Gun control is losing steam. After doing their best to use the tragedy in Newtown to limit the constitutional rights of American citizens when it comes to owning and using guns, the millions of dollars and countless hours of campaigning led to exactly nothing happening on the national level and very little on the state level. Even those changes that did squeak through are being fought tooth and nail in the judicial system, and gun control advocates are quickly losing ground there as well. The reason is obvious: gun owners are well organized, engaged, and motivated. So naturally the next step for gun control advocates is to pressure Facebook into banning gun related pages — which they’re doing.
From VentureBeat:
Facebook may announce company policy changes for gun-related pages in the coming weeks, VentureBeat has learned.
The social network has been under pressure from the powerful Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Moms Demand Action civic group to ban gun-themed fan pages on the site.
Sources close to the conversations told VentureBeat, “Talks are progressing. The discussions are ongoing; there have been positive developments.”
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns group and their wholly-owned subsidiary Moms Demand Action are using a handful of examples where prohibited persons have purchased firearms through Facebook as their “think of the children” rallying cry to force Facebook to ban all gun related activity on the website. The groups have been pushing their agenda through a Change.org petition as well as a Twitter annoyment campaign. Ostensibly, they want Facebook to ban gun trading to “end gun violence,” despite the fact that it won’t actually stop any criminals from buying guns and will instead be another closed avenue to the 100% legal trade in civilian firearms in the United States.
That’s the party line — but the concern is that Facebook’s changes would cut much deeper than just banning sales.
From what we know about the way gun control advocates work, their entire strategy is based around suppressing the actual facts and repeating their own propaganda until it becomes “common sense.” It’s the reason why you’ll never see a pro gun control video with the comments enabled or a Moms Demand Action Facebook page with a single positive comment about gun ownership — their arguments simply cannot stand up to any scrutiny and they know it. Their brand of extremism can only survive in a vacuum, and any exposure to actual facts brings their whole world view crashing to the ground.
It only makes sense that Michael Bloomberg and his employees would want to silence the gun rights pages on Facebook. Removing gun owners’ ability to communicate and coordinate effectively would be a massive blow, and allow the gun control advocates to “divide and conquer” the various cliques of gun owners one at a time like they did with the Brady bill and the Assault Weapons Ban.
But of course, while banning pro-gun pages is on their agenda, I bet no one is talking about banning the flip side of the coin and removing the Moms Demand Action Facebook page. Because Michael Bloomberg and the rest of his gun control advocate cronies believe that the laws don’t apply to them, for some reason.
We’ll keep an eye on the situation as it develops.
As screwed up as our country is, it still makes me happy that we have choices as to where we spend our cash or swipe our card, online or in face to face situations.
Support what you can, and in terms of behaviorist speak, negatively punish anything that you do not want to support.
As a cyclist, I very much still support Crest toothpaste, and Barbasol shaving cream for their contributions to local teams for God knows how many years. Well, that and they make pretty decent products. I don’t support Nahsbar/Performance bike for making contracts with suppliers that undercut independent bike shops by selling last year’s products at prices the LBS’s could never sell at. The same with Cheaper than Dirt’s tactics… they’ll never see my face or my money.
Vote with your cash, and with your voice.
One often sees arguments made in State-level debates that fail to acknowledge that other States may have gone down the same path before.
It would seem fair for Idaho to find out how much concealed carry on campuses has cost Utah and Colorado. If it has cost two million dollars per year, then – fair is fair – that’s what it is. And if it hasn’t cost that much in Utah and Colorado, one can inquire just what it is that Idaho plans to do differently that would make it more costly there.
That is true, the information is out there for anyone who chooses to look for it. But, having read the original article, his logic seemed a bit too circular to me. Basically, Guns not allowed>of course no one will have a gun where it’s not allowed>metal detectors not needed, versus, Guns allowed>Oh NO!, people will still try to bring them where they’re not allowed>we need metal detectors!
I hope they do. The fallout would be absolutely hilarious
Facebook is very used to dealing with fallout. People whine, make a group ‘protesting’ the change and then go back to business as usual.
