Demanding Ignorant Moms (DIM) Go After Facebook and Instagram

[BobFromBucks]

Demanding Ignorant Moms (DIM) announced today they are asking (demanding) that Facebook and Instagram enact a policy to prohibit all sales and trades of firearms.

I'll let you read the hyperbole but I imagine they see this as a win-win for their deluded members. If Facebook and/or Instagram acquiesce to their demands then they have a major PR coup in the bag. If they tell them to pound salt, they also have a major PR coup. Either way, they will use the answer to further their agenda. These people are well funded and have some expensive help with their strategy and tactics.

I also highly doubt their is a gun market on either of these platforms let alone the thriving one that Shannon Watts describes. She says, "It requires more information to open a Facebook account than it does to purchase a gun in a private sale on their platform." And, "Private gun sales between anonymous parties are a clear threat to public safety, and must be added to the list of prohibited content," said Watts. "We are shocked and disappointed that the platforms we use to share photos of our children and stay connected to friends and family are also being used for unregulated gun sales and trades."

These are the kinds of emotional memes that attract the independents who never felt like they had a dog in this fight.

Here's more of their lies and propaganda.


Headline: Facebook and Instagram Facilitate an Unregulated Online Marketplace that Make it Easy for Criminals to Get Guns

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched a campaign today asking Facebook and Instagram to immediately enact a policy prohibiting all sales and trades of firearms on their platforms. Unlike other online platforms, including eBay and Craigslist, Facebook and Instagram allow gun sales and trades – making them an unregulated online marketplace where felons, domestic abusers, and other dangerous people can easily obtain firearms.

"Facebook and Instagram are effectively hosting online gun shows—allowing private sales and trades that are not subject to background checks," said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. "It requires more information to open a Facebook account than it does to purchase a gun in a private sale on their platform."

The campaign will shine a light on the vast, unregulated market for private gun sales on the internet. An estimated 6.6 million gun transfers occur every year without a background check, many through online transactions such as those initiated on Facebook and Instagram. In 2011, the City of New York conducted an unprecedented undercover investigation of private firearm sales online by determining whether private sellers advertising guns for sale on the Internet are complying with federal law to refuse to sell to people who could not pass a background check. The disturbing results were that 62 percent of private gun sellers on the Internet agreed to sell a firearm to buyers who said they probably couldn't pass a background check. As further evidence of the dangers of how private gun sales allow criminals to easily get their hands on guns – a national survey of incarcerated firearm offenders found that nearly 80 percent of the inmates who used a gun in a crime said they acquired it from a person who was not a licensed dealer.

"American moms are among the most frequent and loyal users of Facebook and Instagram. We call on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to keep our social networks safe—online and offline—by closing the private sale loophole they enable on their sites," said Watts.

Moms Demand Action is asking its members to pressure both companies by:

Posting comments on the public Facebook pages of Facebook and Instagram demanding that they ban gun sales and trades on their platforms, using the hashtag #EndFacebookGunShows
Tweeting @Facebook and @Instagram with the hashtags #EndFacebookGunShows #GunSense and #MomsDemand. Members can visit Moms Demand Action's Fast Tweet page to easily send pre-formatted tweets: http://mcrbt.net/tweetendfbgunshows
Sharing memes on Facebook and Instagram: https://mcrbt.net/fbgunshowsgraphics
Signing a petition asking the CEOs of Facebook and Instagram to immediately enact policies prohibiting private sales: http://mcrbt.net/petitionendfbgunshows

Other online marketplaces including eBay and Craigslist already prohibit gun sales on their sites – and Facebook and Instagram already prohibit certain content in the interest of public safety and welfare but not the gun sales that put them at risk of becoming networks that enable dangerous people to buy guns with no questions asked. Facebook's terms of use prohibits hate speech; bullying and threats; content that incites violence and other inappropriate content. Instagram's terms of use prohibits users from posting photos that are "violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive." In addition, Facebook and Instagram do not allow ads that promote or feature smoking, but they do allow users to run ads promoting guns and gun sales.

According to Edison Research's Moms and Media 2013 report, seven out of 10 American moms have a Facebook profile, and there are more than 1,000 mommy groups, public and private. Of all the demographic niches on Facebook, moms check in the most: an average of 5.1 times a day.

"Even though Congress has failed to enact laws requiring background checks for private gun sales, including those initiated online, Facebook and Instagram can still do the right thing and help close that loophole by immediately enacting policies to prohibit all gun sales and trades on their platforms."

[iamtommyboy]

TLDR; peope buy guns and facebook and instagram?

[Lee-online]

Buy them on Facebook and then print them out on your 3D printer.

[dkf]

More outright lies and stupidity. I ask the "Moms" to please get a goddamn life.

[bogey1]

I bought an ass salt rifle with a 30 clip magazine and the black thing that goes up, on FB for 1200.00 . Best thing i ever did, no background check or anything.
God bless merica.

[win67]

I've used Facebook for years and have quite a few friends who are also firearms enthusiasts, and have yet to see anyone offer anything firearm-related for sale.

I'm gonna have to get in touch with Moms Getting No Action and ask them how I can get in on this Facebook gun market. It would be nice not to have to drive down to my LGS, fill out paperwork, pay for a background check, then wait for it to come back.

And the stupidest thing is that Facebook is not a good way to get in touch with people you don't already know, so I can't imagine that if Facebook was in fact commonly used for gun sales, that any of those sales would not have occurred if it were not for Facebook.

[Lee-online]

What would these liberals do if they found out we used gun broker, gun auction and armslist ect.

They would shit bricks if they see all those scary guns for sale that are bought by just entering your bid.

[stainless]

I get all mine at Dicks. Great store.

[mcl]

I get all mine at Dicks. Great store.

Those moms don't like Dicks, either.

[streaker69]

Nope, the option to buy guns on facebook still isn't enough for me to create an account.