Trump shooter photos show gun influencer t-shirt. He's shocked

A popular gun YouTuber said he was shocked that the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump was wearing one of his branded T-shirts.

Images of the shooter that circulated online – after he was killed by Secret Service agents – showed him wearing a beige T-shirt with a logo and American flag on the sleeve, matching one sold by the online chain Demolition Ranch.

Matt Carriker, a Texas-based influencer with more than 11 million followers, initially posted a photo of the shooter wearing his shirt with the phrase “What the fuck?” on it on Saturday and vowed to release a statement via YouTube.

The statement came Monday afternoon.

He wished the victims of the shooting well and said his channel was not intended to incite violence or hatred.

“We don’t vet the people who buy our shirts… I wish we could stop people like that from buying, wearing, being associated with that clothing,” Carriker said in his video. “The difference between a shooter wearing a pair of Nike shoes and a shooter wearing my shirt is that brand is much more personal to me. … Seeing my name next to the shooter’s name sucks, and I wish we could stop that from happening.”

Carriker said he has been inundated with requests for information, but he has never met or known Trump’s shooter.

More: Online Footprint Links Shooter’s Father to Gun Deals

Carriker, 38, a former veterinarian turned internet celebrity, owns a vast empire of online content, merchandise and firearms training based in Texas. His channel is a variety show about shooting, reviews and gun entertainment.

Friend and fellow “guntuber” Brandon Herrera defended Carriker’s video content and called it a “G-rated, family-friendly, apolitical shooting channel.”

“Demolition Ranch is the best of us, and the slander that’s been leveled at them is abhorrent,” Herrera told USA TODAY. “Demolition Ranch has as much to do with the murder as (YouTuber) PewDiePie had to do with the Christchurch shooter. The idea that they should change their content or merchandise is absurd.”

In 2019, a gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand, but said, “Remember guys, subscribe to PewDiePie” during his livestream of the shooting. The Swedish YouTuber distanced himself from the meme and dealt with the aftermath of the attack days later.

In February, Carriker announced online that part of that portfolio, his wife’s sportswear line, would be shutting down and that she and her children would stop appearing online. He cited threatening behavior from Internet subscribers.

“People drove up to our house, jumped over our gate, walked down to our house and knocked on the door,” Carriker said. “They were met with a gun. It didn’t end well for anyone who did that.”

Carriker said his family has been victims of hacking of cell phones, social media and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

“We had problems with stalkers who were intruding too much into our lives,” Carriker said. “We brought this on ourselves, we put all this information on the Internet with our faces and names.”

Following the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday that left one person dead and several others injured, in addition to Trump, Fans of the YouTube channel posted messages on forums and sent messages of support to the brand. The most popular comment on Carriker’s post was from a fan — a member of the Demolitia, as they are known — who said he would wear different color variations of the same shirt worn by the Trump shooter as a show of support.

“The real Demolitions support you 100%,” he wrote.

More: Simple hobby or reckless marketing ploy? The world of influencers who use children’s guns.

The shooter’s merchandise was reminiscent of other leading tactical and shooting brands, in line with current events.

Many of the January 6 rioters were seen wearing tactical gear, such as bulletproof vests. A photo of a rioter wearing a Grunt Style sweatshirt sparked controversy.

The San Antonio CEO of the brand quickly tried to distance himself from the rioters.

Similar attention has focused on Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Illinois who was acquitted of shooting two people to death during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, riots in 2020. The first images released worldwide showed the teenager holding his AR-style rifle in his home, wearing a T-shirt with the 5.11 logo.

Shooting gear supplier Brownells has distanced itself from the Jan. 6 rioters wearing its clothing. Ryan Repp, Brownells’ vice president of marketing, wrote to USA TODAY in 2020: “Brownells does not encourage anyone to engage in acts aimed at overthrowing the government through any means or marketing tactics.”

Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on USA TODAY’s investigative team, focusing primarily on firearms and consumer financial protection. Reach him at [email protected] or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.