Loaded Content

Table of Contents

Introduction

Leading up to the horrific 2022 mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, the shooter, an 18-year-old white supremacist, viewed dozens of YouTube videos to learn how to operate and modify firearms as well as tactical training, including how to shoot through bulletproof glass. Tragically, equipped with this YouTube-acquired knowledge and a Bushmaster AR-15-style assault weapon that he learned how to modify so it could use multiple high-capacity magazines, the shooter killed 10 people, wounded three others, and traumatized many more.

“I’ve just been sitting around watching YouTube and shit for the last few days. I think this is the closest I’ll ever be to being ready.” —the perpetrator of the mass shooting in Buffalo, days before his attack¹

YouTube has long provided a platform for firearms content, like the videos viewed by the mass shooter in Buffalo, and is often referred to as “guntube.” Videos on guntube frequently depict dangerous activities and hateful rhetoric, and are often sponsored by firearms companies. Guntube includes thousands of videos that glorify military-style assault weapons and seek to equip viewers with tactical know-how for winning gunfights.

Meanwhile, the gun industry actively sponsors guntube as a space to promote its products. And the rapid growth of firearm content on YouTube has created an ecosystem in which millions of viewers are exposed to dangerous and irresponsible narratives about guns. These narratives do not appear organically; they are carefully cultivated and monetized by the gun industry. This report examines that relationship and also breaks down the major categories of guntube content, the creators that have flourished on the platform, and provides recommendations on how YouTube can better police gun content to make its platform, and by extension, our communities, safer.

In guntube, the firearms industry has found a uniquely powerful marketing channel, one that reaches millions of potential customers with far greater intimacy and persuasive force than traditional advertising. Gun content on YouTube has amassed more than 29 billion views, with dozens of channels boasting 1 million or more subscribers.² As guntuber Jon Patton of The Gun Collective observed, “The entire [gun] industry feeds off of YouTube, whether they will admit it or not.”³

Gun Industry Marketing on Guntube

Rather than purchasing banner ads or television spots, gun manufacturers and retailers embed themselves directly into the content itself, sponsoring guntubers who showcase, test, and enthusiastically endorse their products, with a successful channel pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year through a mix of ad revenue and direct industry sponsorships.⁴ This influencer marketing model allows the industry to sidestep the advertising restrictions that apply to traditional media: Major broadcasters, including ABC and CBS, do not accept firearms advertisements, and Google, Meta, and YouTube itself all prohibit paid gun ads, which in turn pushes manufacturers to sponsorships as a primary marketing outlet.⁵ According to estimates by Oregon State University marketing researchers, social media influencers drove between 1 and 1.5 million firearm sales in 2025 alone, worth up to $825 million in retail revenue. This figure is especially notable for an industry that spends less than one percent of its revenue on conventional advertising.⁶

Sponsorship arrangements between guntubers and firearms companies take many forms. In some cases, creators receive free firearms, accessories, or ammunition in exchange for reviews and on-camera demonstrations. In others, formal paid partnerships require creators to feature specific products prominently in their videos, often with little to no disclosure to viewers.⁷ Several members of the gun industry have leveraged guntube sponsorships to reach younger, digitally native audiences. The result is a blend of entertainment and advertisement, in which the line between genuine endorsement and paid promotion is deliberately obscured.

Beyond direct sponsorship, the gun industry benefits from the broader cultural ecosystem that guntube has helped construct. Channels with millions of subscribers lean heavily into their hosts’ military or law enforcement backgrounds, using tactical language, special operations equipment, and military cosplay as both content and brand-building strategy. When guntubers present a particular rifle as a symbol of freedom or tactical readiness, they are not simply reviewing a product; they are selling viewers an identity. The firearms marketing industry has been explicit about why: with paid gun advertising banned across Google, Meta, and YouTube itself, influencer marketing has become one of the the only methods available for gun businesses seeking to reach new customers online. The guntube ecosystem was deliberately constructed and funded by an industry shut out of conventional advertising.

