Following the mass shooting incident at a high school in Parkland, Florida last month, YouTube announced earlier this week that it would be imposing a ban on firearms videos.
The Google-owned video-streaming site said that it would permanently ban videos that promote the building or sale of firearms and their accessories. However, YouTube’s ban on firearms videos didn’t sit well with gun enthusiasts and vloggers.
According to a report from NPR, gun enthusiasts are now publishing their content on the famous pornography site, PornHub.
“We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies,” a Youtube spokesperson said in a statement.
“While we’ve long prohibited the sale of firearms, we recently notified creators of updates we will be making around content promoting the sale or manufacture of firearms and their accessories, specifically, items like ammunition, Gatling triggers, and drop-in auto sears.”
According to the video-sharing website, their new policy was developed over the last four months with the help of firearms experts. All video creators or vloggers were each given 30-days notice to delete or update their video content.
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However, video content creators were reportedly upset since some channels immediately got suspended and their videos were already taken down. According to Youtube, these videos and channels may have been removed because of other violations.
In an Instagram post last Wednesday, Florida-based gun manufacturer Spike’s Tactical expressed its frustration over Youtube’s ban on firearms videos:
“The Liberal Left will slowly chip away at our freedoms and erode our rights, and the first step is to squelch our voice. To say we’re fu***** pissed is an understatement. However we are not backing down from these bit****. SHALL NOT INFRINGE!” they wrote.
On the other hand, Karl Kasarda and Ian McCollum who run the gun review channel InRangeTV confirmed that they have already started posting their content on PornHub.
“We will not be seeking any monetization from PornHub… we are merely looking for a safe harbor for our content and for our viewers,” the duo said in a statement.
The two also aired their sentiments on a Facebook post.
“Regardless of if you think firearms should be legal or not is not relevant to the point I’m about to make. My point with YouTube’s policies and InRangeTV’s move is not about changing your mind on the topic of firearms ownership – it’s about the freedom of expression on the internet,” they wrote.
“At this moment, regardless of your personal belief, firearms and their accessories are legal in the United States. Schedule 1 substances are Federally illegal, regardless of what you believe or what your local state’s take is on the topic.”
With its new policy about firearms videos, Youtube joined the ranks of other companies like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart who have implemented restrictions on the promotion and sales of firearms.
Do these people really know and understand why so many non-NRA, non-Trump, non-Republican supporters are not 100% behind their movement? In the past, 95% of the mass shooters would have been kept away from the general public…locked away in Mental Institutions. Mental Institutions are now gone and these people now walk among us with only Psychiatric Medication between us and disaster/tragedy. While I have no problem increasing the age to 21 to purchase a weapon and improving/advancing background checks. Seizing weapons from the vast majority of law-abiding citizens is clearly NOT the answer and the main reason for so much pushback. Right now people are caught up by emotion I get it..even though the FBI’s own numbers show “Yet the current rate of firearm violence is still far lower than in 1993, when the rate was 6.21 such deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 3.4 in 2016.” – Washinton Post