DADE CITY, FL (WATE/AP) – Deputies in Pasco County are warning the public to not shoot guns at Hurricane Irma.

The sheriff’s office’s warning came after a viral Facebook event that jokingly encouraged people to shoot guns at the hurricane to relieve stress and boredom.

More than 50,000 people had signed up by Sunday after 22-year Ryon Edwards of Daytona Beach posted the invitation with the note, “YO SO THIS GOOFY LOOKING WINDY HEADASS NAMED IRMA SAID THEY PULLING UP ON US, LETS SHOW IRMA THAT WE SHOOT FIRST.”

Edwards told The Associated Press on Sunday in a Facebook message it “seems the joke may have gone over many people’s heads. I’ve got people in my inbox mad as hell because they think this is actually happening. I don’t know whether to laugh or sigh.”

Just in case some people didn’t understand the joke, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office tweeted late Saturday: “DO NOT shoot weapons @ (hashtag) Irma. You won’t make it turn around (and) it will have very dangerous side effects.” People have been killed by falling bullets.

Edwards told BBC he crated the event out of stress and boredom and never expected the amount of interested he received. He noted that it was a little out of control.

Edwards said in a Facebook post Sunday there is a lesson to be taken from his viral experience.

“I’ve learned that about 50 percent of the world could not understand sarcasm to save their lives. Carry on,” he wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.

Graphics suggesting how to shoot a hurricane have sprung up online, with the suggestion that if you fire correctly the bullet might not come back and kill you.

Other Facebook pages encourage people to throw flame throwers at the storm to try to scare it away. One of the event’s descriptions reads “It’s time we took a stand against this big bully! This our home nobody drives us out of our own territory.”