A man in Severn, Maryland, has decided to take a stand and
protest against some pretty minor gun control by hanging out at
an elementary school bus stop with an AK-47.
He's identified himself as J'den McAdory,
you can see photographs of him with the gun there.
According to parents, at least, it appears that this has been going on for
a few weeks.
And when interviewed, he says that he's doing it to protest the recent
gun control measures Governor Wes Moore signed into law.
So, we're giving you the details of what the bill actually is, and
then how he explains what he's doing.
So this was signed Tuesday, May 16, it's the Gun Safety Act of 2023.
Moore said that it will help keep our communities safe from gun crime and
help get guns off our streets.
It prohibits a person from knowingly wearing, carrying, or
transporting a firearm in certain locations, including schools.
So, look, across the wide spectrum of all possible gun control, from
a little bit of training or disclosure to complete banning of all guns.
This is very much on the minor part of the spectrum, but
he's protesting against that.
He says guns can be safe if they're controlled by the right person.
I really wasn't coming out here for the kids.
I was coming out here to show people that this is legal.
But of course, the kids are scared,
the parents obviously are very worried about what this represents.
One parent, Jamie Sparrow, says, I feel like if we don't do something about it
now, then we'll be talking again, and it'll be too late at that point.
I think that lives could be lost or people could be harmed.
Sparrow said McAdory made a concerning comment when he walked by him and
his family recently, saying,
you guys are looking at me like a bunch of scared bowling pins.
Wow, I guess you're the bowling ball if we're the bowling pins.
Anyway, he says, I really want people to understand I mean no harm to no one.
I'm actually a deterrent away from the crime we always have here.
So he's been talked to many times, and he keeps saying, this isn't about the kids,
I'm not trying to hurt anyone.
But obviously a person with an AK-47 is inherently threatening,
I think most people can agree on that.
What do you guys think?
>> They're asking for vigilante violence.
So, look, I hope it doesn't happen, but I wouldn't let someone walk
around with that kind of weapon near my kids, I just wouldn't let them.
And so, I don't know what does that mean, I wouldn't let them.
I don't know, I don't know what it means.
I don't know when there's a parent that thinks like me, I'm casually
bringing an assault weapon right next to your ten year old daughter's head.
No, you're not, okay?
And so we're gonna have massive problems in this country.
And I don't even understand the point he's making.
Is he saying that this is great that I can terrorize your kids every morning?
Is that supposed to be, or is he saying it's bad?
>> Well, he says that there is nothing inherently dangerous about a gun.
Having a person with a gun makes the area safer.
People who like guns say that quite often.
So I'm gonna demonstrate that me doing this is not hurting anyone.
That's what it seems like he's doing.
>> Yeah, well, that's the dumbest point in America.
And so no, it's showing people how unsafe the guns are.
But that's the thing, man.
There's literally millions of mentally unstable people in this country that have
access to assault weapons like that.
And they're like, yeah, I'm gonna show you how safe these guns are by having them
right next to your kid's head.
No, you're not.
This is gonna get really stupid and ugly soon, and I'm super worried about it.
But there is one thing that he is proving, our gun laws are mental.
We allow this near our kids, we all should have our brains examined for
allowing these corrupt politicians to ruin our lives.
>> Well, this guy hasn't thought his own ideas out to the end of his first
sentence.
He says he's standing there with a gun because a person with a gun makes
a community safer.
But he's there because there's so much gun violence.
I mean, if he just listened to his own second sentence,
he'd realize it makes no sense.
But this is just another example of Republicans who talk about the importance
of traditional society who are some of society's most antisocial actors.
I mean, just on a basic human level,
you should see it's making people uncomfortable.
That you're either gonna hurt someone or yourself unintentionally,
and that this is a recipe for a problem.
But he loves the attention, and that's what matters the most here.
>> Yeah, or he just strongly believes it.
And you can protest, do you have to have the gun?
You could have a sign that says you'd be safer if I have an AK-47,
that at least can't go off and kill someone.
I don't know anything about this guy's politics or anything like that.
But what I do know is that pretty much everyone who owns a gun thinks that
they're a responsible gun owner.
Because you occupy your own body, every other body,
you have to try to come up with how they're thinking.
And it's easy to assume that they're gonna have faults or make mistakes or whatever,
but we always assume that we know what we're doing.
And yet, guns go off accidentally, guns get stolen, things happen.
They happen all the time, and they happen to people with guns.
And every single one of those people think that
they're a responsible person with guns.
I have no doubt that he thinks that he is an incredibly responsible person
with a gun.
And maybe he's more responsible than most, but this is still inherently threatening.
Thankfully, he has proven that he can be reasoned with.
He had an agreement with school district officials that he's no
longer gonna protest in public during school pickup and dropoff times.
So when the kids are actually there at the spots or getting dropped off,
he's not gonna do anymore.
I'm sure that'll help ease the frame of mind of the parents a little bit.
And cops are saying that they're staying in the area.
He's fully legally able to do this, but
they're in the area to try to make people feel better.
It doesn't seem the best way to push your message to me.
>> Look, if he was trying to make the opposite point that, hey, obviously,
this is not safe, are you kidding me?
I have an AK-47 right next to your kids, this is the least safe thing in the world.
I would still be against making the point in this way, cuz it is unsafe, and
it is next to the kids.
Guys, just think about this.
All he has to do, before they talked him out of going there in the morning,
in the afternoon, all he would have to do is raise the gun and start firing, and
he'd kill dozens of those kids.
But in America, him walking around those kids with
that weapon of war is perfectly legal, do you understand?
If you live in America, just to John's point about how we all occupy our own
headspace, in America, we think that's normal.
Do you understand, if you live in America,
that the rest of the world thinks we are lunatics?
No one thinks that's normal in the rest of the world.
The rest of humanity thinks we've lost our minds, and
we don't even care about our kids lives anymore.
What kind of sick people live in America?
Now it's no longer theoretical or anything.
I have now heard many people, and our members write in all the time,
people saying, canceling trips to America.
No, America is one of the most violent places in the world,
you'd be nuts to go visit America.
I'm gonna go to America, somebody's gonna murder me with an assault weapon.
We literally average more than one massacre a day in America.
Afghanistan is looking safe compared to America, and it's not hyperbole.
So under no circumstances does this make sense,
even if he was trying to make the opposite point of what he's making.
But there's nothing we could do about it, because, by the way,
over 60% of Americans wanna ban assault weapons.
But it's not like we live in a democracy.
Every Republican says, no,
I take money from the NRA, I take money from gun manufacturers.
And those bribes are worth way more than your kids.
And we don't vote them out of office, that's amazing.
And that's why you have this daily terrorism of us and
our kids being terrorized by people who own weapons like this.
And, guys, as the last point to what John was saying, the gun owners I happen
to know, half of them are very, very responsible, they really are.
They put away their guns, super safe about it, etc.
The other half are jackasses, okay?
You think every gun owner is super responsible?
Have you met human beings?
No, we've covered a thousand stories.
He left this gun right next to his kid, the kid picked it up, blew him away.
Kid picked it up, blew himself away.
Kid picked it up, blew his sister away, right?
Thousands of those stories, right?
Because people are human, and half of them are not that responsible.
And so the idea that these guns are safe is statistically incorrect,
factually incorrect.
But yet, my God, I love the freedom of having this toy.
This toy murders your kids, but whatever, I love toys plus money.
Welcome to America.
Soon we'll have no tourism left.
Who the hell would come here?