The reach of guntube’s industry-funded content extends to children. A 2023 report found that content creators are sharing hyper-aggressive and hyper-sexualized content directly with minors to promote military-style weapons.⁸ Accordingly, while social media platforms may ban direct firearms advertising, they widely permit industry-sponsored influencer content, rendering the ad bans ineffective.⁹ This is particularly true with firearms content creators, as the report found that endorsements of “firearms and their accessories without including any disclosures about compensation are ubiquitous on social media.”¹⁰

As this report was being written, YouTube updated its branded content policies in September 2026 to bar “weapons or ammunition” from “any content on YouTube influenced by a brand partner in exchange for something of value, such as featuring or promoting a brand’s products or services in exchange for payment, free products, or sponsorships.”¹¹ Whether this policy will be meaningfully or consistently enforced by YouTube, and its effect on guntube, remains to be seen.

The Leviathan Group

For many of guntube’s most prominent creators, their financial relationships with the gun industry do not typically operate through bilateral deals with a company. Instead, they are brokered through a little-known intermediary that has become the most powerful behind-the-scenes force in the guntube ecosystem: the Leviathan Group, a marketing firm based in Monroe, Michigan.¹² Leviathan operates at the intersection of the gun industry and online content creation, representing some of the platform’s most-watched creators and connecting them with a network of gun manufacturers and retailers seeking to reach guntube’s massive audience.

Leviathan maintains a stable of prominent guntube creators, known as the “Leviathan Tribe,” who agree to accept and promote sponsored content brokered by the firm.¹³ Leviathan sells access to these creators to firearms manufacturers and retailers, offering services including product and brand sponsorships, dedicated product videos, range days where brand clients and influencers gather to test and film content together, and product placement in films and video games.¹⁴ According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Leviathan “helped to standardize prices for sponsored videos and maintain relationships between creators and firearm industry contacts.”¹⁵ The firm has placed its client’s products in major film franchises, including John Wick, Captain America, and The Fast and the Furious, dramatically extending the reach of its industry clients beyond the guntube audience and into mainstream entertainment.¹⁶

Central to Leviathan’s value proposition appears to be the role it plays as an intermediary. By routing payments through Leviathan rather than directly from a manufacturer, creators may claim editorial independence while producing what could, in practice, function as sponsored content. In other words, a creator compensated through Leviathan can technically deny receiving money from any specific manufacturer while effectively serving as that manufacturer’s paid spokesperson. Such a structure would allow the industry to maintain a pretense of authenticity and grassroots credibility compared to conventional advertisements. However, the arrangement has drawn sharp criticism from within the firearms community itself. In 2020, firearm accessory manufacturer Modlite Systems publicly severed ties with Leviathan-affiliated creators, stating that influencers taking undisclosed payments while purporting to offer unbiased reviews had “lost any moral integrity.”¹⁷

Court records shed further light on the commercial scale of Leviathan’s operations. In a federal lawsuit filed against an outdoor products manufacturer, Delco LLC, for failure to pay for marketing services, Leviathan sought and received an arbitration award of more than $250,000, with the underlying contract calling for payments of $100,000 per month.¹⁸ In a separate case in Florida, a court awarded Leviathan a judgment of over $576,000 against firearms retailer Big Daddy Unlimited, which had fallen behind on payments for an influencer marketing services agreement.¹⁹ The litigation offers a rare window into the commercial value the firearms industry places on access to guntubers.

Leviathan’s relationships with creators have also become a subject of scrutiny. The exclusivity terms of Leviathan’s contracts have been a deterrent for some prominent creators. Ian McCollum of “Forgotten Weapons,” a guntuber with over 3.2 million subscribers, publicly disclosed that he had explored a relationship with Leviathan but ultimately declined after learning that the contract would require him to route any deal sought by sponsors through Leviathan for negotiation, and that Leviathan would retain exclusive control over his commercial relationships. McCollum stated that he was “not willing to sacrifice my independence and put myself at the mercy of their lawyers.”²⁰

In June 2024, guntuber Mike Jones (known as “Garand Thumb”), who had over 4 million subscribers at the time, publicly announced that he was ending his relationship with Leviathan and building his own internal advertising team, citing a desire for greater independence.²¹ The guntube community took particular note because Garand Thumb simultaneously distanced himself from the Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI), a for-profit online gunsmithing school that is listed as a partner on Leviathan’s website²² and functions as one of guntube’s most prolific sponsors.²³ The school’s financial model depends on veterans: More than 4,700 of SDI’s roughly 5,400 students received GI Bill or Defense Department tuition benefits for the 2023 to 2024 school year.²⁴ Army veteran Matthew Cardwell, testifying before a Department of Education panel in March 2024, said he felt “duty-bound” to warn fellow veterans that SDI’s coursework “entirely consisted of YouTube videos that I could have watched for free on my own.”²⁵ Nonetheless, many of guntube’s top creators remain embedded in the financial infrastructure Leviathan built.

