On Friday night, male model Tyson Beckford Tweeted the above image. “It’s not the first time the 45-year-old Rochester, N.Y. native has shown off his gun enthusiasm,” nydailynews.com reports. ” The former ‘Make Me a Super Model’ host made headlines last year when rapper Chris Brown called him out for spending time with his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. Beckford responded to Brown’s Twitter threats by posting a video of himself shooting at a gun range.” You can view a sample of Mr. Beckford’s Instagram love for firearms after the jump, as I ask . . .
Is it OK to signal your willingness to protect yourself by “flaunting” your guns in public? Or does a responsible gun owner necessarily walk softly and carry a big gun stick? That’s a tough one.
If you’re being directly threatened, I reckon you’re fully justified in “notifying” the world that you’re prepared to defend you and yours by force of arms. In that case, sun’s-out-guns-out messaging warns off someone who’s indicated a desire to ruin your whole day. Deterrence beats defense.
That said . . .
What’s wrong with a general threat of armed self-defense, like the Tweet at the top of this post or one of those lawn signs that says “We don’t call 911” (complete with a picture of a handgun)? If deterrence beats defence, why not proactively proclaim that you’re the gentleman — identified by mothers — as the person with whom her children should not engage in a violent confrontation?
I guess irresponsible firearms messaging is like the Supreme Court Justice Potter’s definition of pornography: you know it when you see it. (OK, you can stop seeing it now.) The gangsta boast in the Tweet above is over the line, IMHO. The AR vs. AK Instagrammage and similar posts? Chocks away!
Is Tyson Beckford an irresponsible gun owner for that tweet? Again, I say yes. As a celebrity gun owner, Mr. Beckford has a special responsibility to represent The People of the Gun as calm, level-headed people — lest the antis find grist for their “all gun owners (yes even black ones) are Clint Eastwood wannabes or proto-psycho-killers” mill.
Your thoughts?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Meh.
Ditto.
Meh, but only in the most mild way possible.
it just looks like a guy that really likes guns to me.
You mean clothing, right? I see way more tacticool garb than guns, there.
I thinkt it’s poor judgement to do what he did. However he’s only responsible for himself, and he can do as he wishes as long as he doesn’t violate anyone else’s rights.
Bingo. #ItsAFreeCountry
Posting your guns online and your intention to use them if necessary is nothing more than the online version of open carry. I don’t see how anyone that would walk around with a pistol on their hip or a rifle over their shoulder would pretend that they are doing anything different from this guy. If I were him and he still lives in Rochester, I would be more concerned that I just posted pictures of myself with standard capacity magazines.
Sorry, posting images or video of yourself at the range is not a threat, and it doesn’t become a threat because somebody else is threatening you and the fact you are armed makes them uncomfortable.
Sorry…this is 2016. Apparently other people’s feelings about a generally unrelated Internet posting DOES constitute a threat by you against them…or so the entire SJW/BLM movement seems to indicate.
Every time you self-censor, it’s like handing them a win without even making them look like loonies to fight for it.
Pretty tame in the grand scheme.
my mom was talking about the dairy truck driver with the plastic bag on one foot and the 11year old boy assistant. not a boy model.
and why is that pretty girls name “train wreck?”
We are always hearing how there are not enough celebrities that are pro-2A…the second one gets a little over zealous showing off their guns on line your ready to castrate him publicly. Give the guy a break.
Agreed rights >> feelings
No, not feeling it on this one. I say he did nothing wrong here. Maybe if he was pointing the gun at the camera or making direct threats, but this is a non-issue to me.
Irresponsible. Has embarrassed the 2A community, both by bringing guns into his ghetto beef with antiwhite, girl-beating black trash Chris Brown, and by going full tactical retard at the range. You never go full tactical retard.
So wearing a vest to the range makes you a “tactical retard”? Really?
It saved my ass from a sucking chest wound. FLAME DELETED
he forgot his football helmet.
Awe did he offend you? You gonna and hide to your safe space now?
Lmao you been watching South park huh? The guy didn’t do anything wrong at all.
