Popular video-game streamer Carl Reimer has been suspended from Twitch and dropped by his e-sports team after accidentally firing a gun during a live broadcast. The incident occurred while Reimer was playing Call of Duty and brandished a Glock pistol as a joke, believing it was unloaded.
In the footage, Reimer appeared to empty the chamber, but a bullet remained, tearing through a metal cup, ricocheting, and destroying a computer monitor. No one was harmed. Reimer later admitted he was intoxicated at the time, saying, 'I was clearly intoxicated, but the fact of the matter is... guns are not a toy. They are not to be messed with.'
Following the incident, Twitch suspended Reimer's channel, and his gaming team, SoaR, announced they had dropped him. In an apology video posted to YouTube, Reimer expressed remorse, stating, 'It's a mistake, but it's a mistake that could have cost somebody their life. I'm so broken about this.' He added that he had bought the gun for personal protection and should not have been handling it for entertainment.
Reimer, who had over 100,000 followers on Twitch before the suspension, acknowledged the potential consequences for his career. He said, 'I made my biggest mistake of my entire life last night, and it could ruin my life. I could have hurt somebody, I could have hurt myself, I could have hurt one of my animals - and that's unforgivable.'
Twitch's community guidelines classify brandishing lethal weapons as a 'zero tolerance' violation, with suspensions potentially devastating for streamers who rely on regular broadcasting to maintain their fan base. Reimer had claimed to stream every day for the past three to four years.
