TENS of thousands of gun-toting Americans have joined a Facebook campaign to shoot down Hurricane Irma when it hits Florida. They’ve vowed to tackle the 185mp/h (297km/h) hurricane by showing deadly Irma that “in Florida we shoot first”, The Sun reports. Ryon Edwards, 22, came up with the novel idea of shooting at the storm as a way of amusing himself during the chaos. He started a Facebook “event”, and as of today more than 50,000 people say they are interested.

Some people appear to have taken the plan seriously, including one Facebook user who posted an image of himself holding a gun, along with the message: “I’m not going to sit around and wait, I’m going straight into the eye.” “It’s time we took a stand against this big bully! This our home nobody drives us out of our own territory,” states the event description. “Join me in this fight as we shoot flames at Hurricane Irma and dissipate her on the spot. She will burn.” The response has even prompted the Pasco Sheriff’s Office to warn residents not to take up arms against a hurricane. “To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won’t make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects,” the office tweeted.