About

Gun Owners Pointing Guns At Their Crotches is a form shitposting in gun enthusiast communities used to mock expressions of praise of basic gun safety. The fad, which reportedly began in 2019, has been mistakenly considered a means of owning the libs.

Origin

The origin of the meme is unknown. However, while this could not be confirmed, many reports state that the trend began in 2019. On May 18th, 2020, Facebook ^[1] user Nick Price posted about the trend. They wrote, "To own the libs, gun owners are now pointing guns at their crotches to prove they won't blow their balls off. Update: apparently this has been going on for over a year, and it's actually to upset people who think trigger discipline is important." The post received more than 1,200 shares, 900 comments and 380 reactions in less than one month (shown below).

Spread

Over the next week, others began sharing the photographs on Twitter. On May 19th, Twitter^[2] user @BFriedmanDC tweeted the pictures with the caption "Mother of god" (shown below, left).

On May 25th, Twitter^[3] user @dyllyp tweeted, "Now these MAGA dolts are pointing guns at their dicks with the safeties off and their fingers on the trigger to own the libs. I fucking hate it here." The tweet received more than 28,000 likes and 9,500 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).

On May 27th, Motherboard ^[4] explained the fad, writing pointing guns at their crotches as a shitpost against people praising "trigger discipline," which some gun owners find annoying. They wrote:

For the uninitiated, watching trigger discipline refers to the act of keeping your finger off the trigger of a firearm until you're ready to fire the weapon. It's a safety basic, along with never pointing a gun at anyone or anything you don't intend to harm, and always assuming a gun is loaded. Trigger and muzzle discipline will tell you a lot about a person holding a firearm. Typically, if they keep the muzzle away from the camera and their finger off the trigger--even while holding the grip--they know their way around a weapon.

Several media outlets covered the trend, including Vice, The Daily Dot, ^[5] eBaum's World, ^[6] The Mary Sue^[7] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References