The Gundies

If the Leviathan Group represents the hidden infrastructure of guntube’s economy, the Gundie Awards represent its annual coming-out party. For the past seven years, just before the official start of the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas, guntubers have gathered for the Gundie Awards. A play on the “Dundies” from the television show The Office, the awards spotlight creators who help expand the market for dangerous weapons and accessories while reinforcing narratives that frame commonsense gun safety measures as a threat to freedom. The event, held at the Venetian Theatre and live-streamed for the first time in 2026, serves as an opportunity for the gun industry and gun lobby to reward guntubers who market their products, with categories including “Influencer of the Year” and “Breakout Creator of the Year.” The 2026 Gundies were sponsored by several members of the gun industry, including gun makers Daniel Defense, Palmetto State Armory, Sig Sauer, and Taurus, as well as Gun Owners of America (GOA), a far-right gun group that opposes all gun laws. In previous years, the event was sponsored by online retailer Brownells and gun makers Henry Repeating Arms and Beretta.

The Gundies also showcase the gun industry’s deliberate push to expand guntube’s audience beyond its traditional base. In particular, the gun industry has sought to cultivate female content creators to promote its products. Manufacturers actively scout for talent at the SHOT Show, looking for female creators who can embed firearms alongside beauty, fashion, and motherhood content — making guns, as one marketing researcher put it, “artifacts of everyday life.”²⁶

Through Leviathan’s financial infrastructure, the Gundies annual gathering, and the recruitment of new creators to showcase products to larger audiences, the gun industry has turned guntube into a sophisticated and well-resourced marketing operation. But the content that operation funds and amplifies is not merely commercial. The industry’s investment does not flow into a neutral entertainment platform; it sponsors an ecosystem that generates a steady supply of videos teaching tactical combat techniques, amplifying extremist narratives, and glorifying dangerous weapons, frequently in a deliberate appeal to young viewers.

This category of guntubers produces highly detailed videos demonstrating how to use firearms in combat-style scenarios. While creators often claim these videos are for entertainment or educational purposes, they are widely consumed by a civilian audience far removed from the battlefield as well as the military’s safety training and discipline.

Equally troubling is the cultural effect: Tactical content on guntube valorizes a militarized identity and perpetuates a narrative of constant threat. That worldview can encourage firearm stockpiling and paranoia, and guntube provides guidance to groups or individuals who seek to translate online rhetoric into offline violence.

Mike Jones (Garand Thumb)

As mentioned, Mike Jones operates a guntube channel under the moniker “Garand Thumb” that now has 4.6 million subscribers.²⁷ In his videos, Jones frequently leverages his military background to offer purported tactical advice to viewers. That includes a video series called “Becoming Deadly in the Mountains” about surviving in the wilderness while evading detection by military forces, advice which could presumably also apply to evading law enforcement.²⁸ Jones’ videos have advised viewers on how to win a gunfight,²⁹ and offered guidance on urban warfare.³⁰ His channel also includes videos featuring gun reviews,³¹ the recreation of assassinations,³² and his analysis of different execution methods.³³

A screenshot of a Garand Thumb video in which he advertises 40mm grenade launchers.

A screenshot of a Garand Thumb video in which he describes how .22 rounds damage the human body.

Jones has also embraced extremist rhetoric and iconography. He has used transphobic slurs online³⁴ and has decorated at least one of his firearms like the rifles used by the Rhodesian colonist army,³⁵ a source of inspiration to white supremacists.³⁶ Notably, the white supremacist who committed the 2022 hate-motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, claimed to have watched Garand Thumb videos in preparation for his attack.

