Deployed Army soldier attacks political veteran PSA for gun reform

An anti-gun video of mysterious origins features a handful of American veterans- and one deployed soldier is calling them out in a hilarious way.

The soldier -known on social media as TheObnoxiousOne5, or “Mr. Obnoxious” for short- created a video based on the “Veterans for Gun Reform” PSA, which featured a handful of veterans talking about their service and (incorrectly) claiming that an AR15 and an M4/M16 were “the same.”

Veterans for Gun Reform appears to be a relatively new organization that seemingly popped up overnight, with little to no information or even a website giving more information about them.

Popular Military was unable to discover who funded the PSA but it was directed by a U.S. Army infantry veteran who was previously hired by the “VA’s national public affairs office to bring an authentic veteran voice to their advertising.”

After graduating college in California on the GI Bill, the Iraq war veteran, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes spent four years creating television commercials, PSAs and videos focused on veteran issues for the VA in the wake of numerous scandals.

When Hausmann-Stokes decided to team up with Ellen Utrecht, a Dutch producer based in LA, to produce the gun control PSA -something he claims was only motivated by a sense of purpose-  companies across the world lined up to help with funding, equipment and media support, according to Wepresent.com.

“There was this void of a veteran voice in this issue. I think there’s the victims, there’s the pro-gun people, there’s all the lobbyists. There hadn’t been a voice from people who know this weapon first-hand, professionally,” Hausmann-Stokes says.

The gun reform PSA attempts to take on the voice of all veterans as if they all support gun reform -something the deployed soldier, “Mr. Obnoxious” contends.

Mr. Obnoxious starts his video -which has been shared over 26k times- by referring to several of the veterans within the PSA as POGs, or Personnel Other than Grunts, a disparaging term for military personnel who do not see direct combat.

When one of the veterans said the M4 and the AR15 were “the same,” Mr. Obnoxious held up his issued M4 carbine and explained that the AR15 lacks the M4’s ability to fire on full-auto or burst modes.

“AR15’s aren’t automatic,” he said with a grimace.

Even Hausmann-Stokes seems to be confused about the rifle he used -surprising for a former infantry staff sergeant.

“The AR-15 in particular, it allows people, like in Columbine*, like in Parkland, like in Sandy Hook, to go on a rampage in a very short period of time. It’s basically like taking a soldier off the battlefield with a machine gun and bringing it into the civilian world,” he said.

When the PSA’s subjects attempted to claim that the AR15 was specifically responsible for hundreds of dead Americans in mass shootings, Mr. Obnoxious brought up several other factors that were used in higher numbers of fatal cases, such as medical malpractice, handguns, tobacco, drunk driving and, of course, obesity.

At one point, one of the veterans in the PSA claimed they know the power of the carbine’s ability first hand.

“When?!” Mr. Obnoxious asked, “When you went twice a year to qualify?!”

In their final appeal to ban usage of semi-automatic rifles by citizens, Mr. Obnoxious pauses the video to point out a glaring and dangerous violation- the featured weapon’s safety selector switch is on “FIRE.”

“That’s it,” he said, grabbing his M4 and standing up. “I’m done.”

The comments of the video allegedly exposed some of the veterans featured in the video, including a female Marine.

“She was an analyst in the [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility],” the commenter said. “Never once did she step outside the wire. She couldn’t even shoot expert when I knew her.”

The original PSA was created for the “March For Our Lives” rallies across the US, urging civilians and veterans to join the dubiously-backed event in an effort to call for more gun control.

As to why he made the video, Mr. Obnoxious couldn’t help but get a jab in on the former Army general who suffered a serious gaffe when talking about the AR15 on CNN:

“I saw they had that weapon on fully semi automatic,” he said in the comments, “So I just had to say something!”

*No AR-15 rifles were used during the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. A 9mm Hi-Point 995 Carbine was used. 

© 2018 Bright Mountain Media, Inc.

All rights reserved. The content of this webpage may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Bright Mountain Media, Inc. which may be contacted at info@brightmountainmedia.com, ticker BMTM.