Well that sucks, I’ve found a lot of the sites to be really helpful and informative. And the fact that I’ve gotten good deals makes them even better. Honestly I’m surprised we’ve made it this far without any serious opposition from Anti-gunners.
So not only are many 2nd Amendment advocates banned from talking on MAIGs and MDA Facebook pages, but now those groups want to completely erase every gun related page on the site? What’s next, YouTube? Considering the gigantic amount of ad revenue channels like Hickock45 and Iriqiverteran8888 and others pull in that would be a stupid move. And if they do go that far, does that mean that channels of game reviewers and developers will get banned because many of their subject matters are First Person Shooters? Do they want to erase guns from the internet?
They want to erase every positive sign of guns from the culture entirely.
They want the word “gun” to be equivalent to “evil” in every way, but they’re not there yet. They want to only talk about guns in negative news stories and not allow people to show others in their community that normal, law-abiding citizens enjoy using firearms every day. Their message right now: Guns = crime, hence the phony term “gun-crime”, so if you see anyone with a gun they are a criminal or a psychopath, and if they seem nice they’re just in hiding because they’re a right-wing conspiracy theorist.
I belong to a local fb gun site here.
Lots of stuff happening there.
So how do we pressure Facebook to not give in to the gun control extremists? 5 million NRA members and 150 million gun owners want to know!
Keeping us up-to-date is one thing…. What about how to get in contact with facebook and letting all us 2A supporters get some input in!
What do we have to do, rent a billboard truck and roll it out in front of facebook headquarters?
I’m going to go the opposite way and submit that the folks at Facebook are smarter than that. They won’t ban squat related to gun ownership. My prediction is that exactly nothing will happen.
Um… if she uses a Glock 19 in her competition, why is there a Walther p22 in the picture?
Is that a serious question? please tell me that’s not a serious question..
Nick, Robert, you’re computer guys. Someone who knows more about this stuff than I should see the commercial possibility of a gun-culture social network of our own.
I went to their petition page and the comments are hilarious. “Gun violence is at an all time high. Facebook and Instagram don’t need to be pushing it along.” Only problem is gun violence is the lowest it has been in what, 70 years? I also love the picture they use as proof was from the ad put on Facebook that is clearly fake.
Nick should be ashamed of that mirror…
Why does it have to devolve into armed conflict already? If we start shooting we will lose the moral high ground and the war of ideas. The media and politicians will paint us as dangerous anti government gun nuts and say that we are terrorists and force is warranted and the general populace will agree.
One idea is take the non violent passive resistance route. I call it the Spartacus strategy. A large number of CT gun owners march on the state capitol or other government building carrying nothing more than the uber scary high capacity assault clip magazine thingies TM.
However the catch is some are actual 30 rounders, some are ten rounders that look like 30 rounders. Everyone marches peacefully to the capitol then pulls out the magazines and holds them above their heads. Some wave Gadsen flags, some wave the Texas come and take it flag. Then everyone stands around and waits for the police to come and take the mags.
At that point everyone tosses the mags down. It is 1st amendment freedom of speech and there is no way to prove who had what mag. It would make headlines and show the futility of the ban. RInse, wash, repeat as necessary.
Fingerprints on mags, faces on camera, yeah, that plan is toast. Wipe down mags? Yup, and don’t forget the floorplate, follower, and spring. In case you ever cleaned your mags…
Also, littering.
I will support Facebook’s decision in banning firearm related pages, if, and ONLY IF they ban all non-related pages as well.
If Facebook is smart, they won’t… they’d lose too much business in advertising as well as customer good will.
Of course, not every company nowadays does the “smart thing”… they’d rather react to hysterical liars like MDA / MAIG.
G+ has a growing gun community. I actually like the format better. The problem is most of my friends and family are one facebook. If they do decide to ban firearms related pages I am pulling the plug on facebook.
Was just thinking the same thing. If google+ is smart, they could gain 100,000 new “customers” a day for the next few months, while depleting facebook of the same.