Lucas and Isaac Botkin (T.Rex Arms)

Members of the Botkin family founded gun accessory manufacturer T.Rex Arms in 2013.³⁷ The Botkins themselves are frequently featured on the company’s YouTube channel and have stated that the purpose of the channel is to use stylized tactical firearms content to introduce and promote their fundamentalist Christian political and religious goals.³⁸ The channel has over 1.6 million subscribers and often demonstrates tactics commonly used by military and law enforcement personnel related to shooting under stress,³⁹ communications,⁴⁰ and tactical maneuvering.⁴¹ Videos characterized as real-life, first-person-shooter content⁴² instruct viewers on how to shoot faster⁴³ and “run and gun.”⁴⁴

A screenshot of a T.Rex Arms video featuring Isaac Botkin.

A screenshot of a T.Rex Arms video showing Lucas Botkin "running and gunning" with an FN SCAR.

T.Rex Arms’ political content often focuses on “preparedness” and anti-government rhetoric, and frames the featured tactics as necessary for resisting tyranny or surviving societal collapse.⁴⁵ Videos on the channel argue that everyone “needs” an AR-15⁴⁶ and that red flag laws violate human rights.⁴⁷

Some guntubers mix firearms content with political extremism — conspiratorial claims, praise for violent movements, or the use of symbols associated with hate groups — frequently packaged as entertainment. Additionally, these creators often oppose all forms of gun regulation, presenting background checks, red flag laws, and licensing requirements as steps toward authoritarian control. Creators in this space also include those who have endorsed violence against the government and voiced support for anti-government extremist movements. Their messaging often attracts followers who are already distrustful of institutions, reinforcing echo chambers that validate extreme views.

Brandon Herrera (The AK Guy)

Brandon Herrera, a prominent guntuber known as “The AK Guy” with over 4.2 million subscribers,⁴⁸ has built his platform with highly disturbing and controversial content. For example, Herrera’s content regularly makes light of gun violence and dangerous firearms handling more broadly. He has posted multiple videos, now arranged in a user-friendly playlist, in which he “recreates” notorious assassinations, including those of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr., with realistic ballistic dummies with fake bones and blood.⁴⁹ Another series of videos features Herrera jokingly reviewing disturbing videos of people irresponsibly handling guns,⁵⁰ and he publishes content that dissects popular gun memes and amplifies gun lobby propaganda.⁵¹

Herrera has also used his YouTube channel to glamorize extremist iconography and movements, and even create a permission structure for violence against the government. He has voiced support for the far-right Boogaloo movement, which advocates for a second American civil war to overthrow the government,⁵² and suggested that various government agencies will assassinate civilians, titling one video “THE IRS IS GEARING UP TO KILL YOU”⁵³ and implying in others that the CIA⁵⁴ and FBI⁵⁵ kill people who question the agencies’ narratives.

Additionally, Herrera has created videos glorifying the weapons used by the Rhodesian colonial army⁵⁶ and Nazis, referring to a submachine gun in one of his videos as “the original ghetto blaster” and “Hitler’s street sweeper” before playing a Nazi marching song.⁵⁷ In another video, he labeled a Nazi-era German machine gun “Kanye’s Buzzsaw,” a reference to West’s antisemitic rants.⁵⁸

A screenshot of a Brandon Herrera video on the German MG43 machine gun.

A screenshot of a Brandon Herrera video where he recreates the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2024, Herrera narrowly lost the Republican primary for Texas’s 23rd congressional district. During the campaign, he was criticized for mocking veteran suicide⁵⁹ and for his reported membership in the North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,⁶⁰ which has historically supported white supremacist groups.⁶¹ After Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Herrera publicly campaigned to be the next director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) while simultaneously advocating for the agency to be dismantled. As Herrera put it, “There’s nothing I would rather see more than the headquarters of the ATF turned into a f***ing Spirit Halloween.”⁶²

In August 2025, the mass shooter responsible for killing two children and wounding 27 people at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis published a series of videos on YouTube. In one video, the shooter claimed that he had met Herrera at the SHOT Show, that Herrera “sponsored” the video, and that people should vote for Herrera for president.⁶³

Collins Idehen Jr. (Colion Noir)

Collins Idehen Jr., who goes by Colion Noir, has a YouTube channel with over 3.3 million subscribers.⁶⁴ A former NRA commentator, his videos range from firearm reviews to political commentary and gun rights advocacy. Noir frequently challenges gun safety policies and mainstream media narratives, and often veers into conspiratorial territory, asserting that government and media figures exaggerate the dangers of firearms to strip citizens of their rights. In the weeks after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Noir suggested that the child survivors were actually paid actors part of a grand conspiracy.⁶⁵ He publicly taunted them, claiming that “no one would know your names” if their classmates were still alive.⁶⁶

A screenshot of a Colion Noir video marketing AR-15s for civilians.

