As one of the most prolific and gifted authors of all time, there’s simply no denying that Stephen King has a commendable way with words. In fact, that was proven entirely true when the Maine native only needed 9 words to shut down an insistent troll over the controversial topic of gun ownership.
A well-known gun owner in his own right, King took to his X account to offer up an opinion about the type of gun used during the rally at Butler, Pennsylvania that resulted in Republican candidate Donald Trump nearly being assassinated. “An AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle was used in the Butler shooting. These are the guns the Republican party—and Trump—want to protect,” King explained to his millions of followers.
As to be expected when the matter of gun control and reform in the U.S. is brought up, a mountain of backlash and criticism immediately followed, with one commenter under the post insisting that King “knows little about this subject” and that the author should simply stay in his “fictional lane.”
Firing back on all cylinders, King immediately proclaimed himself as a “responsible gun owner” and insisted that the victims “would be alive” and “Trump would be unwounded” if the shooter had access to only a butcher knife rather than a semiautomatic rifle, and encouraged the notion that the person commenting should think twice about telling him to stay in his lane.
Despite King frequently embarking on political outrage and trashing Trump on his X account, it’s clear that the topic of gun control is still important to him, and the situation at hand definitely calls for the subject to be broached once again.