It tells us that they see guns as giving them the power to hurt.
It tells us that they see guns as giving them a power to punish, threaten, intimidate, harass and retaliate.
This is an inappropriate firearm discharge. This teaches a bad lesson about firearms, and it goes a long way towards explaining why firearms are so closely involved in domestic abuse cases. This is the same exact problem with all the murder suicides, differing only in degree but not in kind or in philosophy.
It is an excellent representation of the mindset that is the problem with the so-called legal gun owners.
This father should not have a gun. I stop short of saying he shouldn't have a daughter either; he may otherwise be a better parent than this example of his parenting skills. But at the very least he screwed up here, badly.
What lesson does this example teach his daughter? That if I get a gun, I can hurt you back, I can use it to cause you pain and distress, either hurting you directly or using it to hurt what you care about.
What it does NOT say is that this firearm is here to keep you safe. It says, in fact, quite the opposite. It says my firearm can make you my victim. It says do what I say or I will harm you, directly or indirectly, with my firearm.
Bad Dad.
I have no problems with a parent objecting to social media participation. I have no problem with a parent restricting their child's computer use. But I have a problem with the destruction of that child's property, particularly if the child paid for it. That sends the wrong message. Destruction of property with a firearm sends the wrong message as well, regardless of the parental relationship. This appears to be much closer to revenge than good parental discipline.
If this turns out to be a bogus video, then it still represents what is far to common a philosophy among gun owners, that it gives them power over other people, both their own persons, and their property, and that it allows them to intimidate and threaten others to get their way.
From Digital Life Today:
Dad punishes Facebook post with 8 bullets to daughter's laptop
By Bob SullivanA video purporting to be the work of an angry father teaching his daughter a lesson by shooting bullets through her laptop is the viral video of day. The father, who identifies himself as Tommy Jordan, says his daughter broke ground rules when using Facebook, and posted disrespectful remarks about him there.He retaliates by laying out a case against her in an 8-minute video, concluding it with firing 8 bullets through her computer. The video was posted on YouTube and supposedly on the 15-year-old girl’s Facebook page last night. By mid-morning, it had more than 1 million views, and it sparked debate across the Web – some cheered on the father’s "tough love," while others accused him of abuse.As this video continues to blow up on the Internet, we are investigating whether this is a real parent or some sort of stunt. We’ll explore this issue in depth later today in Red Tape Chronicles.Tell us what you think. Is this appropriate parenting, abuse ... or somewhere in between? How do you, as a parent, a teen, a teacher or someone who cares, deal with conflicts between Facebook and "the real world?"
