“Alabamian Bobby Knight has had enough,” yellowhammernews.com reports. “Last night, in response to the Arthur Ashe Courage Award being given to Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner the male Olympic decathlon winner for coming out as transgender, Knight—a grandpa and electrician from Baker Hill—blew a hole in his TV. Now he’s issuing a challenge to others who are fed up with the media, calling it the #TakeOutYourTV Challenge.” I call it “#makegunownerslooklikeignorantrednecks Challenge. Don’t get me wrong . . .

I agree that awarding Caitlyn Jenner the ESPY award was a big mistake. While it took courage for Jenner to switch genders, publicly, his experience was a lot less fraught than that of athletes who’ve overcame abject poverty, discrimination, injuries and/or physical and mental handicaps to achieve success in sports.

Shooting a TV to protest ESPN’s PC “promotion” of Jenner’s journey from man to woman – and challenging others to do the same – isn’t illegal. It’s a legitimate form of free speech. But it provides unnecessary fodder for the enemies of firearms freedom. Surely Knight could have found other, less antagonistic ways to make the point.

Again, free speech is a human right. Knight can be as antagonistic as he wants. But I believe gun owners have a moral responsibility to further the cause of gun rights by being tolerant, peaceful people. By being seen as tolerant, peaceful people. I’m not saying they have to. I’m saying I think they should.

Gun owners’ words and deeds should help “sell” gun ownership as a righteous right. So I’m calling Knight an irresponsible gun owner of the day. Because we are all responsible for what we do with our guns, and what impact that has on those around us.

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96 COMMENTS

  1. If that really is his TV, and not one he picked up from goodwill for 5 bucks, he obviously wasn’t using it much anyway. If he had shot a flat screen I’d actually believe it.

    • Flat screen? It’s Alabama……. JK. I’m from Alabama and thought the same thing – Big deal, you shot the barn TV.

    • Who cares.

      He makes a good point. However a little tannerite would have made this video a heck of a lot more fun to watch.

      • If I had a brick of 22lr for every time someone said “This makes gun owners look bad”, there would be no shortage and I would supply everyone at regular market price.
        I am tired of walking on egg shells. We don’t need to do it. Stop being ashamed of your guns. Do you really think the antis are going to quit or slow down just because we go into hiding?
        I believe we should shoot more stuff on video, not less. People love to see stuff get destroyed with guns. Why do you think action movies are so popular?
        I have said this over and over and first in response to open carry demonstrators, the only thing that hurts gun ownership politically is a mass shooting. That’s it. Other than that, all publicity is good publicity. We need to stop hand wringing over this. If Mr. Knight deserves an IGOTD award for this then Bruce Jenner deserved the ESPY.

        • If it was time for another IGOTD award, and this was the only person you could come up with, I suggest giving the award to the U.S. DOD. I call it very irresponsible to disarm military personnel when we know they are targets of Islamic fundamentalist. Emphasis on MENTAL.

  2. I just cancelled my cable. Shooting my tv and dealing with the CA cops for same seemed a bit xtreme. Course I disconnected a long time before bruce became caitlin. And the kardashians.

    When I unplugged the skinny blonde girl with the scared looking little doggie was on all the channels. What the hell was her name?

  3. Oh bull S—. I have two nice working Zenith console TVs that are fine, but obsolete. I could do the same thing and rant about Flash ads or that fact they don’t put dresses on cows or that I didn’t get to go to Pluto, just for an excuse to shoot an old CRT TV set and make a retarded video. Hell, while we are at it, we can shoot some rather nice 35mm film cameras that are very nice cameras, except they take film and you can’t hardly give them away anymore. I just hope the douche bag in the video cleaned up the glass. I would have laid out a big ass tarp first.

    • and FYI crt’s should be treated as hazardous – Lead and or other toxic substances can be used in the phosphors – granted all us shooters know the hazards of lead – but CRT’s add to that hazard. With possibly cadmium, or other heavy metals, that could greatly increase your exposure.

    • If any of those nice 35mm film cameras are made by Nikon and have Nikkor glass on them you can get good money for them.

