In two seconds, this guy proved that he should never be allowed to handle a weapon.

A media personality for Vice News recently broke one of the essential rules of gun safety: never let a gun barrel face anything that you are not willing to destroy.

While doing a piece on “smart guns”, the reporter pointed a weapon at his own cameraman and pulled the trigger. While the “smart gun” worked as it was intended to, that had to be one of the most flagrantly dangerous manners to handle and treat a firearm, and further exposed the ignorance of people who are trying to ban guns altogether.

For those unfamiliar with what a “smart gun” is, it’s a firearm devised in a way that is intended to only discharge a bullet under certain circumstances. Often called the personalized-gun, most employ technology like RFID chips that function as proximity tokens. What those proximity tokens are meant to do is render a weapon useless unless the proper token is held by the person firing the weapon.

Employing technology into guns would obviously help to cut down on negligent accidents – except there are still several well-stated liability concerns.

Still, that didn’t stop this Vice News journalist and host from pointing a loaded weapon at one of his crewmembers and pulling the trigger.

While the motivations behind the creation and prototypes of “smart guns” are noble, since they aim to decrease accidental shootings, the data isn’t out yet on how reliable they actually are. Furthermore, while they’re aimed to deter accidental shootings, there’s nothing “accidental” about pointing a gun at someone and firing it intentionally. Had anything remotely failed, then that cameraman would’ve either been dead or seriously maimed by the blatant display of idiocy.

Former Marine turned writer, Julio Rosas, posted a clip on Twitter showcasing the demonstrably dangerous maneuver of pointing a weapon at a camera man and pulling the trigger:

“Still can’t get over that a Vice reporter, in a video on “smart guns” helping prevent accidental shootings, decided to it was a good idea to point a Thompson, that had a drug mag in, at his cameraman, pull the trigger, and then say, “I didn’t think it was going to do that.””

Still can't get over that a Vice reporter, in a video on "smart guns" helping prevent accidental shootings, decided to it was a good idea to point a Thompson, that had a drug mag in, at his cameraman, pull the trigger, and then say, "I didn't think it was going to do that." pic.twitter.com/O3M3kLd0Ag — Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 23, 2020

No matter what safety measures are present on a firearm, that doesn’t mean someone should be frivolous with regarding the four essential rules of firearm safety. The rules are:

Treat all guns as if they are always loaded Never let the muzzle cover anything that you are not willing to destroy Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have made the decision to shoot Be sure of your target and what is behind it and always secure your guns from unauthorized persons

The fact that the reporter essentially disregarded nearly all aspects of firearm safety is completely irresponsible. There are countless instances where people assumed the “safety” was “on” which then results in an accidental shootings.

“Smart gun” technology is nothing more than an elaborate “safety” feature, and vesting so much trust in that feature to point a loaded weapon and fire at someone is an example of a person who should never handle a weapon.

Even the technology publication TechCrunch is extremely skeptical of the effectiveness of these “smart guns”. Journalist Jon Stokes stated the dangers of adding smart-technology to a firearm:

“Whenever you attach software to some new category of things — especially software that has any kind of connection to the outside world, whether via RFID or an actual network — then in addition to whatever problems that thing had before, you’ve introduced a whole host of brand new security and identity problems.”

According to the CDC, there are approximately 487 unintentional gun deaths per year in the United States. Unintentional gun deaths are preventable ones more often than not, and the easiest way to not add to the statistics is to not point loaded guns at people. Remember – guns don’t kill people – it’s the folks operating them that kill people.

Virginia apparently doesn’t care about data behind gun violence either, as they just overlooked facts and passed sweeping gun legislation.

The seven bills that have passed in the committee so far are: Universal background checks; Red Flag Protective Orders; one handgun purchase per month; reporting lost or stolen guns; local authority to ban guns in government buildings; children’s access protections; protective orders and firearms.

These pieces of legislation reflect seven out of eight gun control laws that Governor Northam has deemed his “priorities” for this legislative session. The one bill that hasn’t been passed yet is the ban of “assault weapons,” which many Democrats don’t believe have a high probability of passing this year.

These bills are headed down the road to become laws, despite thousands of law-abiding citizens showing up to rally their elected representatives and ask them to not strip away their constitutional rights. And despite an overwhelming majority of local municipalities declaring themselves second amendment sanctuaries.

Moms Demand Action was very happy with the first step of stricter gun control in Virginia. The group is funded by Everytown for Gun Safety, which is funded by presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

Moms Demand Action advocates for gun control laws, believing it will result in fewer acts of gun violence. Many of the members have lost children to shootings.

Thank you for getting out there early on this rainy, gray morning VA @MomsDemand. https://t.co/6ad9rhMtxY — be.the change.dana (@dcburns74) January 25, 2020

House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn said, “Our action today is for the families who have lost loved ones as a result of gun violence.”

Well that’s a lovely tribute.

But what about the families who have lost loved ones as a result of gun violence that could have been prevented had they been allowed to carry their own firearms at the time?

The shooting in Virginia Beach, for example, which is the incident that sparked the insistence of gun control among many government officials. The law-abiding citizens, believe it or not, abided by the law of not carrying their guns for self defense into the building. And, equally as unsurprising, the bad guy did not.

All of the employees were trapped inside the building, defenseless, with an active shooter running rampant. Within hours, of course, the left was screaming on social media and to the press about the need for stricter gun control.

Never mind the fact that it took police a ridiculous amount of time to get into the specific part of the building where the shooter was located, due to them not having the same key-card access that the gunman did.

We will never know how many people would have survived that incident had the “good guy” citizens been allowed to exercise their rights in that building. But we do know that freaking out and taking away citizens’ ability to protect themselves even more is not going to work.

It’s going to get more good guys killed.

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Breitbart reported in June of last year a few of the other “most heinous of high-profile” mass shootings that have occurred in “gun free” zones: Lone Star Bar & Grill (November 7, 2018), the Parkland high school (February 14, 2018), Orlando Pulse nightclub (June 12, 2016), San Bernardino (December 2, 2015), Umpqua Community College (October 1, 2015), Lafayette movie theater (July 23, 2015), Sandy Hook Elementary School (December 14, 2012), Fort Hood (April 2, 2014), D.C. Navy Yard (September 16, 2013), Aurora movie theater (July 20, 2012), the Fort Hood (November 5, 2009), and Virginia Tech (April 16, 2007).

That article, originally reported by the Crime Prevention Research Center, revealed that 94 percent of public mass shootings since 1950 have taken place inside of gun free zones.

That’s a lot of lives that had the potential to be saved, if only the victims were allowed to exercise their second amendment rights.

Following the committee session Friday after the gun control bills were passed, Delegate Mark Levine bragged on Twitter, saying, “A big day for common-sense gun laws in Virginia!”

A big day for common-sense gun laws in Virginia! https://t.co/8ZUMpCcS27 — Mark Levine (@DelegateMark) January 24, 2020

It was indeed a big day for anti-gun laws. And a big day for the criminals waiting to capitalize on them.

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