YouTube has banned DIY videos involving gun modifications from the site, following the incident in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on thousands of people attending a concert, killing 58 and injuring hundreds more.
Although possession of automatic firearms has been banned in the U.S. since 1986, a modification can convert a gun into a type of automatic. So this looks and sounds similar to a machine gun, but technically (and legally) it is not a military automatic weapon.
YouTube has therefore banned videos that contain information related to the modifications that can be made to a weapon, classifying them as videos with dangerous content.
"Following the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, we've taken a closer look at videos that show how firearms can be modified to fire faster and have expanded our existing policy to ban these videos," a YouTube spokesperson said.
As outlined in the site's community guidelines, YouTube also prohibits material that is intended to defraud, threaten, and promote hate. With hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded every day, YouTube relies on over a billion users to flag any dangerous content for review.
A YouTube search for “stock bump” still brings up thousands of results, some of which are likely stocks that haven’t been discontinued yet. Many of the top videos are people showing off the add-ons on their guns.
Anyone who now wants to modify their gun or firearms will certainly have a harder time finding DIY instructions on YouTube, but the devices may remain legal.
Gun ownership in America is generally more flexible than in other European countries, and their use when it comes to protecting property is permissible.
YouTube continues to have a large amount of videos with gun-related content, but it doesn't want gun owners to use the site to convert their firearms into weapons of war.