      Pretty much the same story on Leica rangefinders.

    • i prefer SD vs HD crap… do you see the world with sharpness/HD cranked up. or even worse… “3D” /4k… one the real world looks better, you dont get migraines and its does not screwup your brain.

      CRT, Projection or Plasma…. everything else does dage to your Brain. this coming from a Tech. been around and has near all available and some you’ve never seen (never will see) tech sense 1981.

      so say what you want, but the generatio of CRT Flat screens. mine is HD. will out last LED, LCD, garbage most buy.
      Plasma is much better and lasts the longest.

      as for damage, your eyes are not designed for the new HD, never were. plus unless you buy topoff the line stuff at 120hz or better. you do serious harm. your CRT and “Monitors” are minimum 120hz and up to 600hz like plasma. lower the refresh rate the better anythi g over 5ms is Crap for monitors, and most TVs.

      so have fun Frying your brain or buy the right tech. their not all worth the money.

      • i know am off topic…. but dont punish working innocent TVs you beasts.. (src)

        it more fun with putting 2cc in from time to time.

  4. I thought he through chairs when he was mad…

    Aside from the bad joke everyone that disagrees with popular opinion should cease responding to it with ignorant actions and thoughts and attack it at its root. If you disagree with transgender normalization or gay marriage, your argument lies on whether mankind has control of its nature. Gun rights may have multiple avenues for support but ultimately it too is founded in nature in that you can not reasonably ask someone not to defend themselves no matter who the aggressor is.

    Let’s all be a little smarter how we disagree politically and maybe we’ll actually shut up some of our opposition the way people like Bobby will be.

  5. Why are you so worried and offended about something that has zero affect on you that you would destroy property in response to it?

    • “While it took courage for Jenner to switch genders,”

      The guy shooting the TV has more balls and more brains than the idiot who licked Jenners man-butt with the above politically correct BS.

    • Little tranny fun facts…..

      1)Mutilated males who went full tranny have something like 20X the suicide rate of average population.

      2)Johns Hopkins University hospital which performed first sex re-assignment surgeries now refuses to do them

      3) Trannies suffer from a Gender Dysmorphic mental disorder and the solution is not to mutilate their bodies.

      4) You will not see the above 3 facts being mentioned on the nationwide PC MFM

      http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-mchugh-transgender-surgery-isnt-the-solution-1402615120

      • What a bunch of cherry picked B.S. You’re almost as bad as an Anti-Gunner there.
        https://lizdaybyday.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-myth-of-post-op-regret-and-suicidality/

        —-First they note that general population rates for suicidality are around 1.6% in the United States. Then they note that suicidality rates for post-op transsexual people are about 4.1%. They then claim that since this is “hundreds of percent higher” that surgery does not work.

        But let’s talk about the reality. What is that reality? It is that the pre-op suicidality rate for transsexuals is 41%!!!

        Yep, that’s right. Pre-op rates of suicidality for transsexuals are 1000% higher than post-op rates. How do we know this? From the UCLA Williams Institute study Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults. (Warning! PDF!)—–

  6. Surely Knight could have found other, less antagonistic ways to make the point.

    Well, I suppose he could have smacked the TV with his purse.

  7. I have not turned my tv on in over 3 years. Even though the garbage broadcasted over the airwaves offends me, I have never considered shooting my idiot box. I would never willingly advance the cause of the enemies of firearms freedom by using my 12 guage as an off switch, if I ever do turn the damn thing on again.

    I am not certain that Bobby Knight has harmed the firearms freedom movement with his ballistic protest. But, I can just imagine the wave of revulsion that would sweep the nation if a movie or tv show portrayed things being shot and destroyed.

    We can never be too carefull when second guessing those crafty enemies of firearms freedom. Anything we do or don’t do, say or don’t say, think or don’t think can be distorted and manipulated to further their diabolical agenda. We should all just hide quietly in a dark room

    • I can just imagine the wave of revulsion that would sweep the nation if a movie or tv show portrayed things being shot and destroyed.

      Actually, we do have such a TV show. It’s called the News, and it bores most people to tears.

