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A self-confessed gun fanatic filmed himself sawing his gun to pieces in protest over the Florida shooting.

Scott Pappalardo films himself with his AR-15 assault rifle which he said he had bought and legally registered over 30 years ago.

And he is such a believer in the second amendment - the rights of people to keep and bear arms - that he even has it tattooed on his arm.

But he said although his weapon is "a lot of fun to shoot" he said he is not a hunter and has never killed anything with it.

(Image: Facebook) (Image: Facebook)

Now after the horrific shooting where 17 people were gunned down in a high school in Parkland , Florida, Scott is making a stand.

In his passionate video he says he remembers saying to his wife: "I will gladly give this gun up if it saves a life of just one child."

He made that statement five years ago and said since then there has been more than 400 people shot in over 200 school shootings.

Scott adds: "Now here we are 17 more lives lost - so when do we change? When do we make laws saying weapons like this are not acceptable in today's society?

(Image: Facebook)

"There's a lot of blame people can put on desensitising video games, bad parenting, mental illness - but ultimately it's a gun like this one that takes away the lives."

Scott now thinks the laws have to be changed as Nikolas Cruz - the suspected gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School - and Stephen Paddock - who killed 58 people in Vegas - were both legal gun owners before their crimes.

He said: "Any legal gun owner is quite capable of snapping and committing a horrific crime."

In his stand against gun crime Scott stated he wanted to get rid of his gun.

While he could get a significant amount of cash for the weapon he said he would not sell it as he would not be able to live with himself if a child got hold of it and used it to shoot others.

(Image: Facebook) (Image: Facebook)

Instead he decided to destroy it to "make sure this weapon will never take a life".

He adds: "Is the right to own this weapon more important than someone's life?"

In the clip he then gets out of his chair and goes to his saw and starts destroying the gun.

Cutting it up in half he says: "Now there's one less."

He said he knows this is not the answer and that there are always going to be people who want to kill - but they would not be able to do it with his gun.

Since posting the video on Facebook over the weekend with the caption: "My drop in a very large bucket #oneless" Scott has been praised for his actions with many saying they were "proud" of him.