The Business of Guns

firearms, early eBay users could purchase many items that today are prohibited in online sales, including alcohol, police sirens, lock picks, lottery tickets, Nazi memorabilia, and live animals. The threat of lawsuits grew as quickly as the company grew, and by January 1, 1999, eBay announced it would no longer allow the sale and exchange of firearms and ammunition. By 2007, the company had prohibited the exchange of firearm parts, such as trigger assemblies and magazines. What is true for eBay is also true for the nation’s largest online retailer, Amazon, which bans the sale of both firearms and ammunition, although the website does sell gun-related accessories, tools, books, and even clothing. Craigslist, the largest classified advertisement site, banned the sale or trade of guns in 2007; Facebook banned the private sale of guns over its social media platform in 2016. Both sites still cannot regulate all ads that appear on the sites, however, meaning that individuals who post ads for weapons (as well as drugs, prostitution, and other outlawed exchanges) remain, despite the bans. While major online retailers have shied away from the sale of guns and ammunition, an entire industry has risen to meet this demand. A simple Google search for “buy gun online” returns over a billion results, including marketplaces, guides, reviews, and news stories. Some websites offer a direct sales interface, just as Amazon allows you to buy a pair of shoes directly. Others conduct auctions in a manner similar to eBay, such as Gunbroker. com, which claims to be the largest gun auction site on the Web, with nearly 150,000 listed firearms. Just as flea markets facilitate the sale of guns and ammunition on a smaller scale than gun shows, online message boards, chat rooms, social media sites, and broad-interest classified pages allow Americans to buy and sell guns. Federal law does not set any different standards for online sales from those that exist for in-person sales, meaning that the “private

Chapter 4: The Internet

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