Lehigh man destroys semi-automatic rifle on live video in solidarity with Parkland students

Patricia Borns
The News-Press
Lehigh Acres resident George Kilmer destroyed his M1 Carbine ​​rifle  and a 30 ​-​ round clip that goes with it.  He was moved by the Parkland Florida school shooting and wanted to show his support. The gun enthusiast still owns ​weapons, including a 20-gaug​e shotgun that he ​says is "the best for  protection. ​"​ He believes that people don't need ​military-grade  weapons ​for consumer use. Before destroying the gun he made sure all bullets were out of the gun and out of the clip.

With the first resounding thwack of a sledgehammer in his Lehigh Acres backyard Wednesday, George Kilmer joined the ranks of gun owners across the country who have destroyed their weapons or handed them over to police after a February school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

There a gunman killed 17 people on Feb. 14 -- students, a teacher, a football coach and an athletic director -- at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

"I hope it will help people understand our kids are the most important thing we have," Kilmer explained why he chose to smash his Universal M1 Carbine semi-automatic rifle on Facebook Live.  "Those kids in school are the most important thing we have. This is what made me get involved."  

Kilmer wanted his action to spark conversation, and it did. By noon the video of him smashing the M1 and its 30-round magazine — "the magazine is the most dangerous part of the gun," he said — had clocked 16,000 minutes of viewing time and sparked hundreds of comments, pro and con.

Nikolas Cruz charged with 17 murder counts

Lehigh Acres, Florida resident George Kilmer destroyed his M1 Carbine ​​rifle  and a 30 ​-​ round clip that goes with it on Wednesday 3/7/2018. He was moved by the Parkland Florida school shooting and wanted to show his support. The gun enthusiast still owns ​weapons, including a 20-gaug​e shotgun that he ​says is "the best for  protection. ​"​ He believes that people don't need ​military-grade  weapons ​for consumer use. Before destroying the gun he made sure all bullets were out of the gun and out of the clip.  This is a photo of the 30-round clip.

"Thank you, sir. Your action, concern, thought, and empathy are very much appreciated," wrote McGargantuette McKelvey, while Tim Houghland posted disapprovingly, "So this man is openly degrading the Constitution upon which this country (in which he lives) is founded upon."

Spring break boycott talk is FM Beach nightmare

Kilmer is a Second Amendment defender, gun enthusiast and hunter who started shooting targets when he was 14.

"My father was scared of guns and didn't have anything to do with them," he said. "He gave his gun to me."

Taught to shoot and hunt by his best friend's father, Kilmer became sensitized to deaths by gunshot in the funeral business; most of them suicides.

Now in his 70s, the semi-retired businessman says he bought the M1 on a whim after seeing an ad in a gun magazine circular. Made in Florida, the weapon was used through WWII, the Korean War and beyond to arm South Vietnamese soldiers. 

The M1 Carbine also was used in the 1974 shootout between the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Los Angeles Police Department, memorialized in a photo of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst holding one of the rifles during a bank robbery. 

It was in 2012 that Kilmer says he began to have mixed feelings; the year 20 6-and 7-year-old children were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 

"When the NRA leadership got on the air and expressed his opinion that everyone should have a gun, I cancelled my membership," he said.

Gun control momentum 'didn't happen out of the blue'

Lehigh Acres, Florida resident George Kilmer destroyed his M1 Carbine ​​rifle  and a 30 ​-​ round clip that goes with it on Wednesday 3/7/2018. He was moved by the Parkland Florida school shooting and wanted to show his support. The gun enthusiast still owns ​weapons, including a 20-gaug​e shotgun that he ​says is "the best for  protection. ​"​ He believes that people don't need ​military-grade  weapons ​for consumer use. Before destroying the gun he made sure all bullets were out of the gun and out of the clip.

But the courage shown by the Marjorie Stoneham Douglas students affected him more; the moment, especially, when 17-year-old Cameron Kasky asked Sen. Marco Rubio if he would be accepting NRA donations. 

Parkland shooting survivor asks Rubio to reject NRA money

Although a registered Republican, Kilmer said he won't be voting for any politician who supports a complete lack of gun control.  

But he won't be giving up his other guns, either, including a 20-gauge shot gun that he uses for protection.   

 "When our forefathers wrote the Second Amendment, a musket was a big deal. Do you think they imagined there would be an AR-15?" the Lehigh man referred to the weapon 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz used to slay the Parkland, students. 

Even as Kilmer cleared the M1 before taking a sledgehammer to it, he knew his symbolic act would have detractors, and not just on Facebook.

"I have six kids, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren, and I doubt they will all agree with me," Kilmer said. "I have a son-in-law who's a Marine. 

"Thanksgiving will be interesting."

 

Follow this reporter on Twitter @PatriciaBorns.