YouTube Bans Videos Showing How To Add A Bump Stock To Rifles

Following the deadly Las Vegas shooting that involved a firearm containing a bump stock, YouTube has banned videos that show how to modify rifles so that they contain this particular feature. The videos recently disappeared from the service, and the guidelines were updated alongside this to reflect the new restriction. Until now, such modification videos were allowed on the site.

A bump stock like the one used by the Las Vegas shooter enables a rifle to fire continuously as an automatic weapon while meeting the legal definition of a semi-automatic firearm. Many videos on YouTube provided free instructions on how to modify rifles in this manner, but Google has elected to ban them following the tragic events.

Speaking to The Telegraph, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed that Google decided to expand its guidelines to ban these videos following the Las Vegas event. Bump stocks have received renewed attention — and demands for bans — following the shooting. Many gun advocates and groups have resisted attempts to outlaw the modifications, though others have relented.

A quick search of YouTube shows many videos related to bump stocks, but all of them in an informative, demonstrative, or otherwise non-DIY way. Searching for videos on how to modify weapons to have a bump stock are hard to find, and many of them have already been deleted by YouTube.

SOURCE: The Telegraph