The internet is an amazing technological marvel. I still remember it being described as the “information superhighway” back in the day, and it is. As a general rule, we tend to have the accumulated knowledge of mankind at our fingertips at any given time. It’s an amazing thing.

However, there’s a certain amount of stupid that comes from the internet too. That includes some of these idiotic “challenges” that come about.

One of the newer ones, one I really hope doesn’t catch on, recently resulted in a Tennessee teen getting shot in the head.

Not many people have heard of it, but a dangerous internet challenge is gaining popularity. According to Memphis Police Department, one of the city’s latest shootings stemmed from this challenge. It’s called the No Lackin Challenge. On YouTube, videos of the No Lackin Challenge show people pulling guns on their friends and their friends pulling out a gun too. However, no one pulls the trigger. Early Thursday morning, a 17-year-old was shot in the head at E’s cafe on Union Avenue. According to the affidavit, 21-year-old Sherman Lackland was sitting in a booth with two people he knew, playing the No Lackin Challenge when Lackland reportedly accidentally shot his friend. “A real loud bang, then I see the guy across from him fall in the floor,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was inside the restaurant when the shooting happened.

Now, here at Bearing Arms, we strive to combat stupid. It’s a bit of a mission for us, especially when we’re talking about stupid with firearms.

Folks, this is stupid.

On every level, this is stupid.

First, what the hell kind of place lets a couple of guys sit in a booth and point guns at one another? Even an Old West saloon wouldn’t have been thrilled with that one.

Second, it seems that no one bothered to teach these nimrods that you don’t point a firearm at anything you don’t intend to destroy. We won’t even get into keeping your booger hook off the bang switch. If you’re not pointing it at something you don’t want to destroy–in this case, your friend–it becomes a moot point.

In fairness, the media tends to hype some of these challenges to be far more popular than they really are. Seriously, how many people lit their chest on fire or eat Tide Pods? Probably not nearly as many as we may have been lead to believe.

However, even one moron playing a game like this is far too many. These are guns, not toys, and there’s absolutely no excuse for it. This is why we need real firearm education in public schools, and not just “don’t touch” and leave it there stuff. That’s great for smaller kids, but we also need to instruct people on safe firearm handling in case that’s not an option for whatever reason, as well as some practical demonstrations of what guns can do.

While we won’t end nonsense like this, at least we can minimize it to some extent.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article stated the teen who was shot died as a result of his injuries. The most recent reports say he is still alive but in critical condition.