I’m more disgusted with his intentional misspelling of the word “with.” As if being illiterate makes him cool or something.
The people use twitter to make threats are the same people who try to get dates by announcing their penis size in chat rooms. Irresponsible? No, just sophomoric, childish behavior.
I’m cool with this. I don’t show off or advertise I am armed but as long as you are law abiding(unlike his buddy Brown) OK…
My mom would have invited him to go shooting.
She was a badass with a shotgun!
I don’t care. I am just going to make his picture go away.
He’s black, though, so the press can’t criticize him openly without fear of being called racist. They’ll just sweep this under the rug as usual, because we all know all gun owners are OFWGs.
No. He’s an irresponsible tweeter for that tweet.
No. Being a celebrity doesn’t make them special or required to forcefully accept responsibilities they don’t want.
He might not be a nice person or polite or a philosophically fascinating tweeter, but he certainly isn’t a irresponsible gun owner for that.
He’s a celebrity!? Never heard of him before.
I guess I can go on ignoring his existence now.
Exactly. Being a celebrity makes the people responsible for him being a celebrity irresponsible.
Something I learned in martial arts school when I was a kid, don’t tell people you are in martial arts. If you do, you lose the element of surprise. Good advice for firearms, as the extra second or two the bad guy is shocked when fire is returned can mean a lot.
Also, and especially if you’re a kid, telling people something like that just makes them whip it out to test you faster.
I’ve never bought into this and I’ve never seen or heard of a quality martial arts instructor saying such a thing. To me this is up there with “A black belt is a white belt you’ve had for so long and gotten so dirty that it’s black”.
Self-defense is, by it’s very definition, reactive. When you’re reacting you’re not surprising anyone, except possibly with the speed at which you react or the way in which you react. Someone who doesn’t expect that lightning fast half-fist to the throat may well be surprised by it, but that doesn’t mean you have the “element of surprise” unless you’re striking first which means you’re acting as the aggressor.
Just because someone gets in your face doesn’t mean you can hit them or choke them out. They have to initiate the contact, or make a good faith effort to do so, before you can legally knock them on their ass. They don’t have to make contact with that drunken punch, but you can’t hit them first and say “Well I knew they were going to hit me so I hit them first” unless you want to get charged with battery.
This isn’t the Mos Eisely Cantina, that guy is Greedo and you’re not just going to hop on the Millennium Falcon and leave the planet after you blaster his ass.
I wonder if the dust cover has ” your fucked” inscribed on it?
Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day?
Sure. And Rosa Parks was the Irresponsible Bus Rider of the Day.
Come out of your closets, POTG. It’s not all that scary outside.
Right. Especially comming from a website that’s so hard up about open carry.
Here we have a famous black celebrity showing that he shares the same hobby as many of us. Not irresponsible at all, in fact he’s making it look normal for everyone in this country no matter what race or religion to share enjoyment from shooting sports as well as wanting to defend themselves.
“famous black celebrity”
Term “celebrity” seems misused, here. I’ve never heard of either of them, and I see nothing wrong with those pictures, particularly in responding to a threat. Are we all that sensitive?
Umm, not really. It’s kind of like when you invite the young man in to wait for your daughter on their first date, and you have your gun out on the table “cleaning” it.
No direct threat, but a heads up as to the need to be respectful.
Given that he has what appear to be standard capacity magazines in NY, yeah, I’d say he was dumb for posting this
This supports our cause, minorities and celebs care about the 2A. Everyone has the right to respond to a public threat with an equal one to deter
He is exercising his 2nd and 1st amendment rights. He should not be ashamed of the fact that he enjoys shootin and owning guns.
Uh, no, it’s not a bad thing. I don’t, because if I have a threat I’d rather them fearlessly approach me from the front, rather than attacking me from behind.
Rochester, NY native? I’d be more concerned with Governor Fredo seeing my mags that may or may not be blocked at 10, and my AR and AK that may or may not be registered under his unSAFE Act.
I never put more than 10 rounds in, though. That’s the same thing, right?