  8. Enforcing tolerance and peacefulness on our whole gun owning culture isn’t being tolerant or peaceful.

    • I asked the question the other day … where do all these people get the idea that everyone MUST like what you do?

      Bruce Jenner dressing up as a woman and taking a female name is just plain bizarre and unnatural. It is every bit as bizarre and unnatural as an adult dressing up as a baby in diapers, wearing a bonnet, sucking on a pacifier, and making cooing noises in public.

      If someone wants to do either (dress and take the name of the opposite gender … or be a baby in public), that is their bizarre and unnatural choice. Do NOT compel anyone to embrace nor endorse it. Do NOT condemn anyone for speaking out against bizarre and unnatural behavior. It is okay if people have other opinions on something. The weirdo who thinks it is “cool” to pretend to be the opposite gender has their opinion. And the person who thinks it is “uncool” has their opinion. Live and let live goes both ways.

      • Nobody said you had to like it. But it would be nice if you weren’t an asshole about it.

        • Random example? Bob Fesco, who does the local morning sports talk show. Like virtually every other partisan hack “liberal” douche who can’t say or do anything without injecting his politics, he constantly asserts that anyone who fails to actively fawn over anything and everything LGBTQ is intolerant and bigotted.

          If you need sixteen thousand or so other examples, go to any message board infested with “liberals” and post something about Jenner that falls short of effusive praise.

        • Thank you for making my point Grindstone.

          I said that a man who dresses like and takes on the name of a woman is bizarre and unnatural. I also said, “Do NOT compel anyone to embrace nor endorse it. Do NOT condemn anyone for speaking out against bizarre and unnatural behavior. It is okay if people have other opinions on something.”

          And what do you do? You call me an asshole for not embracing nor endorsing bizarre and unnatural behavior … and for speaking out against it. You are clearly declaring that it is NOT okay for me to have a different opinion.

          I never called Bruce Jenner an asshole nor insulted him in another way. What I DID do was reject his bizarre and unnatural behavior. And for my opinion, you call me an asshole. This is one of the fundamental problems in our nation — with mankind for that matter. As the original commentor posted, blasting me for having my opinion is NOT tolerant.

        • @uncommon: I don’t agree with Grindstone much, and I disagree with his implication that “nobody is telling you that you have to like it”–the Web and the airwaves are chock-full of people doing just that. But I believe his “asshole” comment was directed at the guy who shot the TV, not at you. That’s the way I read it, anyway.

        • I gotta side with Uncommon here. Jenner won his legitimate awards when he was a legitimate athlete. And it sure sounds to me that Grindstone called Uncommon “being an asshole about it.”

          Want additional examples like what Uncommon mentioned? Try watching a movie in the last 10 years where the gay characters *aren’t* extra clever, extra hard working, extra good dressers, extra wise, or extra “sexually advanced.” If you were to dare create a gay / transgender / confused character with any serious character flaws, then you must be a racist / bigot / asshole, etc.

          There are real awards to give to real athletes. Changing your gender isn’t a sport.

    • You dont have to like it. Hell, you dont have to respect it. Just please think about what image you’re projecting for all gun owners when you make ignorant statements on the hot topic of the minute.

  9. I remember when ESPN was about sports. Does that make me old? When I had Direct TV the only time I watched ESPN was when a football game was on.

    • When MTV was only on in the evening? And played music videos? Actual music and only music.

      • “When MTV was only on in the evening?”

        As far as I know, MTV started out 24-7.

        When I first started watching it (summer ’81) they hadn’t booked any commercials yet, they just looped their theme song – video clip that had the moon landing flag image in place of where their eventual commercials would be.

        Even weirder, the cable system fed the stereo audio to you on the low end of the FM radio band. If you wanted stereo MTV you had to fire up the TV *and* your stereo. If not, you got your MTV in mono TV audio.

        Strange days, they were…

        • Geoff,

          Television transmissions were not capable of delivering stereo audio in 1981. Thus your cable provider at the time actually did you a HUGE favor making the audio available in stereo on for your FM receiver!

