I live in a country where it is quite unusual for someone to own a gun, but I can appreciate that YouTube how-tos are a great educational tool in the situation you describe. From YouTube's message though, it seemed that they were only cracking down on how-tos pertaining to specific things like magazine size or automatic fire. Would that pertain to the 100+ year old rifle and general gun maintenance/malfunctions?
I'm not too upset about them getting rid of videos on how to do things like full auto conversions [0](although I'm curious how they'll handle videos of bump firing that don't incorporate accessories like bump stocks). The language of the ban is vague enough that it could cover nearly all videos of firearms accessories.
Right now, manufacturers often put videos up on YouTube of how to install parts they sell. Like with Ikea furniture, I find these way more helpful than a paper manual. Same for videos about how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble guns (which often link to whatever cleaning products are used) [edit: BTW assembling something that already is a gun still falls under the ATF's definition of manufacturing a gun, so if Youtube uses the same definition these videos are banned even if they don't refer to specific products]
As for the 100 year gun-- let's take the M1 Garand (in WW2 movies, it's the one you hear go "ping". It's only ~85 years old, but bear with me). Over the last decade, the US government has sold off several hundred thousand of these rifles. As far as older guns go, they're fairly common. They shoot .30-06 ammunition, which can be found in most gun stores. However, 85 years ago metal was lower quality. If you use modern commercially available ammo in a Garand it will break [1]. There's a few options though. You can buy surplus ammo and hope that it was stored properly and that 40 years ago the quality control guy at the factory was having a good day[2]. Many people opt to recycle an initial batch of brass and manufacture their ammo. If done correctly this is safe, but there's a bit of a learning curve. Unfortunately the new policy bans videos that detail how to safely manufacture ammo.
[0] channels like ForgottenWeapons often describe how antique firearms work, which might run afoul of the new rules
[1] you can mitigate this with an accessory that reduces the pressure from the gasses. There's some good videos about it on youtube
[2] for more obscure weapons, I don't think this is an option
In principle, I think it would be reasonable if the ban essentially applied to conversions/repairs that normally would not legally be allowed to be done by people without a licence, since that should be the best proxy to social consensus on the limit of free speech.
However, this is presuming that the laws regarding that are reasonable and not too lax, which as I understand they aren't (yet).
In the same vein, I think YouTube should take down a lot of life-threatening "life-hack" videos. Wilfully misguiding the public into soldering wires together unsafely, and in all likelihood get yourself killed or start a fire when one plugs in the resulting mess should be illegal IMO, akin to some kind of manslaughter.
I largely disagree, but for a fairly nuanced reason. The work that it takes to get an FFL is mostly knowing what is and isn't legal, with a bit of proving that you have proper safety facilities to store what you keep on hand (proper powder magazine if you do large batch reloading, etc.) You can get one without knowing the first thing about actual physical modifications to guns. You can get one solely to carry inventory and sell it, with no services provided. Having resources for that person is incredibly useful! It's not like we're going to ban books on guns, or the blueprints that are part of 100+ year old public record. The prints for the Colt Model 1911A1 are up on the library of congress because it was designed for the military circa WWI. I'd prefer proper safety disclaimers on videos, or in books, or wherever. Preferably with a reasonably complete guide to shop safety and precautionary measures on that sort of thing, but I don't want it all banned per se.
I grew up in Port Lincoln, then moved to Adelaide, and now Launceston. Also, I have family in Queensland.
In my experience it isn’t unusual at all for someone to own a gun, or guns, in Australia.
My father had guns, my sisters family have multiple guns for pig hunting. Half the guys I work with have a veritable smorgasbord of firearms, I’m talking 10+ firearms, for hunting and just general enthusiasm. People I’ve worked with in IT in Adelaide own handguns for target shooting.
I guess it depends who you hang out with. Even some of the “hippies” I’ve known along the way own guns for pest control and dealing with injured livestock.
I guess the average city dweller in Australia probably doesn’t own firearms, but if you spend enough time in the towns and smaller cities... plenty of guns.
We do seem to mange not to shoot each other up very often. Im more worries about being punched in the back of the head.
The average city dweller in the US doesn’t own a gun either. There are plenty of guns around, but often it feels more like a boogeyman than a real threat.
Every major city in Florida and North Carolina checking in here. The majority of professionals that I have befriended over the years have gun collections and more than a few wear concealed ankle guns everyday, even in the office. These are heavily conservative finance folks though so maybe it’s a gun demographic. Surely there are stats on ownership we can see.
I made the statement based on the facts that while there are roughly 200 million guns in the US, most gun owners have multiple guns (i.e., most people don’t own guns), and guns are far more popular in rural areas. When we lived in New Jersey, the leases specifically prohibited us from having guns in the house or apartment.
