weapon more important than someone’s life? ... I don’t think so.”
RELATED: Teens protest gun violence at the White House
He then saws his gun in pieces after vowing, “I’m going to make sure his weapon will never be able to take a life.” He expresses a hope that someone will see his video and say, “Maybe I’ll do the same thing.”
Pappalardo headlines his video “My Drop in a Very Large Bucket,” and he displays a photo of his cut-up gun under the label “#oneless,” which he is hoping will become a trend.
Pappalardo has owned his legally registered AR-15 for 30 years and is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. He has a tattoo on his arm that says “the right to keep and bear arms” (which he says was legible when he got it 30 years ago).
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
