Four-year-old boy handles rifle in 'disgusting' video

The video of a 4-year-old boy handling a gun at an NRA convention has sparked outrage online. Photo / Twitter

A video of a 4-year-old boy cocking, reloading and pulling the trigger on a rifle at an NRA convention has sparked a major online feud.

The vision was uploaded to Twitter by gun enthusiast, Kendall Jones, along with the caption: "This video is INCREDIBLE!! Parenting done RIGHT."

In the video, Jones encourages the young boy, Maverick, to "show me what you can do with the gun".

He excitedly reloads the gun and "fires" the unloaded weapon. Jones then tells him to change the magazine, which the child does with ease.

"High five. Yeah, get it done," Jones says, rewarding Maverick's efforts.

The video has been met with major backlash from people saying the boy has no idea about the danger of guns, while others praised the parents for teaching him to handle the rifle.

"That's not adorable. That's disgusting," one person commented, with others claiming the boy was teaching the weapon "like a toy".

But others agreed with Jones, saying: "This is an amazing video who cares what people say. I guarantee you he'll know gun safety better than 90 per cent of the people saying how 'horrible' this is."

This video is INCREDIBLE!! Parenting done RIGHT 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/felOU31dhf

— Kendall Jones (@_Kendalljones_) May 5, 2018

"Toddlers Killed More Americans than Terrorists" (Snopes)
"One Week in April, Four Toddlers Shot and Killed Themselves" (2017 NYT) https://t.co/oRmTGNLTyy
"American toddlers are still shooting people on a weekly basis this year" (2017 WAPO) https://t.co/l8X7uwkAIL pic.twitter.com/CQh8l4mjtr

— (((antiantisemite))) (@Tristanshouts) May 6, 2018