According to https://www.statista.com/statistics/249740/percentage-of-hou... , 42% of households have guns, so while it’s close, the median household does not have a gun. And, again, firearms are far more common in rural areas than in urban areas, so I believe the statement is true.
I'm extremely skeptical of any stats around firearm counts, and ownership stats. Firearms aren't registered, which means the only data we have are the amount of background checks for buying them from a dealer (which goes through a department at the FBI called NICS). The issue is:
+ Those background checks are used for lots of things other than firearm purchases
+ Firearms can be transferred legally in some cases without background checks
+ Plenty of firearms existed before the background check system and are still owned and functioning
+ Many firearms are purchased, left to rust or otherwise break, and never repaired.
+ Firearms are occasionally turned in to the police or surrendered (usually when a family member passes and their relatives don't know what to do with the firearms).
The other source of information is directly asking people, but that runs into a bunch of problems too, mostly that people will lie.
I also don't think there's any kind of remotely common pattern that lets us correct this bad data from self reporting. Liberal gun owners are likely to lie about owning a firearm since they don't want their family to know, and conservative firearm owners are less likely to trust the person they're reporting to. Many firearm owners are taught to never ever talk about being a firearm owner to avoid being a target for burglary.
My point is, we simply don't know at all. Any gross figure is extremely suspect.
Yes, I remember a friend showing me some rifles he had recently inherited, followed by the statement that as far as he knew they had never been registered and no matter how the law changed, they wouldn’t be registered while he owned them.
Still, bad numbers are all we’ve got. I’m sure most Americans have seen guns, or know gun owners, but I’m also sure most Americans — especially most urban Americans — don’t actually own guns themselves. If they did, people wouldn’t routinely confuse “semiautomatic” and “machine gun” or “submachine gun.”
I currently live in Texas and the amount of firepower that any one person owns is not readily apparent. Texas is not the wild west that many think is with everyone packing heat and daily shootouts at the corner. Open carry is now legal here and I've yet to see the first person doing so.
Funnily enough, I was born in Port Lincoln. Been in Adelaide since.
My father owned a rifle for a time when I was young, but sold it probably 30 years ago. One member of my wife's family has what would be considered a hobby farm and recently bought a rifle for shooting pests. Outside of that, I'm not aware of another gun owner amongst friends and acquaintances.
I own an AR15, but I never shoot it. Truth be told, I didn't buy it and normally I wouldn't be interested in owning it. The only reason I keep it is because it's one of a very few things I built with my father, from scratch, with a bunch of parts. But while building it I gained an appreciation for the engineering behind how it functions, and the underlying mechanism behind how it works. I think that knowledge is still valuable, even if the topic isn't favorable.
While I'm a supporter of the right to have guns there is one thing I like to recommend to everyone: store it safely. If you already do this, great. If not, I'd recommend taking at least some small precautions:
It can be as little as just taking away a important part and store it in a good locker somewhere else in your house or even just hide it or you can do like me and get a weapons safe approved by the insurance industry and bolt it to the floor. (I got mine for somewhere around USD300 and it is big enough to also contain hard drives, medications, important papers etc.)
By being careful with storage and also introducing others to safe gun culture we might make a difference by preventing accidents, preventing more stolen guns on the black market etc.
Edit: It seems I'm annoying some people. Anybody see what I did wrong? Honestly more interested in the explanation than in the stupid votes:-/
Edit2: Tried to make my post less annoying. Thanks 1337biz
It comes across patronizing when you tell others what to do without having the slightes clue about their situation. His gun might not be working, he might even have no bullets at all. Still you go on about how he should by some weapons approved locker even so you have no idea where he is storing it right now. Just don't make so many assumptions about other people.
Don't think about the downvotes that much. They are sometimes just about timing. Around this time Europe is getting up so your post will be flooded with positive upvotes in no time.
I am not super familiar with gun channels, but I'm going to assume that they work same way as many other hobbies. Companies contact the Youtubers to showcase their new products, which are essentially adverts, which means there are always "affiliate links in the description box" to buy the stuff.
At least how I read the announcement this kind of linking will be forbidden which means that the companies making the products have no feedback mechanism on how successful the advertising is, which in turn can kill channels
It depends. Certain channels are like that, but other smaller instructional channels will also be swept up.
> Provides instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories such as those listed above.
That's going to impact a lot of channels that focus on firearms/military history as well as general how-to sorts of channels. YouTube has been a great resource in the past if you're wondering "how do I properly install these trigger pins in my rifle?" or "how do I safely load this muzzle-loader in a deer stand?"
