Hurricane Irma officially made landfall at Cudjoe Key, Florida at 9:10 a.m. Sunday. It immediately brought winds measuring as strong as 130 mph, while leaving many without electricity and upwards of 127,000 people taking refuge in local shelters. In short, if there was a time to ease up on headlines poking fun at the Sunshine State, this would be it.
But some Floridians don’t make it easy. Friday night, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office issued an official warning to citizens not to shoot their guns at Hurricane Irma in misguided attempts to make the seventh largest hurricane to make landfall in U.S. history “turn around.”
The warning came in response to what is believed to be a Facebook event jokingly created about Hurricane Irma.
Facebook users Ryon Edwards and Zeke Murphy created a public event named “Shoot At Hurricane Irma”. The event encouraged users to “show Irma that we shoot first,” and it drew 54,000 interested Facebook users before the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office formally issued a warning in response.
“To clarify, do not shoot weapons at Irma,” read a tweet from the official Pasco County Sheriff’s Office account. “You won't make it turn around and it will have very dangerous side effects.”
To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effectshttps://t.co/CV4Y9OJknv
“Over 99% of the people out there have common sense and are listening, but we in law enforcement deal with the 1%, so we are trying to get the message to them,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told Holly T. Moore of USA Today.
Given the state’s penchant for hilariously tragic “Florida man…” headlines, it seemed pretty clear both the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and Edwards both clearly understood the event was a joke not to be taken seriously.
“I figured (law enforcement officers) of all people would understand the humor behind (the group),” Edwards said. “It was cool to see the response this got from Facebook. On another note, I’ve learned that about 50% of the world could not understand sarcasm to save their lives. Carry on.”
Since the one percent Nocco mentioned seems to include people who chug whiskey while live-streaming their police chases and end common bar disagreements with gunshots, perhaps it was in everyone’s best interest to issue a warning.