It would be nice, although the Moms demand Illegal actions against legal guns will follow us there. We will need to fight the facebook BS tooth and nail. Some people may not understand why, but facebook is a place where I post gun stuff to put info out to my anti friends. I know they read it.
It’s Google, so no.
I’m not much a fan of the Umbrella Corporation.
Running to google from facebook is a losing proposition. They’ll screw you in a different position, but that’s about it.
I did a google search, and there really isn’t any way to reach facebook, other than to go to the little gear symbol in the upper right corner, select help, and then select the best option from there.
You can also go here and report “abuse” 😉
https://www.facebook.com/help/263149623790594
I’ll have to look into the report abuse feature….
“Re: Mom’s demand action: overtly spreading misinformation. “
I will jump off Facebook if it bands gun pages
When you hear the 50 cal, you’re already dead.
Geez, Facebook, I only avoided you because I don’t care for social networking in general; I wasn’t necessarily asking for you to completely vindicate my personal choice.
This won’t go anywhere, just like the Staples incident they are making up positive “results” when they probably haven’t even received an official response. The problem to consider is the hundreds of firearm-related businesses that have Facebook pages, an entire industry that has the capital to faceoff with Facebook if needed. A few whiny moms won’t sway Facebook in the face of the giant advertising loss they would produce.
To the first video, there are a few more options here. Hide your firearms in an undisclosed but safe location so when Johnny 5 0 come buy thay can’t find them, you sold them or something like that. Leave the least expensive gun for 5 0 to collect while the rest are gone.
Facebook? I had very limited information on it from my business and that’s it. After retiring from it at the beginning of 2014, I deleted the page. Screw having Facebook, screw having a smart phone…..screw it!
I understand where you are coming from, but this is an arena that is extremely vital to gun rights. If we lose social media we lose possible contact with hundreds of millions of people. They are looking to suppress gun rights groups right where we are gaining the most momentum. We have no help in the conventional media so this is our biggest rallying point for fighting back. It can not be taken away from us.
So can we start a change.org petition for fb to remove incendiary, emotional appealing gun control groups interested in limiting our constitutional rights ?
not my business really as a Brit but tactically you guys need to push peacefully before the state deliberately triggers a shoot out to make their case, pre-empt their action to keep them under moral pressure, moderate your language, work up a good message and get all of your supporters out to vote in the next election.
Sent a nice note saying essentially this to billionaire Ron Conway, who hijacked many of the Sandy Hook parents into a standard gun control scheme.
Having met a few of those parents, they did not want that. Regrettably, they were played by some pretty amoral and repulsive people.
Fight MAIG and MDA over this, or let them deny POTG their freedom of speech forever on FB. It looks to me like there are far more pro gun groups on FB than anti gun, and POTG use this Social Media resource to share all kinds of worthwhile news and information and just plain fun.
If we cannot win this fight, we might as well beat our guns into pruning hooks.
What tragedy in Newtown? Oh you mean how tragic it is that the whole town is a movie prop and many Americans think some kids were massacred there?
Newtown is a fake city? are you seriously gonna go there?
The town is real – but the shooting event is surrounded by suspicious facts.
Did you know they had rows of porta-potties delivered within an hour or two of the “shooting”?
Did you see the large electronic signs outside the school telling people to “check-in”? – Those arrived almost instantly too.
Overhead news video shows about 100 or so people walking through the building, around the block and back into the backdoor – over and over again, like marching ants.
Recording from the police radio of the first responder on the scene said there were “multiple guns” …”we got a rifle and a shotgun”. Then a few hours later they “discover” the shotgun in the trunk of a car.
Now they’re threatening a school safety expert from Florida who is trying to discover anything that can be learned from the event. Instead of helping him make schools safer, they’re blocking every request and sending police to his home to give thinly veiled threats.
Ebay and Facebook are or have been based in Mountain View and Palo Alto California (Stupidville) (unfortunatly my old stomping grounds)Sooo what do you expect? They are both based in the middle of Liberalabilia.
You can’t stop the signal.
