There are a lot of gun “influencers” on the internet. Some are just amusing while some are highly skilled and knowledgeable. Then you have the few who manage to be both.

One of those is Brandon Herrera. His channel boasts 2.84 million subscribers and, frankly, his content is pretty fun. He’s likely making a pretty good living as a “guntuber.’ He’s also a builder specializing in AK-pattern firearms, which I imagine does pretty well, too.

But Herrera isn’t content to just make videos on YouTube or building firearms. Oh no, he apparently wants to do more for the gun community than entertain us.

He wants to defend the Second Amendment in a little more hands-on way.

He’s running for Congress.

Earlier this week, at what appears to be the Young Americans for Liberty’s Revolution 2023 conference, Herrera announced that he is going to take his influence to the political realm and primary Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas’ 23rd district, which spans from San Antonio to El Paso.

Herrera then followed up that conference announcement with a YouTube announcement, confirming that he has “legally filed” the necessary paperwork to challenge Gonzales, whom he called a “weak politician who voted for gun control.”

As might be expected, Herrera intends to make protecting gun rights a central campaign issue. “I will never vote for gun control,” he promised, adding, “I will do everything in my authority to weaken the ATF, and I will challenge ATF Director [Steven] Dettelbach every time.” Earlier this summer, Herrera spoke at a congressional hearing about the dangers the ATF poses to regular Americans.

Now, we’ve had plenty of people vow to defend the Second Amendment, then get in Congress and decide to do differently. However, Herrera isn’t likely to be someone like that.

After all, it’s easy to flip on the Second Amendment when your work outside of Congress has nothing to do with firearms. Herrera, however, is such a part of the gun community that even if he wanted to, voting on gun control would destroy that entirely.

Not that I’m saying Herrera would do any such thing.

The truth is that he’s an eloquent defender of the Second Amendment who has spoken forcefully about how the ATF has diverged from its original mission of being a tax collection agency.

Now, where will Herrera fall on other issues? That remains to be seen and, frankly, is irrelevant to what we talk about here. What matters is that if he wins, we’ll know there’s one more true defender of the Second Amendment in Congress, one of us who will stand to block the continued efforts of encroaching on our right to keep and bear arms.

Hell, if we can get a few more guntubers in Congress, we might actually see some spine among Republicans on Second Amendment issues. After all, not only would their colleagues call them out if they fold, but be able to do so on very large platforms with millions of followers who can amplify the message.

I wish Herrera luck going forward. This is going to be interesting to watch.