Gun Owners Are Using Instagram to Privately Sell Firearms, Evade Background Checks

Kragar
LGF • Views: 18,995

Instagram, which does not have a specific policy that bans users from selling firearms, has become another vehicle for online gun sales according to a Daily Beast report. While 91 percent of Americans support a law requiring anyone who purchases a gun to pass a background check, weak state and federal gun policies have left online sales of firearms largely unregulated, which now extends to the increasingly popular photo-sharing application.

Daily Beast’s Brian Riess describes a typical offer on Instagram:

A typical gun-toting Instagram post goes something like this: “‘LWRC 10’ SBR FOR SALE!!! Come get it! Includes AAC suppressor tip, ergo grip, 3 magpul pmags, 2 40 round mags, bungee sling, and about 500 rounds of .556. Message me if interested.”

While Instagram has no specific policy about online sales, it recently updated its user guidelines to prevent images that encourage self-harm or abuse. Instagram, owned by Facebook, did not return a request for comment.

More: Gun Owners Are Using Instagram to Privately Sell Firearms, Evade Background Checks

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5 comments
1 theheat  Tue, Oct 22, 2013 5:08:27pm

As far as I can see, they’ve been doing the same thing on Facebook. I’m seeing a lot of rural types connecting this way, and a lot of those rural types are anti-government wackos, armed to the teeth. Lots of AR-15-type guns being listed this way.

2 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Oct 22, 2013 6:13:23pm

If it’s a sale between individuals living in the same state, it’s perfectly legal so long as the buyer is not a prohibited person. If the sale is arranged this way and then the firearm is mailed to a FFL by a FFL it is also legal. Sounds like someone who is freaking out because he doesn’t understand current law very well.

If you wish to do anything significant, get BATF sufficient funding to investigate and prosecute straw sales under current laws which would be sufficient if actually used.

3 Dark_Falcon  Tue, Oct 22, 2013 9:10:12pm

re: #2 William Barnett-Lewis

If it’s a sale between individuals living in the same state, it’s perfectly legal so long as the buyer is not a prohibited person. If the sale is arranged this way and then the firearm is mailed to a FFL by a FFL it is also legal. Sounds like someone who is freaking out because he doesn’t understand current law very well.

If you wish to do anything significant, get BATF sufficient funding to investigate and prosecute straw sales under current laws which would be sufficient if actually used.

Well, ‘SBR’ stands for ‘Short Barreled Rifle” and all transfers of those having to be approved by BATF. So while the Instagram message Brian Riess quoted might well connect the seller with a buyer, that particular sale would still have to involve the ATF.

4 ProTARDISLiberal  Tue, Oct 22, 2013 9:13:56pm

Someone I know at college just tweeted this:

When you do so much for people and when you get nothing in return in your time of need. That really astonishes me.

I had to inform the person that this is what life it is. The universe isn’t particularly fair.

5 freetoken  Tue, Oct 22, 2013 9:19:44pm

But… but… but… I thought the NSA caught all this stuff??!!


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