Scott Pappalardo calls himself a long-time gun owner and a "firm believer" in the Second Amendment, who even has a tattoo that reads "the right to keep and bear arms".

But following the deaths of 17 people in a Florida school shooting last week, Mr Pappalardo decided to follow through with a simple idea he had after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.

"I remember after Sandy Hook happened I said to my wife, 'I'd gladly give this gun up if it would save the life of just one child'," he said in a video posted on Facebook.

"That's five years ago now. And since then, over 400 people have been shot in over 200 school shootings."

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organisation that started tracking shootings after Sandy Hook, Mr Pappalardo is right. The organisation says there have been at least 239 school shootings, with 438 people shot and 138 people killed.

"I've decided today I'm going to make sure this weapon will never be able to take a life. The barrel of this gun will never be pointed at someone," Mr Papparlardo says in the video.

"I mean, think about it. Is the right to own this weapon more important than someone's life? A weapon like this that can cause so much death and destruction?"

In the video, filmed in the city of Middletown in New York's Hudson Valley region, Mr Pappalardo then saws his legally registered AR-15 in half. He later posted an image of a gun in three pieces.

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"Now people have always said there are so many of them out there. Well now there's one less," he says in the video, holding his destroyed rifle.

"I know a lot of people are going to say I'm stupid for doing that. But this was a personal choice.

"I can't live knowing that my gun's out there and it can one day possibly commit a horrific act like the other day in Florida."

"My drop in a very large bucket" was the caption Mr Pappalardo gave to his video, detailing why he now supports drastic changes to US gun laws.

With at least 21 million views and almost 400,000 shares since it was posted to Facebook on Saturday morning (local time), the "drop" is having major ripple effects.

People have been using the hashtag #oneless to back Mr Pappalardo and his cause.

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Even one of Mr Pappalardo's family members who professed to have differing views on gun laws praised the move.

"I don't really agree with everything you said, but I am certainly not going to call you stupid or crazy for doing what you did," Thea Pappalardo wrote.