The day after twenty-one innocent elementary school children were murdered in Uvalde, Texas, Ben Beers, a former Marine turned to social media. He posted a video of himself handing over his rifle and handgun to the Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon so that the guns could not do any harm. In the video, Beers expresses his outrage at hearing about the cold-blooded murders.
After the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Beers handed over his guns to law enforcement.
“Today, I’m turning in my weapons to the Hillsborough Police Department, both my AR-15 and my 9MM handgun. I no longer want them,” he said in a TikTok video.
“I know this will not change legislation or anything to do with gun culture in America, but hopefully, it’ll be a form of symbolism, and hopefully, America can wake up because no other country has the problems that we do with gun culture and ideation and gun violence as we do,” the Marine stated.
Beers displayed his firearms in the back of his pickup truck before going into the Hillsboro police station, where they were then confiscated. He showed the officers the paperwork he signed that gives them permission to take away his guns so that they could never be used in a mass shooting.
Following the Ulvade mass shooting by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who shot 20 children and two teachers, Beers wanted to get rid of his weapons.
“I was up all night, tossing and turning, crying and shaking,” Beers said.
The Marine veteran had been buying and selling guns for years, but after the mass shooting that took place in Texas, he wanted to put a stop to it. He saw how easily accessible firearms were for anyone- even those who shouldn’t have them. After seeing how so many innocent children lost their lives because of this, he knew he needed to be part of the solution.
He added, “I just want to turn them in (and) have them destroyed.”
So far, the former Marine’s TikTok video has over 200,000 views. It has had a big impact on conservative viewers who are starting to understand the importance of gun control in light of so many people being killed in large massacres.
“Hopefully, soon, we can all wake up and realize this needs to be done… this is an idea. Guns are not as precious to us and nor are my Second Amendment rights as the lives of my children in school,” the former Marine said.
Although mass shootings are commonplace in America, gun control laws remain few and far between. This is despite the fact that evidence suggests these kinds of laws would help reduce the number of innocent people killed during shooting spree murders.
“I couldn’t help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, here in America,” President Joe Biden stated.