A screenshot of a Colion Noir video advertising forced-reset triggers for semi-automatic rifles like the Sig Sauer MCX.

Noir has also published videos asserting the necessity of civilian-owned assault weapons,⁶⁷ attacking political opponents,⁶⁸ and advising viewers to carry guns anytime they leave the house.⁶⁹ In one video, Noir tells viewers, “If you live in America and you can legally own a firearm and you still don’t have [an AR-15]. Yeah, I’m just going to say it. You’re stupid.”⁷⁰

In March 2025, online firearms retailer GrabAGun announced that Noir was joining the company’s board of directors alongside other former NRA representatives and Donald Trump Jr.⁷¹ The company is poised to take advantage of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back gun regulations.

Eric Blandford (Iraqveteran8888)

Eric Blandford’s Iraqveteran8888 channel has over 2.7 million subscribers.⁷² While Blandford began with a focus on firearm reviews and gunsmithing, he has expanded into anti-government and anti-semitic extremist content and gun rights advocacy.⁷³ In several videos on the channel, Blandford rapidly fires hundreds of rounds in an attempt to cause guns to catch on fire or “meltdown.”

A screenshot of an Iraqveteran8888 video showing him firing a AR-15 with multiple high-capacity magazines.

A screenshot of an Iraqveteran8888 video showing him "melting down" an AK-47.

Between May 2022 and April 2025, Blandford was the Georgia state director of GOA,⁷⁴ a far-right gun group that, as mentioned, opposes all gun restrictions.⁷⁵ In a series of videos called “Gun Gripes,”⁷⁶ Blandford has called lawmakers who support gun safety measures “the enemy” and argued that requiring background checks and registration for firearms is a precursor to gun confiscation,⁷⁷ echoing GOA’s extremist rhetoric. He has also fearmongered about a coming civil war and armed conflict with the government.⁷⁸

Blanford’s inflammatory commentary extends to his posts on X. For example, in October 2025, he wrote, “They want to take your guns away so badly because: 1. They are planning on doing something you will want to shoot them for. 2. They are afraid you are going to get fed up with all this shit and start shooting them.”⁷⁹ In March 2024, he retweeted a post claiming that “Democrats and foreign nations” purposely released a “superflu” in 2020 to “stop MAGA and Donald Trump,” and urged followers to “be prepared for literally anything. Expect false flags. Expect a massive witch hunt. Expect any number of manufactured disasters. Keep your head in the swivel.”⁸⁰

A growing segment of guntubers has helped normalize illegal or highly dangerous weapons. Some content creators, particularly on YouTube shorts, showcase small third-party devices known as “Glock switches” that illegally convert some types of semi-automatic pistols into fully automatic weapons.⁸¹ Videos with Glock switches often highlight the rate of fire or recoil effects of these modifications, without acknowledging that these devices are classified as machine guns under federal law, are illegal for civilians to possess, and are increasingly used in crimes.

Additionally, one of the most significant developments in recent years has been the uptick in content featuring ghost guns, including 3D-printed firearms (3DPFs).⁸² These videos fail to address the associated dangers with the proliferation of such weapons: the absence of background checks, the ease of diversion into criminal markets, and the challenges unserialized 3DPFs pose for crime gun tracing.

John Elik (IvanPrintsGuns)

John Elik, better known online as “Ivan the Troll” and “Ivan Prints Guns,” shares guides and content that facilitate the proliferation of 3D-printed ghost guns. He also has a YouTube channel with more than 100,000 subscribers where he demonstrates those 3D-printed guns.⁸³ Elik is closely tied to The Gatalog, a decentralized 3DPF community that shares gun files, printing tips, and design modifications. He was involved in refining and promoting the F*** Gun Control 9mm, or FGC-9, a 3DPF designed to be assembled using only a consumer-grade 3D printer and basic metal hardware.⁸⁴

According to The New York Times, the FGC-9 is “so desirable among far-right extremists in Britain that the possession and sharing of its instruction manual is being charged as a terrorist offense.” The article notes that no one has done more to “promote the gun and the ideology” than Elik, who called the FGC-9 a “tool of liberation.”⁸⁵

A screenshot of a YouTube video uploaded by John Elik, aka IvanPrintsGuns.

