New Twitter owner Elon Musk is an interesting sort. He actually seems to believe in people’s rights, for one thing and is more than willing to allow people the latitude to say what they want on what is now his platform.

That likely means that gun stuff isn’t going to be as taboo as it has been.

However, he’s also been engaging in a bit of trolling, and it’s been hilarious. His latest was a picture of his nightstand that has had people freaking out.

All this news and exposure have made him one of the most influential people on the planet. Musk arouses passions on all sides. It is in this context that the billionaire has just revealed his bedside, by posting a photo on Twitter, where he often shares his opinions, projects, desires and feelings with his millions of fans. In the photo, Musk appears to be keeping a gun next his bed.

“My bedside table,” Musk posted on Nov. 28.

My bedside table pic.twitter.com/sIdRYJcLTK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022

On the light wood table there are four open cans of Diet Coke. Musk posted several weeks ago that he was on a diet based on fasting. There is also an almost empty bottle of water. And there’s a black gun sitting next to three cans. (Whether the gun is real or not is unclear.)

Whether the gun is real or not is unclear?

Seriously?

It doesn’t even have a trigger, for crying out loud. It’s a prop from a video game.

But this report is far from the most unhinged responses to the fake gun. A lot of the usual suspects were freaking out.

It is disturbing to see @elonmusk using his platform to model irresponsible firearm practices.

8 kids a day are unintentionally injured or killed with an improperly stored firearm.

As a parent, you should focus on sharing safe firearm storage methods. cc: @endfamilyfire https://t.co/T1xvCw5AoA

— Kris Brown | President, bradyunited.org (@KrisB_Brown) November 28, 2022

You leave a gun unlocked next to your bed with several young children around? https://t.co/wgSfFdFMpp

— Tim Fullerton (@TimFullerton) November 28, 2022

My daughter was killed because of gun violence. Every day across America children are killed because of irresponsible adults who do not lock up guns. Seriously,@elonmusk WTF is wrong with you? Is there a mental health concern? Are you now using your $44B to incite violence? https://t.co/5YAfuG0lbE

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) November 28, 2022

Anyone who glorifies leaving unsecured guns around the house is part of a uniquely American problem that kills 100+ people per day, and is the leading cause of death of children https://t.co/YiuyvjA9hY pic.twitter.com/oh8gk1dkD3

— David Rothschild 🌻 (@DavMicRot) November 28, 2022

Of course, all of these points might be valid if that were a real firearm. It’s not, and it shouldn’t take a gun person or a videogamer to be able to tell it is.

Like I said, it doesn’t even have a trigger.

Even the flintlock is apparently a non-functioning firearm. There is literally no one at risk because of the guns in this photo.

But it illustrates a very important point, one I don’t think Elon Musk meant to make but did anyway. It illustrates just how little these anti-gun jihadists actually understand about firearms in the first place.

They do a quick google search to get some statistics–often from heavily biased studies, it should be mentioned–and then pretend they’re actually an expert because they’re an activist.

At no point do they actually understand firearms, what they can and can’t do, or even apparently identify an actual firearm if their life depended on it.

I mean, a gun kind of needs a trigger to operate, and they clearly didn’t know that.

Which is why their comments about the lethality of various rounds or why certain models of guns ring so hollow. They don’t actually know anything. They’re just regurgitating a talking point they once heard that sounded good and advanced their preferred narrative. They don’t have any actual knowledge of their own.

Yet the press will echo what the activists say because, clearly, they don’t know anything about firearms either. They won’t reach out to someone like Cam, Gabriella Hoffman over at Townhall, Stephen Gutowski at The Reload, or even myself to get some gun background. They just run with it and present it as if there’s some doubt at all about Elon Musk having an actual firearm on his nightstand.

Musk is trolling them, and clearly doing a hell of a job of it, too.