Frivolous Lawfare Against IL FFL Part 5: Everytown Expanding the Phishing Operation
If you’ve been following this series, this new update just took things to a whole new level and really shows the intentions behind Everytown For Gun Safety’s frivolous attempt to go after the defendants (S&W, Buds Gunshop, Red Dot Arms). In this series so far:
Brief background:
Highland Park Mayor admits to Congress no laws broken in Crimo getting his AR-15:
Highland Park FOIA stonewalling:
The judge (Judge Ortiz) preceding over the case:
Now just yesterday, it turns out the plantiffs really can get whatever they want thanks to Judge Ortiz. They (Everytown) just subpoenaed one of the thorns in their side, attorney and content creator, James Reeves.
I was just subpoenaed in an anti-gun lawsuit...for being a guntuber. Link to the lawsuit is below. The case is Roberts v. Smith & Wesson, and it's the same playbook, almost copy+paste, of the Soto v. Bushmaster "Sandy Hook" lawsuit against Remington, which put them out of business.
This one arises from the Highland Park July 4 shooting, where the killer used an M&P15. The plaintiffs are of course attempting to blame S&W for the incident and the theory, you guessed it, "negligent marketing." They say S&W appealed to young men interested in militaristic imagery and that this influenced the shooter to select the M&P15, and that this more or less was a cause of this incident. Insanity.
Now they are reaching beyond S&W and into firearms media. I was served with a subpoena demanding years of info and analytics from me about S&W and reviews I've done. The part that should concern my fellow gun reviewers: Their subpoena defines an "Advertisement" to include even unpaid organic social-media content. In other words, by the plaintiffs' definition, even an independent review of a lawful product is "advertising," and they think they are entitled to any info that touches on essentially any YouTube video about the M&P15 during the relevant period.
This is EXACTLY the end-run around the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that led me to draft what became the PLCAA Clarification Act. The PLCAA was enacted to protect manufacturers from lawfare over crimes committed by third parties. Plaintiffs have increasingly pleaded around that protection after the Soto case by using "negligent marketing" as a loophole, which defeats the purpose of the PLCAA.
Versions of the PLCAA Clarification Act I wrote have now been enacted in West Virginia, Montana, and Kentucky. I've been told Kentucky has already dismissed a frivolous lawsuit with it. Consider contacting your legislators and looping me on on the email so we can keep the PLCAA Clarification Act passage rolling.
Illinois obviously is not going to pass it. But Congress can. And whatever your politics on guns, there is a larger issue here: If a manufacturer sends a journalist or creator a product to independently test, that does not magically transform the resulting review into advertising. Treating independent editorial coverage as corporate marketing merely because someone reviewed a lawful product is a dangerous theory that reaches far beyond the gun industry.
One final note for people in the gun media space: if you receive one of these subpoenas, do not ignore it and do not start deleting anything. Feel free to contact me and we can discuss whether I can assist with your response or coordinate with appropriate local counsel.
Here’s a link to the full subpoena:
Reeves is a very popular YouTuber that does reviews and other things regarding firearms. He is even helping states draft legislation to stop these types of frivolous lawsuits (kind of hints as to why Everytown targeted him……):
The subpoena is ordering Reeves hand over all things S&W M&P-15 related he’s ever touched. He has made a recent statement post-subpoena too:
The timing of this subpoena is interesting, as just a day or two prior, YouTube (the main platform he creates content for) released a new policy regarding firearm content creators:
Interesting timing, no? Well, Everytown has long targeted YouTube and “GunTubers” and tried (and sometimes succeeded) at getting what they want. Some examples:
2024:
NEW YORK – In the wake of public pressure and growing calls for change, YouTube has changed its content policy to age-restrict certain firearm content for viewers under the age of 18, as well prohibit videos that demonstrate how to remove a safety device from a firearm for users of all ages. Everytown for Gun Safety released the following statement in response:
“The changes to YouTube’s firearms policy are a step in the right direction. For years, we’ve sent recommendations to YouTube regarding the extreme firearm content on its platform – much of which is easily accessible to children,” said Justin Wagner, Senior Director of Investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Firearms are the number one killer of kids and teens, and platforms like YouTube have a responsibility, at the very least, to age-gate extreme gun content. We are pleased the platform has agreed to limit the accessibility of dangerous videos to minors – though it is worth noting the efficacy of this new policy lies in YouTube’s commitment to its implementation.”