Print Shoot Repeat

Print Shoot Repeat (PSR) is a prominent guntuber whose highly-stylized content promotes 3DPFs and firearm components.⁸⁶ He wears a mask and often incorporates music or humor into videos that serve to spark interest in 3DPFs while simultaneously downplaying the dangerousness of firearms. In many of his videos, PSR dances with and fires 3D-printed assault weapons, including those that have been converted into machine guns.⁸⁷ In one video, PSR receives a machine gun conversion device 3D-printed by the video’s sponsor, Aves Engineering. The video directs viewers to another website where members can watch a longer version of the video to see how the device is installed.⁸⁸

A screenshot of a Print Shoot Repeat video featuring a 3D-printed MP5.

With more than 740,000 subscribers and millions of cumulative views, PSR’s channel has become one of the most visible sources of normalized 3DPF content online.

This category of YouTube content includes guntubers who deliberately make firearms content appealing to children and teens. Some creators tap into gaming culture, comparing video-game weapons and tactics to their real-life counterparts.⁸⁹ Others feature children and teens using assault weapons and other dangerous firearms. Such content, which is often sponsored by the firearms industry, raises concerns because children have difficulty distinguishing advertisements from entertainment.⁹⁰

Additionally, YouTube Shorts cater to a younger demographic through quick, attention-grabbing clips.⁹¹ As mentioned, several content creators on YouTube Shorts have posted videos demonstrating the installation and firing of illegal machine gun conversion devices.⁹² The algorithmic promotion of YouTube Shorts means these videos often reach wide audiences of young viewers.

Autumn’s Armory

Autumn’s Armory is a guntube channel with over 280,000 subscribers and over 25 million cumulative views dedicated to showing young Autumn Fry handling and shooting various firearms. It was started in 2020, when she was just seven years old.⁹³ Videos on the channel feature Autumn handling AR-15s,⁹⁴ testing “cute low power” ammunition,⁹⁵ and participating in tactical drills with assault weapons,⁹⁶ often while her parents film. The logo shown at the beginning of Autumn’s videos is a unicorn combined with an AR-15 bolt carrier, an internal component required for the gun’s operation.

A screenshot of an Autumn's Armory video showing her firing an AK.

A screenshot of an Autumn's Armory video showing her firing an AR-15.

Many videos on the channel have playful titles and are styled as challenges for Autumn to complete with various guns. The channel has drawn criticism for promoting firearms use by children and for marketing guns as family-friendly.⁹⁷

Guntube is not an organic phenomenon, but instead a deliberately constructed and industry-funded ecosystem, and part of its design is to sell firearms to as many people as possible while evading the advertising restrictions that govern every other marketing channel. Unable to advertise through conventional media, gun manufacturers and retailers have poured money into a network of content creators who glamorize military-style weapons and tactics, amplify extremist narratives, and make guns aspirational to young and vulnerable viewers.

Corporate actors, such as YouTube, have a responsibility to ensure that their platforms do not promote or glorify dangerous activities or products. This is especially true in the case of their young users. In order to ensure that the world’s largest video platform is protecting its viewers, the platform should adopt the following recommendations:

YouTube must enforce its firearm policies.
YouTube has not consistently enforced existing Community Guidelines with respect to guntube,⁹⁸ and several videos that violate those guidelines remain on the platform — sometimes for years.⁹⁹ In the case of videos that show viewers how to build ghost guns and install Glock switches, YouTube only began any meaningful enforcement after advocacy by the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. Further, recent reporting indicates that when the platform does issue new policies, such as its 2024 age-gating of content showing automatic weapons and privately made firearms, videos that violate YouTube’s Community Guidelines have remained on the platform.¹⁰⁰ YouTube should also enforce its branded content policies, which, as mentioned, explicitly bar “weapons or ammunition” from sponsored content — a rule that, if applied, would prohibit the very sponsorship arrangements documented throughout this report.¹⁰¹

YouTube must put more resources into proactive, robust content moderation. Videos that violate the platform’s guidelines should be removed immediately — not months or years after they are uploaded to the platform. Critically, the industry sponsorships documented in this report mean that financial incentives actively work against self-policing. Meaningful enforcement by YouTube is essential to ensuring the platform does not promote violent content.