          (According to an article on Wikipedia, television transmissions were not cable of delivering stereo audio until 1984-1985 and widespread availability didn’t happen until the late 1980s.)

      • MTV is analogous to hooking a sewer pipe to the back of your TV for “more content”.

  10. He shot it? Oh how gauche. If ya really want to demonstrate your contempt, have one of your buds hold your beer, draw back the old full sized mattock and let fly, up close and personal. Fun will ensue, and yes I know this from experience, which all around me survived intact. 😉

  11. “I agree that awarding Bruce* Jenner the ESPY award was a big mistake.”

    Fix’d

  12. Stop watching TV! It’s such garbage and a complete waste of time. We haven’t watched cable or syndicated TV in over 4 years.

    Mr. Knight is very responsible and I believe he is exhibiting that higher standard by blasting his TV.

    P.S. Farago, recently named my second son Robert…solid Family name and very Strong as well, as I’m sure you are aware 🙂

    • “I really was expecting this to be about a different Bobby Knight.”

      That was the first thing I thought.

      I was imagining him bitch-slapping that TV halfway down a basketball court…

  14. it took courage for Jenner to switch genders.

    Stop trolling Robert

    When Jenner transplants his guy parts to Ellen DeGenerate or Hillary then PERHAPS you can call courage.

  15. Dumbassery, f’sure.

    Still and all, the man does have a point.I do watch the Military (American Hero now)NGC, Discovery and the various History channels but I watch none of the reality shows and walked away from network television years ago. IO know longer read newspapers other than the WSJ all for the same reasons cited by Bobby Knight.
    I like my way of protesting more but I have always been the gray man.

    • He’s terrified that someone will think less of him due to another person’s actions. I almost pity those that rely on the opinions of others to feel good about themselves, almost.

  18. I know two transexuals: a M -> F like Jenner and a F -> M. Both tell me that they are glad the matter is getting some public attention and perhaps leading to more understanding.

    The M -> F told me the most difficult aspect was with her teenage children’s reaction. Both condemn Jenner as a media whore. One of the gossip sites detailed the backroom dealings so that Jenner would receive the award in return for remaining a TV personality on the network in a deal worth $223 million. Makes me wonder how many other award shows are similarly rigged.

    No interest in Jenner or those that rose to fame via leaked sex tapes. Back to guns.

  19. “I agree that awarding Caitlyn Jenner the ESPY award was a big mistake. While it took courage for Jenner to switch genders, ”

    He’s not switching genders. It is medically impossible to switch genders until someone figures out how to unzip an X and Y chromosome and then zip an X in the Y’s place. Until then he’s a delusional person that is on medication, and will soon have his genitals mutilated to cosmetically resemble someone of the opposite sex. He is a man to be pitied because his brain is broken, transgenderism being a psychological disorder similar to bulimia. There’s a very high suicide rate for people that go through with a mutilation surgery because reality intrudes and they realize that they haven’t changed genders and there’s no way out.

    “Surely Knight could have found other, less antagonistic ways to make the point.”

    Antagonism is exactly the path that we should be taking now. We should dispense with the fantasy that we will ever gain any ground trying to play nice and just go on the offensive. If this confederate flag debacle should prove anything it’s that these people simply are immune to any form of reason to the point that they are going to have a backhoe dig up a gravesite where the bodies have almost certainly completely decomposed to the point of becoming soil. They have abandoned discretion and are now attacked wherever they can to take as much ground as possible no matter how irrational the goal.

    I highly recommend you search youtube for Stephan Molyneux and his series on r.k selection theory and how that affects politics.

  20. I, also, totally support not doing anything that could possibly offend anyone. Because we all know if we didn’t say anything offensive, all the anti-gun groups would immediately disband and congratulate us.

  21. I’ll never understand why people get so riled up over something that doesnt effect them in the slightest. Jenner wants to be a woman; explain to me exactly how this is directly impacting your life? I think the answer is about as much as you owning guns impacts the day to day lives of anti-gun liberals: it doesnt.

    • You ask a fair question, and I tried to ponder a reasonable answer. Here’s what I came up with.

