Mother Jones: How Reddit Became a gun market

Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
4,540
Likes
783
Location
MA
Feedback: 3 / 0 / 0
Here is a link to a screenshot of the article (so you don't give traffic to MotherJones)
http://i.imgur.com/RqfUbzO.jpg

The Mother Jones hate machine strikes again!!

Since 2011, part of the popular online forum Reddit has grown into an active marketplace for assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and other powerful firearms, according to an investigation by Mother Jones. In the last six months alone there have been more than 1,000 listings posted by more than 400 Redditors on the GunsForSale subreddit, one of thousands of niche communities on the sprawling discussion site. Not only has Reddit allowed a gun market to thrive, it has also literally put its stamp on it: Gun purchases brokered through the site have included nearly 100 AR-15s engraved with Reddit's alien logo, which was used on the assault rifles with explicit permission from the company—while it was owned by media giant Condé Nast—according to email correspondence obtained by Mother Jones.

Instructions posted by the moderators of the GunsForSale subreddit warn users to comply with federal and state laws, and many sellers on the site say that they transfer guns through FFLs, which conduct background checks on buyers. But some user comments suggest that sellers may be exploiting a loophole in federal law to traffic firearms—including talk of licensed dealers selling guns without conducting background checks, which in some circumstances would be illegal.
Oh no! A loophole?!?! [shocked]
In theory, a federally licensed dealer could sell a firearm from his personal collection without conducting a background check, just like any other private citizen subject to state law, says David Chipman, who served for 25 years as a special agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. But it would be illegal, Chipman warns, for a licensed dealer to sell any guns from his business inventory without a background check.


http://www.reddit.com/r/Gunsforsale/comments/1uqz5c/in_case_you_hadnt_seen_it/
Unsurprisingly the comments seem to indicate the article has just driver more users to the site
[rofl][rofl]

ETA: Counter piece to the MJ article: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/01/foghorn/truth-gun-sales-reddit/
 
Last edited:
calling something a loophole is a disingenuous name for something intentionally written into law. but it gets attention the same as "tax loophole" like it was a mistake that needs to be fixed
 
i'll go to their guns section in search of gun porn, sometimes there's some cool shit, but a lot of the times i am shaking my head at some of the stuff that gets posted there.
 
i'll go to their guns section in search of gun porn, sometimes there's some cool shit, but a lot of the times i am shaking my head at some of the stuff that gets posted there.

Like this comment from that reddit link?
Commie here! (I also learned of this subreddit from that article.)
Most of us socialists/communists (communism is a branch of socialism; all communists are socialist but not necessarily vice versa) are pro-gun. It was indeed Karl Marx who said "Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary." Eugene Debs, who ran for president as a socialist several times and who is arguably the most well known American socialist, also advocated the workers be armed. As well as George Orwell, a socialist who even took up arms to fight in a Marxist militia during the Spanish Civil War, and Huey P. Newton, one of the founders of the Black Panthers (a socialist organization).
Actually, it could be argued some of the first acts of gun control were aimed against leftists (actual leftists, not "liberals"), specifically the Black Panthers. The Mulford Act was introduced in California by Don Mulford after a protest against police brutality was organized by the Black Panthers (who were really the only police force black communities had) following the murder of Denzel Dowell by police (the Mulford Act was nicknamed "the Panther bill" by the media). Here is a picture of the Black Panthers protesting against the Mulford Act at the steps of the state capitol before it was signed...But, unfortunately, it was eventually signed by the governor of California in 1967, Ronald Reagan. It achieved its goal, effectively putting an end to the Black Panthers' Police Patrols.
 
/r/guns's resident 3D printing guru put up this awesome 3D-printable lower this morning in honor of MJ:

31ZzmFw.jpg
 
What exactly is reddit?

Reddit /ˈrɛdɪt/,[3] stylized as reddit,[4] is a social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of links or text posts. Users then vote each submission "up" or "down" to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages. Content entries are organized by areas of interest called "subreddits".

Basically it's kind of like NES or other discussion forums, but it's organized a bit differently and allows the community to self-moderate by voting down the crap and voting up the good stuff. At least, that's how it's supposed to work in theory, but sometimes good stuff gets buried under the crap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit

There is a subreddit called "gunsforsale" which this article is about. It's sort of like the NES classifieds.
 
http://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/1upqdq/welcome_mother_jones_readers_they_are_joining_us/

Sounds like there are some good comments at the motherjones article, but I assume they have been or will be modded.
Best response in the comments thus far:
bob987654321 • 33 minutes ago
I own two of those lower receivers and I will sell them for $350 each. They must be shipped to an FFL if not picked up in person in Phoenix.
I'm not kidding.
Now motherjones has become an internet weapons market. TA DA!
This is what you miss when you don't take part. You don't get to point out their hypocrisy
Edit: and another one:
texas_dan • 21 minutes ago
I have a colt ar-15, with forward assist and two mags for sale, very low round count. $900
Also have an Adams arms AR, 18" gas piston upper on a mega lower, $1200
Glock 17 GEN3, $500
Post here if interested, I will ship to a FFL or do a face to face near houston. All laws will be followed. Lets make mother jones the new r/gunsforsale :)
 
reddit is the kind of place where they have sub-sections, "subreddits" like:

"spacedicks"
"picsofdeadkids"

and the now-shut down "jailbait".

the tl;dr on reddit is that it's "4chan lite".
 
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/01/foghorn/truth-gun-sales-reddit/
In short, Mother Jones, Gawker and others are being fed information from a gun control advocacy group to write an article about how evil gun sales are happening on the beloved Reddit. But nothing illegal is going on. It’s sensationalism at its best, the equivalent of an “OMG deadly assault steak knives being sold at WAL MART!” story trying to whip up a public outcry against a group of people minding their own business and following the law. It’s yellow journalism at its finest, with the hate and vitriol being focused directly on law abiding gun owners.
 
Unless REDDIT is taking a percentage of the sale from either the buyer or seller, I fail to understand how it's a problem for people to list items for sale, or "wanted to buy."

It's just like posting in any other classified advertising medium. Isn't it? (I admit to not reading the linked article).
 
Unless REDDIT is taking a percentage of the sale from either the buyer or seller, I fail to understand how it's a problem for people to list items for sale, or "wanted to buy."

It's just like posting in any other classified advertising medium. Isn't it? (I admit to not reading the linked article).
From the ttag article I linked a few posts up
There was a court case a few months back where the Brady Campaign tried to sue Armslist (a website which allows people to list their guns for sale) saying that a gun sold on their site was used in a murder and therefore Armslist was liable for the murder. Naturally, the Brady Campaign lost and Armslist was found to have not violated any laws whatsoever. Reddit is the same way — they provide a place for individuals to find each other and trade guns, which is a completely legal thing to do.
 
Unless REDDIT is taking a percentage of the sale from either the buyer or seller, I fail to understand how it's a problem for people to list items for sale, or "wanted to buy."

It's just like posting in any other classified advertising medium. Isn't it? (I admit to not reading the linked article).

You're correct, of course, but MJ doesn't let that get in the way of their manufactured outrage.
 
I love the "In Theory" hypotheticals.

Here are some hypotheticals for you:
In Theory the .gov can allow informants to buy multiple guns knowing they will go to drug cartels.

In theory guns purchased at a gun buy back could end up in an unscrupulous officers personal collection.

In theory publishing the addresses of gun owners could make them targets for criminals.
 
Back
Top Bottom