I’m really not a gun guy. I own a 3 pistols and 1 rifle:
A retirement presentation Beretta 92FS (better than a watch or a plaque)
Kel-Tec PF-9 as my carry gun
Sig P365 which I just bought
Ruger 10/22 rifle because I always had that desire to be the cool uncle who taught his nephews how to shoot
But I’m just not into guns as a hobby. Guns have always been tools to me. They are the equivalent of a fire extinguisher or a sporting good. I do find guns to be mechanically interesting from an engineering standpoint and I think that The Forgotten Weapons channel is a great way to learn engineering.
So I go to the range once every six months or so. It’s fun, I’m there for an hour, and I head home, proficiency maintained.
I uploaded the above video in the morning of Thursday, February 23rd. It was ad limited roughly 10 hours later.
You can even see the viewership drop when it happened.
Here is why this is so concerning. We don’t actually know what the rules are for YouTube and firearms content. YouTube seems to keep changing the rules without telling anyone what the rules are. I’m not even sure if YouTube knows the rules, and when I reach out to YouTube, they just tell me to read the rules.
All you know is that your video turns yellow and there is no process to appeal again if your initial appeal is rejected.
So here is my question: could a video showing how the US military works be demonitized because of gun content? I’m at the point in my YouTube career where the US Army is inviting me out to different bases to film videos and if a private company is telling the US Government what it can and can’t show on their channel… well, that’s certainly an interesting development.
It’s also how you get hauled in front of congress and asked to explain yourself.
So here is the Sig P365 video for posterity. From there, we’ll see.
If you are a subscriber, thank you for that. You help make up what YouTube takes away from me, and flying out to Army Bases isn’t cheap.
YouTube Demonitized my P365 video, so here it is for posterity.