U.K. Police Revoke Firearms Licenses from British Gun Enthusiast Due to Social Media Videos and Viewer Comments

A British gun enthusiast is losing his firearms licenses after U.K. police branded his YouTube channel an extremist forum due to viewer comments others made there as well as his statements advocating handguns for self-defense against terrorists.

Dubbed in the London press as “a campaigner for shooters’ rights,” the 28-year-old man “confirmed that he lost his gun licenses because of police concerns over extremist content on social media” on his YouTube channel.

The man had a successful video channel for four years called “English Shooting” that had over 17,000 subscribers to his channel that featured a wide variety of pro-gun shooting topics. Episodes contained titles, such as:

• “Carrying Firearms on Public Transport,”
• “English vs Northern Irish Firearm Laws,”
• “The Best Ways to Start Shooting,”
• “Dixie Gun Worx—Full US Gun Shop Tour,” and
• “British Practical Shotgun Competition.”

He recently lost the final attempts to have his firearms licenses reinstated after police revoked them in 2016 after he posted a video (since removed) called “Paris Attacks: Time for Self Defence” after the 2015 Paris terror attacks and other videos described as “attracting comments which the police said were ‘promoting views that were not in line with legal firearms ownership in the UK.’”

A conservative commentator spoke last year after viewing the YouTube channel. He described it with an “overwhelming majority of the content on the channel was technical and safety information on various firearms that he either owned or had experience with. The channel features no overtly political content, nor are any political views expressed, other than a general skepticism towards the further strengthening of Britain’s already strict gun laws.”