Airbnb slammed after two-year-old boy finds pellet gun in closet of rental apartment

The discovery sparked a debate on Twitter over the safety of nonpowder firearms

(Getty Images)

A man on Twitter shared the shocking moment his son found a gun in the bedroom closet of their Airbnb rental.

“Last week, my 2 year old son found this in the bedroom closet of our Airbnb rental,” user Matt Rivera tweeted on Sunday, 20 February. “We asked for the gun to be removed but they never came to take it. We sent in a picture to Airbnb to alert them, but so far they’re ‘still investigating.’”

Rivera then posted an image of the gun — which appears to be an air rifle — stored in the closet next to two yoga mats, and a picture of the gun in the garage.

He addressed the official Airbnb Twitter in his tweet, and the company’s customer service account issued a reply.

“Hi Matt, thank you for bringing this to our attention,” said @AirbnbHelp. “We understand the gravity of the situation and would like to look into this for you. Could you DM us the email address associated with the Airbnb account? Thank you.”

In a statement toThe Independent, Airbnb said that the listing was removed early Sunday afternoon, prior to the tweets. “Our policies strictly prohibit any unsecured weapons in listings — including air guns,” an Airbnb spokesperson told us. “As a result, we took action to remove this listing from Airbnb and have been working to support Mr. Rivera and Ms. Hunt.”

Rivera’s tweet received over 4,000 likes, with over 500 comments debating Airbnb’s lack of accountability and whether the pellet gun posed any real danger to Rivera’s son.

“Now that you’ve called us out on Twitter someone will actually do something about it,” tweeted one user.

“You had to wait for this to end up on social to recognize this was a problem?” said one person.

“It’s a BB gun….everyone stay calm,” a Twitter user said.

“It’s amazing the amount of vitriol directed at the poster,” one person tweeted. “The fact that it was ‘just a pellet gun’ is not the issue; it is the fact that a potentially dangerous item was readily available to a child. Not everyone can identify every type of item that can shoot a projectile.”

Eye injuries from nonpowder firearms — such as BB, airsoft, paintball and pellet guns — are higher than they were in 1990, a study finds. The data showed that 364,133 children were injured by direct contact with guns from 1990 to 2016. While 15 per cent of injuries were considered corneal abrasions, some more serious injuries included hyphema, when blood collects inside the front of the eye.