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A new challenge where friends pull guns on each other is being blamed on an accidental shooting in Memphis, Tennessee.
It’s called the No Lackin Challenge, and it involves pulling a gun on your friend to make sure he’s carrying as well. According to Urban Dictionary, being “caught lacking” means “Being caught by the enemy without a weapon to defend yourself”.
21-year-old Sherman Lackland was arrested after shooting his friend in the head at a cafe in Memphis. He told police that it was an accident, and that he and his friends were doing the No Lackin Challenge.
Snopes doesn’t doubt the veracity of the claim that the boys were engaging in the challenge, but they think news organizations may be overhyping how big a trend the No Lackin Challenge is in the first place. Google Trends search for “No Lackin Challenge” finds that, other than a minor blip in October 2017, it wasn’t a top search term before this story started garnering national attention.
According to HipWiki, the slang “No Lackin” originated in Chicago, and was first heard widely on the Lil Mister track of the same name. There’s also the Dooski and Lil Scrappy song from 2012, “Lackin While It’s Crackin” But any online challenge associated with the term didn’t start until 2017. The earliest videos we can find on the challenge are this video posted to YouTube on October 3 and a video posted to WorldStarHipHop on October 4 with the title “Memphis Gang Members Hit Social Media With Their Own Game Called The ‘No Lack Challenge!’”
The assertion about Memphis gang members may or may not be the case. The Memphis Police Department hasn’t listed the No Lackin Challenge as a cause of any crimes or a public health concern yet, and in one of the most popular online videos featuring the challenge, the participants themselves use toy guns.
So, while this may be a small trend in certain pockets of the U.S, it’s not quite the dangerous online phenomenon local press outlets are claiming it is.
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