Everytown for Gun Safety has called for changes to YouTube’s firearms policies for years, sending a series of letters and recommendations to the company regarding its gun content, in addition to publishing a report that analyzed how the racist mass shooter in Buffalo used YouTube as a library to plan his attack. The Manhattan District Attorney, citing Everytown research, recently sent a letter to YouTube raising concerns over the platform hosting videos on how to make and manufacture “ghost guns” – unserialized, untraceable firearms – as well as the algorithms that push these videos onto the screens of young children.
2025:
YouTube has long been awash in violent firearms content and the home to growing communities of gun extremists. This content is so widespread on the platform that it carries its own moniker: guntube.
Over the last several years, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (“Everytown”) has advocated for YouTube to do more to make its platform safer. As reported by The New York Times, “in June [2024], under pressure from Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group, YouTube announced it would restrict certain firearm content for viewers younger than 18 and ban videos that demonstrate modifications and features on particular firearms.”1 Perhaps even more significantly, at the same time, YouTube started to take steps to meaningfully enforce its longstanding prohibition on content with links to firearms sales, finally assigning strikes and channel bans when video creators link to or otherwise direct viewers to a firearms company. This is also a reform long championed by Everytown:2 These pathways to direct gun sales from guntube videos not only help the gun industry sell guns, but they help toxic guntube creators rake in sponsorship money from industry players.
While stopping short of more robust recommendations3 from Everytown to clean up the platform, these changes have the potential to disrupt an ecosystem which currently enables toxic creators to make a living by spreading extremist ideology and minimizing the causes and effects of gun violence. In particular, the ability to sell and link to gun sales on the platform is an important channel through which firearms manufacturers and retailers fund these creators, and allows the industry to target specific communities and demographics on the platform.
In order to assess whether YouTube is meaningfully enforcing its prohibition on content with links to firearms sales, Everytown analyzed more than 78,000 recent guntube videos. This review indicates that while there has been progress in discouraging creators from posting links to websites where firearms and other accessories can be purchased, there were thousands of such videos still on the platform even after the enhanced enforcement of YouTube’s prohibition on such links. This report examines the contours of YouTube’s policies around guns, and whether YouTube has actually followed through with the commitment to remove content that links to gun sales.
2022:
NEW YORK— Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund released a new research report today detailing how online spaces provided not only the extremist ideological motivation for the white supremacist mass shooter in Buffalo, but the tactical and technical know-how to carry out his attack. The new report examines how YouTube hosted, and continues to host, a virtual library of extensive firearm instructional videos accessible by extremists like the Buffalo shooter. The shooter, an 18-year old white supremacist, shot 13 people – ten fatally – inside Tops Friendly Market in an attack targeting Black people in the United States on May 14.
The analysis also highlights how YouTube is failing to enforce its own Community Guidelines with respect to guns. The report found and categorized over 200 videos readily accessible on YouTube that directly linked to gun sales or showed users how to manufacture their own gun or silencer, modify their gun to fire automatically, and even 3D print a gun. These kinds of videos, which collectively garnered over 40 million views, are clearly prohibited by YouTube’s own Community Guidelines. Everytown has already sent two letters to YouTube, one in December 2021 and another this past May, urging the company to take action on videos of extremist content and ghost guns. This new report also comes just weeks after a 21-year-old, who also had disturbing online history on YouTube, shot and killed seven people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
To fully analyze the radicalization of the Buffalo shooter, Everytown partnered with Memetica, a threat intelligence firm, for this report. Memetica’s companion report, which can be viewed here, explores the intersectional relationship between firearms–related YouTube communities and 4chan’s /k/ weapons board, alongside an analysis of how gun culture played a role in the Buffalo shooter’s path to radicalization.
