You know it’s going to be a bad day when you find out a failed assassin was wearing a shirt with your YouTube channel name on it. But that’s exactly what happened to Matt Carriker, founder of Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts that has more than 11 million subscribers.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin that was killed by Secret Service snipers after shooting former President Donald Trump in the ear at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, was wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt at the time of the failed assassination attempt. And according to authorities, he was also videoed earlier wearing one of the channel’s shirts at an ammunition store.

Of course, since the website deals with firearms, the so-called “mainstream” media jumped all over it. Never mind the fact that, as some have observed, a Chicago gangbanger can shoot up a crowd on a street corner while wearing a pair of Nike’s, and reporters would never consider calling Nike headquarters for a statement.

Headlines like CBS’s “What is Demolition Ranch, the YouTube channel on Thomas Matthew Crooks’ shirt?” and the New York Post’s “Would-be Trump assassin wore influencers merch during shooting,” quickly popped up around the web and in print.

The media attention prompted Carriker, a YouTuber and veterinarian, to post a six-minute video on his YouTube channel explaining that he had never met the shooter and sells his merchandise like shirts and hoodies to anyone that wants one, just like any other merchandiser would.

“As a lot of you guys know, and we were shocked and confused to find this out, the shooter who tried to assassinate Trump was wearing merch from my channel—wearing a Demolition Ranch t-shirt,” Carriker said in the video. “That sucked to see that. That was rough.”

Carriker was quick to point out, however, that Demolition Ranch and his other YouTube channels do not address politics.

“Across all my videos, we really don’t talk about politics at all,” he said. “We keep politics out of it. For one, it’s not my bread and butter. But also, I don’t feel the need to impose my political views or beliefs on other people. However, we were obviously kind of thrust into the conversation after last weekend.”

Carriker also said that his channel has never promoted violence of any kind, and moving forward it never will.

“No matter what side you’re on politically, none of us want violence,” he said. “This channel was never meant to incite violence or hate. It never has, it isn’t and it never will be a channel that does that. I don’t want any violence or hate anywhere around me. I have a wife and little kids. I want them to be safe and secure forever.”

Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in a Demolition Ranch shirt just prior to his attempt to kill former President Donald Trump.

Additionally, Carriker said that the channel, like many others, sells all kinds of logo’d merchandise to anyone who orders and pays for it online.

“We also own a t-shirt company, and my friends work there and we print them here in Texas and ship them all over the world,” he said. “I’ve seen my shirts in every continent. I got a picture two weeks ago of a guy wearing my shirt in Antarctica.

“We don’t vet the people who buy our shirts, obviously. It would be impossible to, just like Nike doesn’t vet who buys there shoes. I wish I could. I would love to keep people like that from being associated with that article of clothing. I wish he couldn’t get a shirt. But it happened.”

In the end, it seems it was just a damn bad piece of luck that the shooter grabbed a Demolition Ranch shirt and put it on the day he headed out to do the unthinkable. I hope that the media to-do over it doesn’t have any negative affect on Carriker or his channel.

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75 COMMENTS

    • What current 20-year-old doesn’t have a social media/digital footprint? That’s the most suspect thing of all. That, and them breaking their necks to claim that he acted alone before the investigation was even underway, and before they got into his phone. Why wouldn’t they wait on more information before claiming that?

      Maybe he just wanted to prove that he belonged on the shooting team. If so, he failed at that too. He will always be known as a loser.

      What we know for sure is that he wanted to kill Trump.

      • There is a lot going on and I sincerely doubt that anyone is running off of plan A at this point so should be a fun campaign season.

        • RE: “So, What’s Up With The Failed Assassin’s Demolition Ranch Shirt?”

          The same thing that’s what’s up with the perp being a so called Registered Republican and trying to assassinate a former POTUS and front-runner Republican candidate for POTUS and maiming and murdering members of the Republican Party. In other words the perp is as much a Republican as john wilkes booth and belongs in that T-shirt like biden belongs in that T-shirt. That pos is a dead democRat and contrary to the propaganda biden had nothing to fear from him.

