Filmmaker says gun-heavy YK productions are just music videos

In one video, what appear to be handguns are brazenly on display in Yellowknife’s sand pits. In another, a shot of a table loaded with firearms is followed by stylized views of people posing and shooting.

They are not your average Yellowknife Instagram reels.

Even in a city and territory relatively familiar with firearms – many homes have them for hunting purposes – some eyebrows were raised when the films, by Wildly Addicted Studio, began circulating.

Multiple residents got in touch with Cabin Radio to ask what was going on. On Reddit, commenters speculated about gang activity and criticized what appeared to be illegal use of restricted firearms. One wrote: “This is disgusting. We don’t need [people] pretending to be gangsters, waving guns around and driving recklessly.”

RCMP said on Tuesday they were “aware of the videos and an investigation is ongoing.”

Photographer and videographer Shubham Lakhi, who created Wildly Addicted Studio, said he was paid to film and edit the footage. He told Cabin Radio he and the people featured, who he described as South Asians, only ever intended to make music videos. (Each video is set to music and lasts for a couple of minutes.)

After this article was first published, numerous members of Yellowknife’s South Asian community contacted Cabin Radio to distance themselves and their community from the videos and the people featured in them.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Lakhi apologized and said at least one video should have included an advisory at the start, explaining what was going on.

The handguns in the first video are air pistols, Lakhi said. According to him, all of the weapons shown in the other video were carried and used by people who held the appropriate licences to do so, and the footage was filmed outside city limits.

Those details could not be immediately verified. Two residents who had raised concerns about the video to Cabin Radio said they were skeptical of the claim that the apparent handguns shown were air pistols. Lakhi said police were welcome to inspect them.

RCMP, adding to their initial statement after this article was first published, said one video showed what seemed to be a federally prohibited GSG-16 rifle for which there could be no appropriate licence.

Even air guns are subject to a range of rules in Canada, depending on their type.

“This was a video project we wanted to do mostly for the Indian community in Yellowknife because we love cars and stuff,” said Lakhi. The videos, each bearing the hashtag #gunculture, prominently feature a range of vehicles parading around Yellowknife and pulling off manoeuvres.

The guns, he said, appear as a reference to the lyrics of the songs being sung. The police, he added, had not yet been in touch.

After he spoke with Cabin Radio, he added in a separate message that the videos had been taken down. The remainder of the Wildly Addicted Studio Instagram page is a collection of shots featuring topics like the northern lights, happy couples and the city in winter, much like any other photography studio in the North.

The videos containing guns appeared at a time when much of the territory is deeply concerned about the impact of guns and drug-related crime on residents and entire communities. Public safety has been a stated top priority of the territorial government since the last election, while Yellowknife has experienced a series of shootings in the past two years.

More: South Asian group condemns gun videos, racism it received

Lakhi, a Yellowknife resident since 2020, acknowledged those circumstances and insisted the videos hadn’t been meant to intimidate or unduly glorify the weapons involved.

“We moved to Yellowknife for a better future. These are all just our side hobbies. We like to buy new cars, we like to have good cars and stuff,” Lakhi told Cabin Radio.

“We like to showcase it on social media, but there is nothing we will do to do something bad or any harm to the community. There’s no way. We’re all here to work.

“Even though these are props it was kind-of bad on my part that I didn’t really mention at the start of the video that these are just props.”

Whether RCMP will take any action was not immediately clear.

“We consider this an appropriate time to reiterate some basic guidelines for all firearm owners,” a spokesperson for NWT RCMP stated by email.

“Firearm owners must comply with the rules and regulations of the Firearms Act. All firearm owners must have a Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) for any firearms they possess.

“Any manipulations/discharging of a firearm should be done at a certified shooting range following the safety rules of the range.”