Based on Brass Roots News Release
Link to March 2019 Michigan Libertarian
Detroit, MI – Forty countries have banned a video ( https://youtu.be/q-8E1d9GofI) of a Jewish gun activist within hours of it being uploaded to YouTube. The message doesn’t display any explicit or graphic content. The half-hour video is of a speech by the late gun-rights activist Aaron Zelman who spoke at a 1997 event at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield Township. The event was sponsored and organized by the Michigan-based conceal-carry advocacy group, “Brass Roots” The group’s founder; 1994 Libertarian US Senate candidate Jon Coon introduced Zelman at the beginning of the program. Zelman was the founder of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO).
In 1994 Aaron Zelman spoke at the Libertarian Party of Michigan’s Sunday morning brunch which was on the last day of the State Convention.
The video was initially restricted in the United States, but YouTube removed that restriction in response to an appeal. The domestic block included a warning that the viewer had to click on to in order to view the video.
Intolerant Nations
“I was shocked that so many of these countries have such strict censorship laws.” Said Brass Roots spokesperson Scotty Boman, “The list is almost exclusively countries that most Americans would consider part of the so-called free world, but they are banning a video of a person talking. He isn’t even swearing. Apparently these countries are even less tolerant of political expression then those many of us think of as authoritarian.”
The complete text of YouTube’s notification to the administrator of the posting channel read:
Aaron Zelman, JPFO “Why the Holocaust? ” has been blocked from view on the following YouTube country site(s):
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Martinique, Malta, New Caledonia, Netherlands, French Polynesia, Poland, Portugal, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Reunion, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, French Southern Territories, Wallis and Futuna, Mayotte
YouTube blocks content where necessary to comply with local laws. Please review our help center article on legal complaints //support.google.com/youtube/answer/3001497?hl=en.
“If nothing else this should remind people in the United States how fragile liberty is, and that eternal vigilance is the price we pay for it.” Said Boman.
Brass Roots lead the conceal-carry movement in Michigan that lead to the passage of “Shall-Issue” CPL legislation. The organization is currently working to have a 4’x6’ plaque made from brass casings put on permanent display in Lansing, MI.
