A meteorologist from North Texas who runs the weather forecasting website and social media accounts iWeatherNet is going viral after posting that he had a gun ready when a child rang his doorbell and that he made the child cry.

In the posts, which have since been deleted but were shared on Twitter as screenshots by the user @TisStef, Chris Robbins also said the child was looking for a lost kitten.

The National Weather Association, of which Robbins said in his bio he was a member of the social media committee, revoked his membership for violating the organization’s code of ethics and policy.

The American Meteorological Society, where Robbins used to work as an associate editor of the weather and forecasting journal, also tweeted Monday to clarify that he has not been a member of its team since 2018 and that it would be looking further into the incident.

Robbins has since apologized in a new Facebook post for what he originally shared.

According to a biography on the iWeatherNet website, Robbins is the founder and chief meteorologist of the organization. His Twitter bio says he is from Southlake. He lists his work experience as including jobs at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

In the first of the two screenshots of his posts that went viral on Twitter, Robbins wrote that, “My 6 was loaded,” referencing a handgun, when a child rang his doorbell and that kids shouldn’t ring doorbells.

“Folks you do NOT ring doorbells in 2023,” Robbins wrote in the post screenshot that was shared on Twitter.

In a second post screenshot, Robbins expanded on the details of the incident, saying the girl was looking for a lost kitten, that he made her cry and told her he would “pull her hair” if she rang his doorbell again.

“I’m so impatient,” Robbins wrote in the second post. “I feel bad because I warned her that I might pull her hair if they rang my doorbell again. She started crying. … I told her to call animal control because I saw them in the neighborhood a few days ago.”

According to the screenshot, Robbins wrote in the post that he was sharing the story to warn people about the dangers of ringing a stranger’s doorbell.

“Read the news. Stop it,” he wrote. “If my doorbell rings again tomorrow I might pull someone’s hair lol. I’m just playing, but it really is a bad idea for kids roaming around ringing doorbells. It’s not 1972. If that brat rings my doorbell again tomorrow I will call the police. Take notes.”

In an apology posted to Facebook Wednesday, Robbins said he was “just in a terrible mood” and lashing out on social media and that he helped the girl find the cat.

“I’m truly very sorry for the ridiculous post that I made a few days ago about the doorbell,” Robbins wrote in the apology. “Temporarily lapse in judgment and we all make mistakes. I love everyone and I hope you all can forgive me. My point was, in light of recent events involving doorbells, it’s not a good idea to go around the neighborhood ringing them. I couldn’t harm a flea. I helped that little girl find her kitten.”

Robbins has received backlash from Twitter users since the post with the two original screenshots was made Monday. Some recommended finding out if he is employed anywhere and reporting the post to the employer, finding out if he has children and, if so, reporting the post to Child Protective Services, and criticizing his logic.

One commenter posted a link to a Boston Globe article from 2016 about a man who killed a teenager who was banging on his door and claimed self defense. The man, Jeffrey Lovell, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was found not guilty in 2018, according to MassLive.com.

More recently, protests broke out in Kansas City, Missouri, after an 84-year-old man shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl on April 13. The teen’s family said he went to the wrong address while trying to pick up his younger siblings, NPR reported last month. Yarl was taken to a hospital and eventually was able to return home. The shooter, Andrew D. Lester, has been charged with first-degree assault.

In most of the comments on the apology Robbins posted to Facebook, followers told him they understood that people post things on social media out of frustration, that he was trying to make a valid point about safety, that “people need to grow up” and that they disagree with critics who attacked him on social media for the posts.

Others commented that a bad mood isn’t an excuse for what he said he did in the post, that he should get a doorbell camera and that he should be more mindful of the example he sets as an online personality with a large following.

Robbins says in his bio on the iWeatherNet website that he has a masters of science in meteorology with a minor in math from the University of Oklahoma. He says he contributes to the Douglas County Sentinel in Georgia, though the most recent article from him on the paper’s website dates back to 2020.

The website and social media for iWeatherNet are still posting new weather forecasts for North Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.

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