A viral video about one gun owner’s response to Parkland comes with a powerful message.

Scott Pappalardo of Middleton, New York, has always loved guns, but now he’s having a change of heart.

Scott Pappalardo loves guns and his right to own them so much that he has the Second Amendment tattooed on his body — but now he’s having a a change of heart.

In a video, now seen more than 17 million times, New York-based Pappalardo discusses why he felt a moral responsibility to get rid of his AR-15, a gun he’s had for more than 30 years. He talks about how after the Sandy Hook massacre, he would have gladly traded in his weapon if it meant saving even one life and how the lack of action taken by both himself and the government made him feel as though like he needed to do something — now.


“I guess my words [after Sandy Hook] were just empty words in the spur of the moment and now here we are, 17 more lives lost,” he says, referencing the recent Florida school massacre.

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