Gun owners plan to ‘shoot down’ hurricane

MIAMI: Gun owners in Florida have vowed to respond to Hurricane Irma by “shooting at” the storm.

As many as 53,000 people said they were interested in a Facebook event called “Shoot At Hurricane Irma”, and 25,000 people said they would participate in an attempt to “show Irma that we shoot first”.

Irma, the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history, has already wrought destruction in the Caribbean, killing at least 25 people.

Ryon Edwards, who created the event on Facebook, said he had not expected to generate such a large response, and that he started the event out of “stress and boredom”.

“A combination of stress and boredom made me start the event. The response is a complete and total surprise to me,” the 22year-old told BBC Newsbeat.

“I never envisioned this event becoming some kind of crazy idea larger than myself. It has become something a little out of my control.”

Graphics appeared online, suggesting how people could “fire correctly” at the hurricane to ensure the bullets did not come back and kill you.

Some people appear to have taken the plan seriously, including one Facebook user who posted an image of himself holding a gun, along with the message: “I’m not going to sit around and wait, I’m going straight into the eye.”

Others responded to it with scepticism, with one user writing: “Isn’t this just going to make the weather madder?”

Another Florida resident has made an event encouraging people to “shoot flames” at the storm.

“It’s time we took a stand against this big bully! This is our home ... nobody drives us out of our own territory,” states the event description.

“Join me in this fight as we shoot flames at Hurricane Irma and dissipate her on the spot. She will burn.”

A Florida sheriff has pleaded with citizens not to shoot at Irma, saying they “won’t turn it around”.

In a tweet on Saturday evening, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office warned that shooting weapons at the most dangerous Atlantic hurricane to hit the US since records began “will have very dangerous side effects”. – The Independent