YouTube must enforce its Child Safety Policy, place additional age restrictions on firearms content, and remove algorithmic recommendations of firearms videos to minors.
Current YouTube policies prohibit content that “endangers the emotional and physical well-being of minors.”¹⁰² With respect to firearms, the Child Safety Policy prohibits content “showing a minor participating in dangerous activities or encouraging minors to do dangerous activities” including “content that shows minors… using firearms unsupervised.” Such policies should already prohibit content that depicts, for example, reenactments of school shootings or young people firing assault weapons or unsafely handling firearms. However, there are several examples of such videos on the platform, many of which have accrued thousands of views over a number of years. With respect to enforcement of its own policies, a 2024 Tech Transparency report found that YouTube “has not taken the steps it promised to shield young users from gun content.”¹⁰³ As with its general firearms content moderation, YouTube should consistently enforce policies designed to ensure children safely use the platform and swiftly remove videos that violate its Child Safety Policy.

Following advocacy efforts by Everytown, YouTube implemented age-gating measures in June 2024, applying content restrictions to certain firearm-related videos, including videos showing the firing of 3D-printed firearms and firearms equipped with Glock switches or bump stocks. While this demonstrates that such restrictions are technically feasible, the limited scope and inconsistent enforcement remain insufficient. YouTube should expand these measures by implementing comprehensive and consistently enforced age restrictions on all inappropriate and dangerous firearms-related content accessible by minors. Firearms content has no reasonable utility for minors who cannot legally purchase firearms or ammunition.

This restriction is particularly important with respect to content that glorifies gun violence, school shootings, unsafe gun handling, and tactical instruction. YouTube’s own Community Guidelines state, “Sometimes content doesn’t violate our policies, but it may not be appropriate for viewers under 18. In these cases, we may place an age-restriction on the video.” This explicitly includes “[c]ontent containing adults participating in dangerous activities that minors could easily imitate” and content featuring acts that “could lead to serious injury or death.” Guns have been the leading cause of death for children and teens in America since 2020, and as such, YouTube needs to ensure that all firearms content is age-restricted.¹⁰⁴

In the absence of completely age-gating firearms content, YouTube should at least prevent its powerful algorithm from suggesting gun videos to minors. YouTube’s algorithmic recommendation system appears to frequently promote videos that feature firearms, often prioritizing sensational or controversial content over safety.¹⁰⁵

YouTube should amend its Community Guidelines to prohibit content that shows viewers how to maximize their lethality or that demonstrates violent or unsafe firearms handling.
YouTube is awash with videos instructing viewers how to use their firearms to engage in military-style combat. As mentioned, guntubers have posted videos demonstrating how to engage in and win gunfights,¹⁰⁶ shoot through bulletproof glass,¹⁰⁷ and execute people.¹⁰⁸ YouTube should amend its Community Guidelines to explicitly ban such videos, which promote and glorify violence. As discussed throughout this report, YouTube should not allow guntube to be the source for tactical and technical know-how for violent individuals, such as the white supremacist mass shooter in Buffalo.

YouTube must prohibit videos that feature illegal firearms and accessories, and adapt its policies when necessary.
YouTube videos that show users with illegal firearms and accessories promote dangerous and unlawful activities and should not be permitted on the platform. As mentioned, several videos that have amassed thousands of views over months or even years feature illegal devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns.¹⁰⁹ The popularity of these devices have soared in recent years, and they have been labeled as an “emerging threat” by the ATF.¹¹⁰ YouTube must take immediate action to remove such content and prevent its spread on the platform.

As firearms and accessories, such as conversion devices, emerge and evolve, YouTube has a responsibility to ensure the safety of its platform and the broader community by adapting its policies and enforcement mechanisms accordingly. YouTube must continuously evaluate and refine its content moderation practices to stay ahead of emerging threats, such as the proliferation of new firearm modifications or accessories, and ensure that content promoting unsafe or illegal use is swiftly removed.

Loaded Content

Introduction