          TRUMP/VANCE 2024.
          https://youtube.com/watch?v=qUU-Fi3jHUE&feature=shared

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      • I am in my late 20s and aint got any social media, because some of us dont like being spied on
        this kid was probably just a libtard and a loser who needed to get beat u more in middle school

      • “Maybe he just wanted to prove that he belonged on the shooting team.”

        His dad owned “20 guns”. They apent father/son time at the local range. He was obviously famliar with firearms. What makes anybody think he was not just goofing on the rifle club during the “tryout”?For the obvious reasons?

      • “Maybe he just wanted to prove that he belonged on the shooting team.”

        His dad owned “20 guns”. They apent father/son time at the local range. He was obviously famliar with firearms. What makes anybody think he was not just putting on the rifle club during the “tryout”?For the obvious reasons?

        • Wasn’t there a story about that? We probably shouldn’t rule out any possibilities without evidence to the contrary.

          • You don’t think that a life long familiarity firearms, a shooting relationship with his dad, an affinity for outdoor clothing and a talent for math/engineering is evidence he very likely was not in reality such a “comically bad shot” as to be excluded from the rifle club? More likely he was disrepecting the whole bunch as clueless. Speaking of excluded, this idea has been mod-cluded for days now…

            • That sounds perfectly logical. I never believed the “bad shot” narrative as it related to the shooting, especially after hearing about the LE disruption right beforehand. This wasn’t like target practice. His adrenaline was already at full blast, then a cop showed up.

              I don’t understand the rifle team story. Perhaps that was disinformation or missing context. The school said there wasn’t a record of him trying out, which is a weird thing to say because why would they keep that sort of record? They could have said yes or no.

              They might be able to paint a picture of his motives after a thorough investigation, but history tells us they won’t share that with us. They’ll probably drop some wild explanation many years later, like they did with the Vegas shooting.

              • Couldn’t edit my comment. Alternate theory: they didn’t allow him to join the team because they just didn’t like him. He still could have set out to prove how good he was by going down in history as the guy that took out Trump.

              • To me. everything about this kid says likes-to-be-under-the-radar – some people are just naturally like that. I think of him more as an aspiring mass-killer with Trump being the cherry on top, than a screwball who couldnt hit his target and accidentally hurt some bystanders.

                5 shots – 2 head wounds (1 fatal), 1 vic shot twice mid torso, Trump’s miraculous ear piercing, and a kid with a grazed neck is the most consistent info I have gleaned.

              • “Alternate theory: they didn’t allow him to join the team because they just didn’t like him.”

                The version I heard was, he tried out, and was so unsafe in his weapon handling, they showed him the door and told him not to come back.

                That was just one source, though…

              • “Alternate theory: they didn’t allow him to join the team because they just didn’t like him. He still could have set out to prove how good he was by going down in history as the guy that took out Trump.“

                Actually, I think that may be the more accurate hypothesis.

                There are reports of his enthusiastic interest in the JFK assassination, and reporting indicates he collected data on both Trump and Biden, as well as other possible targets:

                “WASHINGTON (AP) — The 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump had photos on his phone of the former Republican president, President Joe Biden and other officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray, according to two people familiar with the matter.

                Investigators searching Thomas Matthew Crooks’ devices have also found that the shooter looked up the dates for the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump’s appearances, according to the people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition on anonymity to discuss details of the ongoing probe.“

                https://apnews.com/article/trump-assassination-attempt-shooting-federal-investigation-2a90bdfd23ba9c3569cb9c29a459e87b

                I think when he discovered Trump was going to be an hours drive away he figured that would be his best opportunity to enter History.

                “I’m sick and tired of nobody knowing my name!”

            • ……hard to say either way but I know plenty of hunters and recreational shooters of all ages that are marginal to terrible shots of all kinds of political persuasions. Discipline and skill don’t always go hand in hand with growing up with guns.

