The young man in jeans and sunglasses proudly shows off his gun in a YouTube video, then instructs his 1 million subscribers to fit an extra clip to his gun belt, and provides a chilling overview.
“If you need extra mags, the active shooter is great for stuff.”
This is an exclusive video, one of thousands teaching military-style training and tactics to civilian gun owners, providing instruction on silencers and grenade launchers when shooting from vehicles or into buildings. Other websites sell ghost gun kits, gas masks, and body armor.
“You should not be afraid of the NRA. You should be afraid of us,” tweeted an online ghost gun dealer last week.
As Americans grapple with repeated mass shootings, law enforcement officials and extremism experts are increasingly taking notice of the online space devoted to guns and gun rights: gun forums, tactical training videos, websites selling unregistered gun kits. And social media platforms are where far-right gun owners swap practical tips with talk of dark plots to get their weapons.
It is an ecosystem rich with potential recruits for extremist groups that exploit the often blurred line that separates traditional support for the constitutional right from militant anti-government movements that champion racism and violence.
White supremacists have carried out the deadliest attacks on American soil in the past five years, including a 2018 shooting inside a Pittsburgh synagogue and a 2019 stampede in which a gunman targeted Hispanics inside Texas. walmart Killed 23 people.
For example, the gunman who carried out last month’s stampede in Buffalo claimed in a fiercely racist diatribe that when the boredom of the pandemic led him to far-right social media groups and tactical training videos found online, He was radicalized.
One of the companies cited specifically by the gunman sells firearm accessories and operates a popular social media channel boasting hundreds of training videos. The video covers topics such as shooting from cars, attacking a building, use of gas masks during shooting and night vision goggles.
“I think we’re going to see an increase in attacks like this,” said Kurt Braddock, a professor and extremist researcher in the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University. “Unless we find a way to address it, this kind of propaganda continues to spread, and with it there is a risk of increasing radicalization and violence.”
Elected leaders in some states are looking to address the role of the Internet in radicalizing extremists. For example, New York lawmakers recently introduced legislation to require social media companies to set policies on “hateful conduct” and create mechanisms for users to report harassing posts.
New York Attorney General Letitia James launches an investigation into some of the platforms used by the Buffalo gunman who streamed his attack Twitchwho is owned heroine, Twitch pulled the livestream after about two minutes.
Federal officials have also taken notice, increasing funding for domestic terrorism investigations, a challenge that FBI Director Christopher Wray described last year as “metastasizing.” But law enforcement can do little but monitor as extremists use gun control threats to recruit new members.
According to Callum Hood, research director at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK-based organization researching online extremism and abuse, extremists portray any attempt to regulate firearms as a prelude to widespread gun seizures.
“The message quickly becomes ‘the government is coming to take your guns and leave you vulnerable,'” Hood said. This is despite the obvious political challenges that even modest attempts at gun control in America face. Despite a long and growing list of mass shootings, gun rights have not been restricted in any significant way in America in decades.
Guns are thriving instead of being a threat. Since the year 2000, following the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, the number of firearms manufactured in the US has tripled. There are now an estimated 400 million guns in the US – more than one for all in the country – giving the country the highest gun ownership rate in the world.
Gun manufacturers and industry groups such as the National Rifle Association bear some responsibility for unfounded conspiracy theories about federal plots to confiscate American guns, according to Braddock.
“What is the first rule in salesmanship? It is to create a need for the commodity. We tend to think of guns a little differently – and they are because they are instruments of violence – but they are also commodities to be sold in large quantities, Braddock said. “They are creating an illusion of need.”
Contacted by the Associated Press, a website that sells Ghost Gun Kits responded with a statement that said “all questions” about regulating the quantity of firearms “disarming traditional Americans, the government against them.” Naked attempts to weaponise and subject them to ignorant and vicious means”. federal power. ,
While some of the makers of tactical training videos are posted on platforms like youtube Say their target audience is law enforcement, others say their customer base is mostly those who want to arm themselves against the government.
Despite their alarm, law enforcement officials and extremism experts warn that unless they find evidence of illegal gun sales or other crimes, little is known about the growing online spaces devoted to military-style weapons. Is.
For their part, tech companies and social media platforms like Facebook And Twitter They say they have rules prohibiting violent threats, hate speech and other material that causes direct harm. Some platforms also prohibit the sale of firearms.
According to militia expert Amy Cutter, further restrictions on materials about guns or even extremism would backfire anyway. While efforts to ban users may be successful in the short term, they are bound to fail as those users flee to other platforms with less moderation.
“If we want to reduce the size of the movement, then de-platforming is really effective,” Kouter said. “But if we want to de-radicalize it, it is not. The most extreme elements will find other ways to stay connected. ,