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YouTube bans gun modification videos in wake of Las Vegas shooting
Following the shooting spree in Las Vegas that left 58 dead, YouTube has banned tutorial videos that helped gun enthusiasts to modify their weapon to fire more rapidly.
The Google LLC-owned site said it had taken down videos that featured something called a “bump stock,” a $100 attachment to a semiautomatic rifle that can make the rifle fire more bullets faster. The device essentially makes a semiautomatic weapon an automatic weapon. It’s believed the 64-year-old killer, Stephen Paddock, used such a modification.
“We have long had a policy against harmful and dangerous content,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Independent. “In the wake of the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, we have taken a closer look at videos that demonstrate how to convert firearms to make them fire more quickly and we’ve expanded our existing policy to prohibit these videos.”
Such videos are in breach of YouTube’s content guidelines, which prohibits “content that intends to incite violence or encourage dangerous or illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death.”
According to reports, bump stock sales increased after the tragedy as it believed gun users were concerned about more stringent gun control laws. Indeed, last week a bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to ban the sale of bump stocks. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and sporting goods stores also pulled bump stocks from their websites.
The National Rifle Association also issued a statement in support of more regulations on such devices. “The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” said the group. But in the same statement, it added that all Americans should have the “freedom to defend themselves.”
People later discussed the YouTube removal of the tutorials on a Reddit firearm thread, with some posters criticizing YouTube for the move. Many of the posters said they feared all firearm videos would be removed.
Image: Stux via Pixabay
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