      Perhaps people DON’T care one whit what Bruce Jenner does, what kind of clothes he wears or what name he uses.

      Perhaps, and I’m just spitballing here, people are po’d and sick to death of such a BIG DEAL being made of stuff like this.

      If you want everyone to ignore that which does not directly affect them, perhaps one place to start with that is to stop force-feeding in every news outlet and public venue where even people that DON’T CARE can’t help but hear about it.

      And, to take that one step further…maybe people don’t care what Bruce Jenner does, but are PO’d and sick that the Arthur Ashe Award was given…FOR THIS. I mean, what the HELL does this have to do with sports? Jenner has not been a competitive athlete for how many decades?

      I can’t speak for everyone and I won’t try to. But, I will say that if I had never heard of this, I would NOT care. If I had only heard it once in passing, something like, “Hey, did ya hear about Bruce Jenner?” I would NOT care.

      I DON’T CARE about Bruce and his personal life. What I DO CARE about is the way this is being used to attempt cultural shifting on a grand scale. I’m PO’d and sick at the media and circus this has become….not about Bruce Jenner’s private life or private choices.

      • There is only one way Bruce/Caitlin (emphasis on the slash) should win the award for courage. If he underwent the trans gender process before competing then still competed against men, then I would say “good for him…her…it.”

    • I play baseball, and I would be appalled at this knuckle dragging, one tooth, cousin humping Alabama piece of white trash, redneck making baseball players look bad.

  23. Shoot your TV over a 65 year old drag queen? If Bruce wants to be a lady boy I say go ahead. It only takes “courage” if you’re poor(or not working a moneymaking angle)…

  24. I see nothing wrong with what he did he is just expressing his disgust with the the stupid crap they put on TV and the news. Why should we have to get on our knees and kiss gun grabbers butts? Because we don’t want them to think we are crazy ticking time bombs? They are the ones that want us dead or dissarmed. we are not going around threatening them they are brainwashed from watching the stupid shows on tv. He wasent directing violence towards anyone and neither am I but I’m not afraid of what the antis think and am sure not going to kiss there butts.

  25. people have too much time. The fact this guy broke a shot clean in a old tv really gets this much commentary? Dude shot his tv in protest. He had a tv, wanted to shoot it, and did. That is all. Move along.

  26. I don’t know that Jenner’s gender change, real or imagined, took courage. He ain’t on the Wheaties box anymore and, as they say, any publicity is good publicity.

  27. More like #makegunownerslookliketheonlypeoplenotinsaneinthissicksadworld.

    When is opposition to cutting your penis off a form of “ignorant redneck” behavior? Oh was that about the same time that American history and all forms of it’s remembrance made us “ignorant rednecks”. #remeberstatesrightsandtheconfederacy

  28. I’m not sure what it takes to pay some so-called surgeon to mutilate your body so you can pretend to be something you’re not, but it’s not courage. If God gave you a Y chromosome and you wish He hadn’t, you’ve got problems that no surgeon can solve.

    As for shooting your electronic equipment, I say as long as you have the acreage to do it safely, go ahead. But if you’re going to post it on youtube then throw in a little tannerite to make it interesting.

  29. I can think of a hell of a lot worse topics to shoot a TV over besides Bruce playing dress up. Like Everytime I see the Alphabet evening news take another cheap shot at the topic of guns and our liberty in the name of Public safety…. Bruce will be Bruce… let him be..

    I swear, sometimes I get the impression that some Fellow Christians believe they won’t make it to heaven unless they can bring somebody who isnt interested in going, with them.

  30. I’d just like to go on record that the only thing I care less about than some old fart taking hormones and mutilating his genitals is some other old fart shooting a TV because there’s nothing but stupid crap on TV anymore. Now if Bruce could figure out a way to get rid of that pesky Y chromosome that might be newsworthy.

