This unfortunate story may not be airsoft related, but it is something that airsofters should be aware of especially for those who want to rack up a lot of views to their YouTube channels and thinking a prank similar to this incident involving airsoft guns can help get those views. This incident should make them stop making such a plan.

20-year old YouTuber Tom Wilkes was killed when he was shot while filming a robbery prank for his YouTube channel in Nashville, Tennessee last Friday night.  According to NBC News, he and a friend went to a parking lot of a Nashville business armed with butcher knives for his prank and approached a group of people. 23-year old David Starnes Jr., who was part of the group, was alarmed and shot Wilkes in self-defense, unaware that he was attempting a prank.

Starnes is not charged for the shooting by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. It is not known if cameras retrieved from the scene of the shooting are being looked into to determine exactly what happened or checked if Starnes has a permit to carry a gun.

Here's more about it in this video from KBTX News 3:

While pranks are not exactly a YouTube phenomenon and are a staple for entertainment for TV,  it has grown on YouTube where anybody can prank anyone for entertainment value to grow their viewership, some YouTubers go to great lengths to do their pranks. These pranks then either become dangerous to the target of their pranks or to pranksters themselves. The Nashville incident is one example that such dangerous prank can cause the death of someone.

Airsoft guns are sometimes used by criminals who cannot bring real firearms to commit a crime and it’s one of the reasons that we advice airsoft players not to display their airsoft guns in public places. If used for a robbery prank it is a guarantee that one may land himself in the hospital at best, or in the morgue in the worst case scenario.

Top photo: Metropolitan Nashville Police Department vehicle (photo by Thomas R Machnitzki via Wikimedia)