In , about nine miles away from where Commander Paul Bauer was killed, a year-old boy named Xavier Soto was murdered. Prosecutors later linked the gun used in the killing — a Taurus pistol — to a purchase Henderson made through Armslist. Both of the men were sentenced for illegal sales. When she dialed after an assault in October , Zina Daniel Haughton said her husband, Radcliffe Haughton, had been violent for years.
Police took her to a Holiday Inn for the night, her family later said in court papers, but he showed up at her work the next day with a knife and slashed the tires of her car.
Zina soon asked for a restraining order against Radcliffe. She explained to a Wisconsin court: he had an explosive temper, threatening to throw acid on her face.
The judge granted the restraining order, which barred her husband from owning a gun. The next day, he entered the suburban Milwaukee salon where Zina worked and opened fire. He killed three people, including Zina, before turning the gun on himself. In the aftermath, Armslist faced questions about its role. Had the company effectively facilitated a mass shooting?
But the same law that shields major social media companies like Facebook from liability for terrorist content produced by their users also protects Armslist from being sued when bad actors use their platform.
Section of the Communications Decency Act is widely seen as the law that made the modern internet possible, paving the way for web forums, social media, and much more. The act protects website operators from being sued over what their users post. Armslist relied on Section for its defense in the Daniel case.
After one court dismissed the suit, an appeals court reversed the decision, allowing it to proceed. The intersection of internet speech law and gun rights policy has scrambled some usual political divides.
The brief put the nonprofit at odds with groups like the nonprofit Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which argues that the law was meant to protect good Samaritans, not to give cover to anyone who runs a website with third-party activity regardless of the consequences. Seen from one angle, the battle over Armslist looks like a microcosm of the larger war over Silicon Valley power and accountability. Should Facebook, for example, face consequences for failing to fact-check political ads?
Both Republicans and Democrats have taken aim at Section recently, worried about the broad legal shield it gives the tech industry. Some people might want to see Armslist go, he says, but other sites will also lose legal protections without Federal prosecutors could shut down the website and indict its owners under criminal charges if they believed the law was broken. Section does not restrict federal criminal prosecutions. Franks questions whether the stakes have truly hit home for defenders of a broad interpretation of the statute.
After pleading guilty for illegally selling guns on Armslist, Thomas Caldwell had his sentencing hearing in November While he faced charges for illegal gun sales, the killing of Commander Paul Bauer loomed over the proceedings. The prosecution disagreed, and pushed for prison time. A prosecutor told the judge that Caldwell had disregarded a warning from the ATF. They needed to make clear that was unacceptable. To add emotion to their argument, the prosecution called for the testimony of someone who knew Bauer well: Northeastern Illinois University Police Chief John Escalante.
Escalante grew up with Bauer from the age of seven. The two went to the same grade school, the same college, and then joined the Chicago Police Department together. Escalante always thought Bauer was the responsible one.
But as luck would have it, in , they entered the police department within one month of each other. Escalante remembered getting the call from an officer he knew on the force. He told Escalante that he should sit down, and delivered the news that Bauer had been shot. Escalante rose through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department and was, for a time, its interim superintendent.
This story was published in partnership with The Trace , a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Filed under: Policy. Data analysis by Daniel Nass. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email.
Apple Latest iOS beta blurs nude images for children using Messages app. Jon Gibbon and Brian Mancini, who attended the U. Air Force Academy together, launched Armslist to fill what they considered a void in the online gun market: classified sales. It worked. Armslist quickly became one of the largest gun markets on the Internet. The newspaper analyzed more than , ads on Armslist and found that the vast majority were listed by private parties who, unlike licensed gun stores, are not obligated to conduct a background check before selling a gun.
In addition to specialized gun markets like Armslist and GunBroker. Even when listings were flagged and eBay representatives vowed to remove them, gun parts remained up on the site for weeks.
Many other gun parts dealers continue to sell on eBay. Matt Drange is a reporter for Reveal, covering the business of guns. He previously reported on Silicon Valley and the intersection of technology and the environment. He won a James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists' Northern California chapter for his work on the Toxic Trail investigation, which exposed how mismanagement of Superfund cleanup sites often leads to substantially more harm than good.
Prior to joining Reveal, Drange worked for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, where he wrote about malfeasance in state government and the influence of money in politics. Drange started his career covering police and courts for the Eureka Times-Standard in California. The advantage of TexasGunTrader over Armslist would be that if your shop is in Texas, you will probably fare better.
Hopefully this post has provided you with the information you need to pick at least a couple of channels to use for selling firearms and other hunting or self-defense inventory safely, credibly and profitably online. Do you have a multi-location local business?
Do you have complex inventory management needs and need to synchronize your listings across multiple websites? While GunBroker is compatible with ecomdash and CrossPostIt , it looks like for all of the other channels, you will have to manually manage the listings. Which of these websites have you used to sell firearms?
In your experience, which is the most effective, bringing you the best buyers and highest profits? Stay tuned for our next posts, which will explore how to take amazing photos of your inventory for online sales channels and how to manage your e-commerce sales through a point-of-sale system!
Dick s Sporting Goods already has removed guns and ammunition from its stores, but now the retail giant is taking its split from the industry to another level and removing hunting gear from at least 10 of its stores.
Hey there Becky! Listings can really help online business to get customers. We only need to choose the right directory or listing site to bring more traffic to our website. Your email address will not be published. The trade-off is that, like eBay, you have to pay a final value fee if your item sells: GunBroker takes completion of sales very seriously and terminates accounts of sellers that cannot complete a transaction.
Online Gun Sales Tahlequah on August 30, at pm. Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Want the latest from the Qualbe Marketing Blog? Search for:.
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