Video: Firearms Expert Announces His Own Death on YouTube

Military veteran and firearms expert Paul Harrell announced his own death on Tuesday via a YouTube video his manager had filmed then uploaded posthumously.

Harrell died at age 58 and was a veteran of both the U.S. Army and the U.S.M.C.

The video begins with Harrell explaining that he recorded his death announcement in December 2023 and instructed his manager to publish it upon his death.

Harrell said, “If you’re watching this I’m dead.”

Watch video:

He continued, “Now a few months ago I sat here on this log, and told you I’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I told you they caught it early and we were going to be here for some time. Well, we did catch it early but not as early as I had thought and it has spread faster than we thought it would.”

Harrell responded to curious fans who had noticed him in crutches and wondered if he had fallen, saying, “Well, I did break my hip, but it wasn’t because I was in any kind of accident. It was because the cancer spread to my bones.”

He said, “I didn’t fall down and fracture it, I fractured it and then fell down. My time is growing very short.”

Harrell told his fans that he assumed people would “pirate” his material now that he is gone, and he said there is little that can be done about it.

He also noted, “People will take this opportunity to denigrate my character so I would hope by now that you know me well enough to know what you should or shouldn’t believe.”

Harrell concluded his video by noting he has “very few regrets” in the way he carried out his life in firearms in front of a camera and signed off in typical fashion, saying, “So, as always, don’t try this at home and thanks for watching.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.