We tend to use the phrase “shooting yourself in the foot” to mean someone who screws up something so bad they end up doing more harm to their efforts than good. It’s common enough that it exists completely independent of the gun culture. People who have never touched a gun and have no interest in doing so use it.

For gun people, you’d think the phrase would have a little added significance. After all, we know all the ways you have to screw up to actually shoot yourself in the foot.

That doesn’t mean folks on our side don’t know how to do it metaphorically as well, now does it? First, we have gun rights activists showing up at the Texas Speaker of the House’s home and killing constitutional carry in the state.

Now, we have supposed pro-gun voices threatening a lawmaker who didn’t move on pro-gun bills.

Charleston County deputies are helping monitor the home of a state lawmaker after a potential threat was posted on a Facebook group.

The home of Rep. Peter McCoy, a Republican from Charleston, is being monitored after a comment posted to the Freedom Action Network of South Carolina Facebook group appeared to threaten the lawmaker, McCoy said.

The comment has since been deleted, but a commenter allegedly threatened to shoot McCoy because McCoy helped stop a bill from advancing on the state House floor.

The bill would have allowed open carry in the state of South Carolina.

To be clear, I understand the frustration. I can’t help but think of all the pro-gun bills that Georgia’s Republican leadership never brought to a vote over recent years. These are bills that likely would have passed in a pro-gun state, but the leadership never let it happen.

It’s frustrating as hell. I get it.

But to make a threat over it? Folks, that is not how to win friends and influence people. Do you think that Rep. McCoy found out that there was a threat made and then had some epiphany that changed his mind? Of course not. They either change their position out of fear, or they double down.

Doing this isn’t just ridiculous; it’s harmful. It’s hard to talk about law-abiding, reasonable gun owners when someone is making a damn death threat.

If you’re reading this, then knock it the hell off! You’re not helping anything, you twit!

Now, all of that assumes it was a pro-gun individual making the threat. A lot of people on the left like to infiltrate right-leaning places to get information on what the “other side” is saying and thinking. It wouldn’t take much for someone to post a threat with such an account and essentially create a false-flag threat.

In fact, I’d ordinarily be skeptical of such a thing being from a pro-gun person if I hadn’t dealt with a certain degree of stupidity coming from the fringe of our side in the first place. That includes some threatening comments (not quite threats, but close) from our side. Because of that, I can’t dismiss the possibility that this is legit.

And that’s a damn shame too. We’re better than that.