No, it’s not.
So Sum Dood likes guns and dressing up like the multicam ninja, and likes putting pictures and dumb comments up on the internets…like most of ARFCOM…so what? Its a free country.
Sum Dood also seems to be black…does that somehow change something? So a black guy that likes guns and puts photos and dumb comments on the internets is news. Check.
Also…wearing “tims” with multicam is a new and interesting fashion decision. I wonder how widely this will spread in popular culture?
I don’t really see this as a big deal.
Only gun photo I have posted online was one of me cracking open a bottle of beer with a mosin nagant receiver as the bottle opener just to rustle feathers. All in good fun! ?
https://www.instagram.com/p/0CGr6UjnbZ/
That’s a good one. Ah, those Mosins… so many uses.
There’s nothing it nagant do…
I’ll show myself out.
Really, there are kids accidentally shooting themselves with their parents’ guns and this guy is the IGOTD?
How’s this really any different from the pocket dumps that are featured? He hasn’t done anything that we all haven’t said: that we are willing to defend ourselves; that we are the wrong people to mess with. I don’t see how it’s really irresponsible.
Owning some guns doesn’t make one a “representative of the People Of The Gun” any more than owning a table saw makes one a representative of all carpenters everywhere.
As to the tweets, they’re pretty tame. I dream of a day when some has-been celebrity’s slightly aggressive tweets are the biggest problem facing pro-2A folk.
All in all, this doesn’t really move the needle on my GAF meter.
+1
Virtue signaling…how quaint.
He’s black.
The standards for them are lower with everything, this is no exception
I’ve been to that range, and I know the owner, Anthony Colandro. Great guy!
In terms of the idiocy coming out of Ted Nugent’s mouth on a weekly basis, this is a drop in the bucket.
When living in a place like NYC where gunowners effectively lack the protection of law (the state has formally declared itself their enemy), yeah, probably best to keep it on the DL.
Bobby going all judgemental again. Anyone, nobody or celebrity, owes the rest of us NOTHING at all but following the law. Deterrence works and you know what, it’s non-violent deterrence. If someone decides to call that hand and see if he’s bluffing, they’re the ones that took it there and Tyson is still free and clear. He forewarned potential foes that he’s not going to surrender and if they attack, that’s a violence on their part, not Tysons. Attempts to paint him as a rhetorical bad guy for doing what WE ALL DO EVERY DAY simply show the overt nature of the me-better-than-you’ism that Ol’ Bobby Farago is wont to engage in.
Bobby, methinks thou dost protest too much.
Oh, and Tyson isn’t the guy your mom warned you about. We all are. So, Bobby, get off your high horse.
Can you say “mall ninja”?
He doesn’t have his booger hook on the bang switch so what’s the problem?
is it any more confrontational than saying Molon labe?
if the threats aren’t enough for IGOTD, then at least having his firearm not pointed downrange should be enough.
Er, how is this even a story? The “news” today is now made up of snippets of pablum, fed to the mindless drones who seem to feed off this type of drivel.
Sounds like you got triggered, Robert.
The man did nothing wrong.
Irresponsible in his abuse of camo?
Guilty as charged.
The real problem here is… anyone that is offended by that tweet.
Fine by me. He’s passionate about his guns as most of us are.
Another wanta be bad ass, impressing himself! with how bad he looks, wonder if he can load that rifle before some pulls a loaded pistol? Action has consequences
TTaG: “Sure Armlist is famous, but do they *really* have a responsibility to wear eye protection? I mean, freedom to be responsible for the consequences of your actions…”
and then,
TTaG: “Here’s a ‘famous’ model (who just happens to be black, nevermind that) posting all the same kinds of photos as thousands of other people when they go to the range, we think he’s kinda irresponsible.”
Yeah, this strikes me as controversy for controversy’s sake.
Just a guy geeking-out over guns and enjoying his new-found sense of security in owning them and becoming proficient with them. A little immature, but that’s what happens even when adults get excited. Aka: Nothing to see here – Move along.