Video: Man Braces AR-15 with His Face
Daniel Xu 06.22.16
Well that’s not something you see every day. If you see anyone attempting this at your local range, please correct them on the proper—and safe—use of a buttstock.
This video is, of course, to prove a point. In this case, the video is in response to a highly criticized article by New York Daily News writer Gersh Kuntzman, who in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting, went to a rifle range and wrote about his experience with an AR-15. It was Kuntzman’s first time shooting an AR-15, and he described it as feeling like a bazooka and sounding like a cannon.
However, it was not Kuntzman’s inexperience or awe with the rifle that many took issue with—it was his assertion that merely firing the rifle gave him a “form of PTSD.” Many readers noted that it was not only a gross exaggeration, but indeed offensive to those with legitimate PTSD.
“The recoil bruised my shoulder, which can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Kuntzman originally wrote. “The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions —loud like a bomb—gave me a temporary form of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.”
Kuntzman later apologized for the remark, and wrote a follow-up piece in which he complained about the criticism and further elaborated that the AR-15 was a weapon of “mass destruction” and should only belong in the hands of the military or police. He added that the rifle bruised him, in “body and spirit.”
“Yes, this weapon scared the crap out of me. And it should scare the crap out of all of you, too,” he wrote.
However, is the AR-15 really a weapon with such massive force and recoil that it should strike awe into those that behold it? This is one response video that holds a good point.