        • Crazy doesn’t have to make sense. That’s the whole point of crazy as a concept because crazy people don’t make sense and sane people simply can’t understand what the motivations of them really are.

          That’s because THEY ARE CRAZY! You can try and logically think about their mental processes but you cant because what is going on in their head is flower cat cartwheel toe.parka carburetor vodka shoestring gravy.

          Dude was batshit whackadoodle. That’s all there is to understand. He Darwin-awarded himself out of the mortal coil. .Good riddance.

      • “What current 20-year-old doesn’t have a social media/digital footprint?”

        That would be a 20yr old with 3 functioning brain cells. IE: Many

        Have you explained to your kids why stay off twatter, fakeboom, institwit? And why you old buy arms/ammunition with cash. Even better: You purchase on their behalf.

    • It was all encrypted to offshore privacy sites and then probably bounced around the tubes a few times before it connected him to his high-level intelligence operative handlers. We’ll never know at our level unless whatever cabal breaks apart or.gets.caught red-handed. If that happened the shit would really hit the fan.

      • Yeah just started hearing about that now, similar to the black rock commercial appearance. Whatever, you are spot on with your assessment with crazy above. To us things can be black and white to him it could be blue and yellow. Different motivations that have no easy translation.

    • Democrats propose 72 hour waiting period and background checks for tee shirt purchases.

    • The shooter used the shirt as social camouflage, its something a pro Trump, pro 2nd amendment person would wear.

  2. It’s simple. The Goober thought that Demolition Ranch attire makes him a “bad azz”. It would be no surprise to find other firearm related clothing or gear in his “sea bag”.

    • I never watch that channel, but I watched Demo Ranch’s video about the shirt. That guy had 11.5 million subscribers. He said he doesn’t get political on his channel. Some left leaning/independent gun enthusiasts like that. I’m sure he has a wide audience that includes many teenagers. The shooter/sniper/would-be assassin/loser has probably been following that channel for years. He was clearly interested in firearms.

    • I do NOT subscribe to any Youtube gun related channel that claims to be “non-political”. Yeah that includes this guy but I find all that stuff he does childish. It includes James Reeves et all. Hickok45 has found being old & folksy ain’t enough. But he supports 2A. You don’t have to promote 2A just don’t come out to say “no politics”. Rant ended from an old 2A supporter who for now lives behind enemy lines.

      • I used to subscribe to just about all the major ones but I haven’t had time to watch youtube like I used to 5+ years ago. I find TFBTV unbearable in recent years with its music and presentation, and it was only hardly bearable before. I’m sure guys like DemoRanch and Kentucky Ballistics fully support the RTKBA, even if everything they do is silly. They don’t seem to fit the mold of “rich guys who have guns only as a hobby and could care less.”

    • In the end, it seems it was just a damn bad piece of luck that the shooter grabbed a Demolition Ranch shirt and put it on the day he headed out to do the unthinkable.

      Was it?
      Seriously, was it just bad luck that the shooter was wearing that shirt on that day. A shirt from the most popular YouTube gun channel.

  3. A local church had community outreach. They enabled a whole lot of dopers and prostitutes

    I dont know how many I arrested in T shirts with the church logo

    big deal

  4. Again, I don’t you tube. So there’s that. As for as the mainstream media jumping on the story, the only place I’ve seen it is here. Who doesn’t on a garment with a graphic of some kind of it? Much ado about nothing.

  5. Everyone gets to make his own choices, but if I were in Carriker’s situation, I’d have gone on my channel and said the logo on that shirt is now retired and the remaining stock of merch with that logo will be destroyed.

    Yes, even if it ruined me financially.

    • why? Does Ford or one of the other car manufacturers destroy a line of cars or their logo when a drunk driver kills someone by being dui and driving the car and crashing into someone?

