Facebook closed its gun-sale loopholes. What about the rest of the social web?
Six months ago, a 15-year-old boy in Kentucky logged into Facebook and arranged to buy a gun. He found a seller – one of many – willing to complete the sale without a background check. The seller was even willing to cross state lines from Ohio to make the sale work. Just a week later, the gun found its way to a high-school football game. In the hands of a student.
I’m a parent, so of course that scares me. And not just as the mother who runs Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who wonders how to help stop the next Sandy Hook tragedy. I’m a parent who, like most others, knows that even plugged-in teenagers can tire of Facebook for the next best thing online.
So of course I was gratified that Facebook and its photo-sharing subsidiary Instagram responded to our campaign and agreed last week to prevent potentially deadly gun sales with no background checks on their platforms. Because there’s a big problem when children can buy guns on the same sites where they “like” photos and chat with friends.
But Facebook and Instagram aren’t the only places on the internet where minors and criminals turn to find guns for sale without background checks. In fact, research by our parent organization at Mayors Against Illegal Guns has shown that plenty of online gun buyers – 1 out of 30 on Armslist.com – possess criminal records that federally prohibit them from owning firearms.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/facebook-gun-sale-loopholes-social-media
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