YouTube HQ Shooting Sparks New Gun Control Debate In The US

A Tuesday shooting at YouTube‘s San Bruno, California-based headquarters sparked a new gun control debate in the United States, with many Silicon Valley executives coming out in support of stronger regulations meant to lower the amount of privately owned firearms. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, and Box CEO Aaron Levie were among some of the high-profile names who publicly expressed their sympathies for Google’s video streaming subsidiary and interpreted the tragedy as yet another sign that the U.S. needs stricter gun regulations.

Not all top executives in the stateside tech industry followed suit, with the likes of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Apple CEO Tim Cook only attempting to comfort YouTube victims and their families without referencing the topic of gun control. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki haven’t referenced gun control in their statements on the incident either. According to a preliminary investigation conducted by San Bruno authorities, the shooter that injured three YouTube employees was identified as one Nasim Najafi Aghdam, a YouTube critic and vegan activist who ended up killing herself on the premises. A San Francisco General hospital official confirmed all three of her victims are alive, with one of them still being in a critical condition. Authorities haven’t found any evidence of the injured employees being specifically targeted by the shooter, with the incident hence being considered an attack on YouTube itself.

Aghdam reportedly ran several YouTube channels and previously accused the video streaming platform of filtering her channels to prevent them from receiving more views. It’s presently unclear whether those allegations were the primary motive for the attack. The 39-year-old attacker lived in San Diego and possibly had her YouTube videos demonetized in recent months. YouTube’s corporate headquarters employ approximately 1,700 people, all of whom were evacuated following the Tuesday incident. A YouTube spokesperson praised the swift response to the shooting on the part of local authorities, a sentiment that was later echoed by President Donald Trump. The investigation into the matter is still ongoing and is likely to be concluded in the coming weeks.

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