    • I thought of that too- don’t want the shirt to become some kind of symbol.
      Kind of like after Oklahoma City, people would intimidate other groups by parking a Ryder truck in front of their property. I wouldn’t be surprised if at the next Antifa rally everyone was wearing Demo shirts.

    • Should Dodge retire the Challenger brand because of Charlottesville? Should they have discontinued production then and there and pulled back all stock from the dealers?

    • It appears the perp had a thing about intensely disliking po-liti-cians of any side.

      Can’t use the H word as it would give W0-rdpress a hissy fit.

      • People put their money where their mouth is and their loyalty by actions…The perp is a democRat like joe biden. This biden was a target is more pathetic than saying the roof was unsafe to be on, etc.

        TRUMP/VANCE 2024.

  7. I’m sure it helps that pro-gun sites like TTAG keep harping on it as much, if not more, than the mainstream libtard media.

  8. So, if you didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb at a Trump rally, do you suppose a good choice of attire to blend in would have been a sky-blue ” BIDEN 2024 ” Tshirt ?
    Really overthinking this one, guys.

  10. Too many socialists are being “accepted” into the shooting community with open arms. We are seeing the results of this right now with the DJT assassination attempt. I’m a firm believer that ALL people have the RKBA. If they aren’t in jail currently then they have full 2A rights. Period. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t have to make nice with commies.

  11. If Crooks put any thought at all into what shirt to wear, he probably wanted to ‘look’ like a Trump supporter to blend in, so Demolition Ranch was his choice.

  17. In an outrageous application of red-flag laws. The State of California is imposing itself on gun owners from across the United States in the latest attack on the Second Amendment. (note: basically, California red flag laws used against a person in another state which did nothing and wasn’t even in California and didn’t live in California – because a mentally ill person in California said so with no proof at all by just filling out a form.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuFxmjteoH4

    • So “Fuck you no” is getting into threat territory? Damn their control on the narrative may be weaker than I thought.

    • For cover Elmer.
      You don’t want to wear a Biden Harris shirt to a Trump rally when you are trying to kill him do you?
      And his handlers are fucking pissed he took a head shot when they said shoot center mass.
      He wanted an exploding melon. The deep state just wanted my President dead.
      We will never know the truth in my lifetime as to how this went down.
      I’m not even sure at this point if the CIA took out Kennedy.
      One thing I do know for sure, if you wanted to protect my President Trump, that fucking building would have absolutely been off limits to the Crook.
      President Trump is alive because God has a different plan that you and I would lay out.
      God uses good and evil to facilitate his agenda.
      We have a reprieve for now, I think?
      But things are only going to get worse.
      Prepare your children for the future.
      As the commercial said…Life Comes at You Fast!

  24. “So “F*** you no” is getting into threat territory?”

    Official: “We want to take his property,
    because we think he is dangerous. ”

    Judge: “How so?”

    Official: “We think he will get mad when we go out there to take it.”

    Judge: “What is a good day for the auction?”

  25. Why did he leave body armor and 3 loaded mags in his car if he was going to blow it up as a distraction? Haven’t seen any feed back on this little tidbit of “information?” Some Ting Wong in USSS land

    • Fucking Please! This whole fucking thing stinks to high Heaven. We, excuse me, I will never know the truth about this bullshit before I die. I’m hoping you and your children will. And not only that but that you are actually able to do something about it.

  28. There is an old photo of Lindsey Lohan wearing a T-Shirt from my college Alma mater, East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce). Where or how she got it is unknown but she certainly never attended ETSU.

  29. The shooter was attempting to appear to be a conservative. I wonder if he was wearing Jockey underwear? Surely that’s relevant. Enquiring minds want to know!

  30. “In the end, it seems it was just a damn bad piece of luck that the shooter grabbed a Demolition Ranch shirt and put it on the day he headed out to do the unthinkable.”

    This is actually the take that you are going with?

    Dear Lord…

    • Hey Mark! Do you actually think you are talking to a bunch of brain dead assholes that follow MSLSD?

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