There’s a lot of hate out there folks directed at gun owners. Here’s one time it backfired. READ MORE
SOURCE: NRA-ILA
NRA member Darrell Kennedy was on vacation with his family at Yellowstone National Park earlier this month when an anti-gun vacationer snapped a photo of his holstered firearm and tweeted out a hate message.
“Sat waiting for Old Faithful the Yellowstone geyser to blow. Lots of families, kids and people having a good time. Then I spot this (expletive) in front of me with a revolver strapped to his side. Is there really any need? Most people I’ve met in the US want gun control,” the tweet read.
Kennedy and his family didn’t know about the tweet at first. But later that night, a friend of Kennedy’s 24-year-old daughter, Brooksie, forwarded her the tweet and asked, “Is this your Dad?”
“It made me mad at first,” Brooksie Kennedy said. “I know my blood pressure went up. I was shocked.”
The social media shaming came at the climax of their trip, and the Kennedys were understandably upset that their time together was interrupted by such an unsettling event. But later that night, Brooksie Kennedy started reading all the comments below the tweet and she felt better.
“I really am amazed at how that man’s tweet backfired. All the comments were from people sticking up for my dad,” she said.
Darrell Kennedy, 58, is a former law enforcement officer who says he carries almost everywhere he is allowed to. He always checks the rules and laws before going someplace new with his firearm, and he knew he was allowed to have his firearm on him at Old Faithful that day. The tweet, he said, was an aberration from how he’d been received throughout the family’s 10-day trip.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “There was probably a 10 to 1 ratio of people walking up to me and shaking my hand and thanking me for having my firearm and exercising my Second Amendment rights.”
One of those people, he recalled, thanked him for the safe feeling Kennedy provided by carrying.
“The biggest thing for me, I guess, I’ve always been a defender of the defenseless. Women, children, or the elderly,” he said.
In his hometown of Bath Springs, Tennessee, Darrell Kennedy carries his firearm to church on Sundays and sits in the back of the congregation on the request of his preacher.
When asked how the tweet made him feel, Kennedy said, “Even the person who took the picture of me, if something happened to him, I would have helped him and defended him. I’m not some kind of a hero. I’ve always just tried to help.”
This kind of situation is all-too-common in America, and the NRA hears from people regularly who are shamed, or discriminated against, or made to feel bad for exercising their constitutional rights. It’s a shame.
The Kennedys didn’t let the incident ruin their vacation, though. They saw Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, the Rocky Mountain National Park, Mount Rushmore, and a number of state parks.
“It was just an awesome trip,” Brooksie Kennedy said.
Most idiots that tweet that crap doesn’t understand guns or who carries them. They think from watching the main stream media and Hollywood that all gun owners are potential psycho’s looking for a shootout. I’ve carried for 40 plus years without an incident and hope to never to have one happen. But, if it happens I’m trained and prepared. I’m glad that Tweet backfired on the idiot. Probably some little guy who thinks that all you do is think good thoughts and Tinker Bell in the form of a cop will appear after you dial 911. Many times they get there in time to draw the chalk line around the body and that’s the best they can do. People like that nasty Tweeter are too afraid to defend themselves. So they project their fears onto others who have the nerve and ability to defend themselves and others.
what a jackass! im a retired gunsmith and a huge supporter of gun rights. that said ,who was this guy trying to impress? conceal your firearm. nobody needs to see what cool pistol your packing.
we all know there are way too many people out there that hate guns and the people that own them. there is no reason in this current place in time with the nearly weekly shootings to making these and other people uncomfortable.
i have worked around guns for over 35 years and am a vet and when i see a guy like this it makes me uneasy as well. he may well be a responsible sane person and a good guy that wants to protect his family and does not want to become a statistic on a crime blotter. but i dont know the guy, for all i know he is crazy as hell and i might be forced into a situation where i need to defend myself and others against him with my concealed gun.
just cover the thing up,nobody needs to know you have the gun until it is needed. people like this do nothing to promote good gun policy. im sure your not just a wanna be tough guy looking to impress and intimidate others, but carrying out in the open in a national park just screams look at me im a dangerous tough guy.
Not to mention it wasn’t a revolver either.
Yes, agree. The anti-gun guy is predictably fear-mongering about the “revolver” (looks like a Glock SA to me with a Hogue slip on grip (?), but there’s no need to walk around with it exposed. I’ve been shooting and carrying for a long time, and there’s no excuse for making people uncomfortable, especially knowing there are gunophobes in the crowd. Not to mention, in my home state that’s a sure fire way to get swatted and end up on the ground, handcuffed, statewide CCW or not.
I agree with the California Rifle and Pistol Association (the state NRA affiliate): society is safer when criminals don’t know who’s armed.
i would love to know what the gun hater would have said, IF, the man with the gun had it concealed and a situation came about where the lives of the gun hater and his family were saved by the man with the gun.
FWIW.
He may have been open carrying to comply with the law. If he didn’t have a ccw in Wyoming or another state with reciprocity, open carry would be the legal option. Other than that, I certainly agree, cc when at all possible.