Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton removed a video and photographs of him shooting an AR-15 from Instagram after his race boss—Niki Lauda—ordered him to take them down.
The video showed Hamilton wearing ear and eye protection while shooting an AR-15 at a target down range, but some Formula One fans reacted negatively because the video appeared “just hours after a gunman” illegally used a different kind of gun to carry out an attack on a train in France.
According to Mail Online, car sponsor Mercedes addressed the video and photographs without criticizing Hamilton, suggesting he pay better attention to “what is happening out there in the world.” But some Formula One fans were not so forgiving.
For example, the Mail cites readers from The Sunday Mirror who responded to the video and photographs by writing, “‘F**k! You are a fool. Take a police car and leave F1.” Another wrote, “Now Lewis Hamilton—a role model for youth—publishes a video with him shooting rifles with pleasure. C’mon Champ, that is not cool.”
But Hamilton made no excuses. He responded to the criticism by saying, “‘I went to the shooting range, shot some fun targets. It was a lot of fun.”
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