  31. Who gives a damn about this fellows shooting his TV seems like their is a freedom involved here! whether It is PC or not is not the Point!
    Haven’t watched TV since Cable start up and Free TV disappeared
    {cable companies are like AT&T and should be broke up}!
    We are being sold down the river by the Perverts in the Supreme Court, Our Muslim loving President, {rubber neck and backbone like a dog} and The pervert loving Media, The News Network [Clinton News Network, Nuts brothers Corporation, All Brothers copulate} and a few more are selling us down the river too the Sodomites} and how they think we should think!
    and that is the problem we put our heads in the sand and say Woe is me! instead of voting with our dollars and make the PC ‘ER Crazy, we take their BS as Gospel

  32. This whole discussion is a crock. I don’t care what Jenner does with his pecker any more than I care what Knight does with his television set. But he/she/it is being held up as the poster child for normalization of this garbage, and I’m sick and tired of seeing and hearing about it every time I turn around. I’m glad the guy found a suitable means of venting his irritation. And if it offends someone, to blazes with them.

  33. I’m getting a bit fed up with the whole Jenner thing myself. It’s not that I care that he wants to be a woman, I just don’t think it’s particularly courageous to be an attention whore just like the rest of the Kardasian clan. Can you recall the name of any other gold medal decathlete? No, I can’t either. it is an amazing accomplishment that took dedication, but let’s face it, he’s only famous because of marketing. The kind of marketing where attention whores like Jenner excel.

    • What I find amusing about the whole Jenner thing is that during the interview with Diane Sawyer, Jenner also ‘came out’ as a Republican. I imagine that she would get a LOT more media attention if she didn’t admit to being a conservative. Which also exposes the bigotry of the left. Transgender? No problem. Conservative? Eternal damnation!

  34. They burn the flag, we shoot a TV… its how people who are fed up with the media protest.

  35. I agree that awarding Bruce Jenner the ESPY award was a big mistake.

    There I fixed it for you.

  36. I’m calling BS on this one, Robert. Seems to me this is political speech, not irresponsible gun use. Something about being “subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility”, comes to mind.

    In fact, even using the IGOTD award in this context makes a mockery of its normal use. If it were me, i would reconsider my actions, retract it and probably apologize.

  37. It would make a far more appropriate statement if he had stuck it to the wall with a large oak stake. Right through the heart, so to speak.

  38. Sometimes Robert Farrago can’t leave his New England distaste of firearms behind.

    I don’t see anything remotely irresponsible or discreditable in that video.

    And as for Jenner, it did not have courage. It has a mental disease.

  40. How is this irresponsible???? Get a grip! I am a ccw glock toting 2nd amendment guy but this reporting on a guy for expressing free speech is ridiculous. I read the website daily but c’mon!

  41. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/video-shows-caitlyn-jenner-deadly-malibu-car-crash-article-1.2286781

    I have no beef with Jenner switching, but I do have an issue with everyone acting like this wo-man hasn’t committed manslaughter and is now getting away with it. I pretty sure in most state, if your negligence led to an accident in which the driver of the other car was killed, is involuntary vehicular manslaughter. This person is getting an award for becoming a woman, even though his stole the life of another woman. Shame on the media for promoting a killer.

  42. Boy howdy, is this comments section a mess. I’ll avoid that shitstorm and just make a comment about the article itself: If you’re going to refer to Caitlin Jenner by her name, then you should also use the she/her female pronouns that she has requested. If you’re going to use he/him pronouns, you might as well keep also using the name Bruce Jenner. Don’t use one and not the other. It makes it hard to tell who’s acting like a decent human being and who’s not.

  43. no one’s pointing out there were THREE CLICKS before the boom? I sure as hell hope for his sake it doesn’t take that many tries to shoot the gun when the boogey man comes.

  44. I stopped watching TV years ago. The majority is crap. We ended up with Hulu but are considering dropping that too (we only watch about 4 shows). As I get older, read the bible more and incorporate it into my life, the more I don’t enjoy things like TV or movies like I used to.

    I end up spending more time with family, more shooting and the result is a more peaceful life. In the end BJ will always be a male – you can’t change his chromosomes. I am responsible for me and my family. Let the world do what it wants.

    Now that does not mean I won’t stand up for what I think is right – I will stand for the bible, the constitution, bill of rights, etc.

    Thats my 2 cents.

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