YouTube bans bump stock videos
YouTube, the popular video-uploading website, has banned all instructional videos demonstrating installation and usage of bump stocks. The announcement of the policy, according to techcrunch.com, is a response to the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.
YouTube confirmed its decision earlier this week, releasing the following statement to the website:
“We have long had a policy against harmful and dangerous content. In the wake of the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, we took a closer look at videos that demonstrate how to convert firearms to make them fire more quickly and we expanded our existing policy to prohibit these videos.”
YouTube’s motivation behind the expansion of policy came after Stephen Paddock used a bump stock in increase rapid fire into a crowd of a nearby country music festival from the Mandalay Bay report on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds.
The NRA responds about bump stocks
Nearly a week before YouTube expanded its policy to ban bump stock installation videos, the National Rifle Association (NRA) released a statement that bump stocks should be regulated, CBS reports. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and NRA Institute for Legislation Action Chris Cox, according to CBS, released the following joint statement:
“In the aftermath of the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas, the American people are looking for answers as to how future tragedies can be prevented.” They added, “The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.”
What else?
YouTube’s ban of bump stock installation videos is one of the first major actions taken since Congress pulled the Hearing Protection Act from debate on Oct. 3.
Two days after the tragic shooting, Speaker Paul Ryan announced the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) has been “shelved indefinitely,” while H.R. 3668, which the HPA was part of, continued onto debating. He added there’s no plan for the house to act on the HPA, saying, “I don’t know when it will be scheduled.”
“We are all reeling from this horror in Las Vegas,” Ryan said at the news conference. “This is just awful.”
You can read more about Congress shelving the HPA here.
Featured image: Screen grab from YouTube.com
