There is uncertainty among gun shop owners and shooting kit distributors following YouTube’s 18 June 2024 gun policy revision [ Ссылка ]
It says it bans links to gun and gun part retail pages. Charlie talks through the changes
Our advice is: don't panic. YouTube has done this kind of thing before and it has not affected us. Don't set too much store with YouTubers such as Hickok45, who put out this video [ Ссылка ] – though we have to hand it to Demolition Ranch who put out this one [ Ссылка ] 🙂
It is not clear how the new rules will affect gun trade which have YouTube channels, nor is it clear how strictly YouTube will enforce the rules outside the USA, nor whether they apply only to private sales of guns, semi-auto centrefires or 'modified' firearms.
The rules have already been in place for a month and we have had no problems. It is clear that YouTube is trying to make America safe from homemade guns and backyard bombmakers, not trying to end the sport of shooting.
If you would like to take short-term action, we recommend:
‣ Link to your retail or wholesale webpages in a more creative way from your films, i.e. instead of saying ‘link below for more details’ in your videos, say ‘Google my company/product for more details’.
Register your business with Google so that it shows up in Google Search results as an info panel. Info panels have their own links. For example, we believe YouTube may prefer us to link to [ Ссылка ] rather than [ Ссылка ]
‣ Alternatively, you can share a Google search link (best to shorten it to a Bitly link) such as [ Ссылка ] instead of [ Ссылка ]
‣ Go back over your YouTube channel, edit your films' descriptions and swap out links to gun retail pages for these new links – especially descriptions for films you have put up since 18 June 2024. Or wait until YouTube starts doing something and do it then.