2023:
YouTube is awash in gun content, often referred to as “GunTube” by firearm enthusiasts. Individuals who come to GunTube—including children and teens—can find videos which glorify assault weapons, show how to modify firearms, and teach viewers how to shoot through bulletproof glass or “win gunfights.” Children who are not old enough to buy a firearm can turn to YouTube to learn virtually anything they’d like to know about guns, including even how to acquire one illegally.
Everytown has been a leader in calling for social media companies to implement and enforce responsible firearms content policies. In December 2021 and May 2022, Everytown sent letters to YouTube, urging the company to take action on videos of extremist content and ghost guns. While YouTube has taken down some of the videos flagged in Everytown research, to date, YouTube has failed to adopt any of the recommended policy changes proposed by Everytown to make the platform safer. In August 2022, Everytown released a research report detailing how content available in online spaces—and on YouTube in particular—provided not only some of the extremist ideological motivation for the white supremacist mass shooter in Buffalo, but the tactical and technical know-how to carry out his attack. In the report, Everytown conducted a non-exhaustive review of YouTube for content that would appear to violate the platform’s own Community Guidelines with respect to the construction, modification, or sale of weapons. The analysis found over 200 readily accessible videos that garnered, collectively, over 40 million views.
As you can see, Everytown has long called for YouTube to ban content that they deem “inappropriate”. F_ck the 1st Amendment, right? Further, they make it clear they’re wanting to shut down “guntubers”. So with James Reeves being dragged into this, it’s just further evidence that Judge Ortiz is a hack and is allowing Everytown to go waaaaaaay outside of the scope of the case and target anyone they want with the goal to cause a massive ruling that makes their wildest dreams come true (ban all firearm content online and demonitize content creators). Luckily Reeves is smart and may have a trick or two up his sleeve. On another note, guess who has a nice cozy relationship with YouTube? Everytown’s daddy and main financial contributor, Michael Bloomberg.
NEW YORK, NY – October 28, 2025 – Today, Bloomberg Media and YouTube TV announced a new agreement to bring Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Originals programming to YouTube’s live TV streaming service starting October 28, 2025 at approximately 1 pm Eastern Time. YouTube TVsubscribers will now have access to Bloomberg’s live video coverage of breaking business and financial news as well as its extensive slate of original series and documentaries. The Bloomberg TV+ (BTV+) and Bloomberg Originals channel streams will be available as part of the YouTube TV base plan.
“More than sixty million people on average watch Bloomberg programming monthly, and adding YouTube TV’s subscribers to our audience of business leaders is a big step toward continued growth,” said Roman Mackiewicz, Chief Information Officer at Bloomberg Media. “Viewers are navigating the rapid shifts in markets, geopolitics and technology every day, and this agreement helps us reach them on another innovative platform, to guide their most important work and personal wealth decisions.”
Bloomberg’s average monthly cross-platform linear, streaming and digital video audience increased 16% year-over-year (YoY) through the first half of 2025 and hours-watched increased 34%.
“We are proud to welcome Bloomberg to YouTube TV, building on our commitment to bring subscribers essential news, sports and entertainment across our vast lineup of channels. Through this partnership, YouTube TV subscribers now have access to Bloomberg TV’s high quality business coverage to help them stay up to date and informed,” saidPaul Snow, Head of Media Partnerships at YouTube.
And yes, Mike Bloomberg is the overwhelming majority owner of Bloomberg Media.
All this case (Roberts V S&W) is is a golden key for Everytown, thanks to a hack judge (Jorge Ortiz), to use the case for their longstanding polticial and anti-constitutional goals and a free reign to go after and drag in whoever they want. They really are just gangsters. Remind me of The Who Framed Roger Rabbit weasels (some of the toons) under Judge Doom (who would be Bloomberg).
Shirt here lol.
As a final reminder, the state legislation that passed that undermines PLCAA (a work around) was signed into law at an Everytown event in 2023. That’s a main reason why this BS lawsuit is still going on:
CHICAGO — Building on historic action to protect Illinoisans from gun violence and just a day after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the state's assault weapons ban, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act (FIRA) into law, holding accountable gun manufacturers who knowingly caused harm from unsafe marketing practices. Governor Pritzker signed the bill alongside lawmakers and gun control advocates at Gun Sense University, an annual training conference of more than 2,000 Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers and survivors, hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety.
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