Guns are dangerous but popular. They frequently attract lots of attention. Sometimes that attention is not positive.
Those three sentences describe the experiences of many wayward gun aficionados, but they hardly do justice to the bizarre experiences of Kyle Myers, aka FPSRussia.
Myers first became a YouTube legend in 2010-2011, when he began making humorous videos under that name about his arsenal of guns, weapons and explosives that included some rather vivid live demos. He quickly racked up a million followers who were eager to pursue the misadventures of his main character, Dmitri Potapoff, who was a “professional Russian” with a skill set made for YouTube.
All of this was very amusing until 2013, when Keith Ratliff, a member of the FPSRussia production staff who ran a gun store that supplied the videos, was found shot in the head in 2013. Foul play was suspected, as the saying goes, but that didn’t stop the site from becoming even more popular.
So much so that FPSRussia still has over seven million subscribers, despite the fact that it hasn’t been active since 2016. The number of views is now approaching a billion, so there are obviously a lot of gun nuts who are pining for Dmitri’s return.
Myers’ protracted absence is where things get even more interesting. In 2017 the ATF and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation simultaneously began a series of raids on Myers’ explosive little enclave, and they eventually charged him based on the fact that he had received 25 grams of butane honey oil by mail.
Receiving a schedule of one substance through the postal system or a delivery service is rarely a good thing, especially since butane honey oil isn’t as innocuous as the name makes it sound. It’s actually a marijuana concentrate with a high level of THC, and the Feds probably figured it didn’t mix well with explosives and weapons.
They charged Myers with intent to distribute, which is a felony, and when he pleaded guilty to that charge and a misdemeanor add-on for possessing drug-related objects, he was given a two-month prison sentence and a two years of follow-up probation.
Naturally, Myers is seeking to capitalize on his new experience and the friends he made while in the slammer. He started a podcast called “Painkiller Already” in which he opened up about his unique vacation-er, incarceration-by commenting about the many charmers he met while inside.
His comments included “having a good time,” meeting interesting people and learning many new techniques, tactics and skills. All of which likely has both the Feds and their law-and-order, good-old-boy Georgia buddies rolling their eyes and salivating at his next move.
For better or worse, it won’t be with his new buddies, at least not short term, given that most of them are felons. Inviting them out to the enclave for a day of guns, bombs and THC would likely get Myers thrown back in the slammer again for violating his parole.
Judging by some of his other comments, Myers may soon be looking to pedal a fitness program. He said he lost 35 pounds by working out, doing a lot of running and dieting, although the vagaries of marketing this kind of prison program might be daunting indeed.
Still, Myers seems like an explosive fellow with plenty of energy and ideas, so it should be interesting to see how he blows up in his future endeavors. Hopefully it’s figuratively and not literally.
