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.”
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.
https://x.com/behizytweets/status/1813643784410075194
Apparently the shooters mother is a registered democrat so with all that out of the way what did his conveniently recently deleted discord chat log look like
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.
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 putting on the rifle club during the “tryout”?For the obvious reasons?
WTF makes anybody think he wanted to be on the rifle team?
Wasn’t there a story about that? We probably shouldn’t rule out any possibilities without evidence to the contrary.
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.
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
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.
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?
Yeah, that’s a really pathetic, cuckish thing to do.
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.
Did Trump assassin hide his rifle days prior to the shooting? (note: it also seems the shooter was planning to possibly take out Biden at one point.)
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.
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.
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.