Well I hope not but those gun control people hate facts. Oh BTW I went to R/guncontrol and went to a post and well think I got myself banned by using logic with these people
“Sources close to the conversations told VentureBeat, “Talks are progressing. The discussions are ongoing; there have been positive developments.””
Sources from what side of the conversation? Because that sounds like just the kind of feel-good BS that MDA likes to use when people are being polite to them instead of actively showing them the door.
Do you know how hard it was to get the page called sexy little girls removed from facebook a clear pedophile page with pic of girls no more than 8 in underwear and the comments were horrific. Fb fought with us refusing to remove it, i guess exploiting childern is not a top priority…we did eventually get enough people involved to get it removed
I noticed that the “India Times” reported that one hunter was ‘sent back’ (I presume to town) for “Not having rifle of particular bore”, which I presume means inadequet/ too small bore. Anyone know what the Indian Govt considers an adequet bore for tigers?
Here is Facebook’s corporate headquarter phone number:
Phone: 1-650-853-1300
Sigh. Obama’s liberal agenda? The man is to the right of Nixon by any objective standard. Talk about agitprop.
How to fight facebook? Well, they are a publicly traded company, and the NRA and others accept donations of stock…..
I’ve never been a big fan of facebook; but a lot of people are. To a lot of people, “it is the internet”. So whether you use it or not, this would be a big move.
Keep this in mind: pretty much every company these days HAS to have a facebook page. This would mean that your Classic Firearms, GrabAGun, Magpul, etc, facebook pages would be gone. (Much of the Boulder Airlift for Magpul was coordinated and announced through facebook.) – If you’re not “social” and you’re a business, you’re in trouble.
The same goes for activist groups, the NRA, the sort of folks that worked for the recalls here in CO; it’s about hobbling them all.
So, MDA and MAIG knows exactly what they’re doing here. This isn’t about some guy posting a “highly automatic machine gun clip for sale without background check”, it’s about a body blow to firearms businesses, activists, and advocacy groups in their entirety. It’s a very wise tactical move on their part. So whether or not you use facebook or not, “this matters”.
Also: @Nick – Beware confirmation bias. Maybe this is my own bias coming from a state where new gun control laws didn’t “Squeak by” here in Colorado (and they’re working on new ones this session… I also think those in CT would agree with me) – the antis and the gun-control groups are still orders of magnitude more emboldened and motivated than they ever were pre Sandy Hook. Gun control isn’t dying, or faltering, or fading; it’s just regrouping, and now is no time at all to relax.
We may have kicked out three legislators here in CO, but if that was to send a message, it doesn’t seem like it’s been received. The antis are as bold as ever here and everything is being voted on, on party lines. I’m waiting to see what the legislature here introduces this spring.
I’m hoping none of them end up on here with the header “BREAKING:” – but I wouldn’t be incredibly surprised if they do.
If MDA and MAIG wins this one, it’ll be pretty major. Do we have any groups who could be ‘in talks with facebook’ working to stop them?
Whats Facebook? You mean that govt funded spy program? Oh that. Never been there.
I haven’t been on FB for years. Providing personal information over the internet for anyone to see is a bad idea. One of my agency’s main focus of criminal investigations is identity fraud. There are people whose job it is to prowl FB and the internet and gather Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about whomever they can, and then try to get credit cards, mortgage loans, access to bank info, etc. FB is a veritable gold mine for those criminals. So I don’t do it. I’ve actually been more successful at getting people to quit FB than I have been converting fence sitters to 2A thinking.
Personally, I think FB is in decline. Membership is tapering off and people are losing interest. Identity theft is quickly becoming a common crime. It’s not a matter of if anymore, just when. I’ve had my credit card number stolen twice, and I write “ask for ID” on the back of all my cards. I consider myself to be extremely careful. But business like Target and even my own mortgage company aren’t. They are sloppy and got hacked.
Businesses can do what they want. If FB decides to be anti-gun, so be it. Sure it will hurt our cause, but not by much. Millions of gun owners and gun related business will take their BILLIONS elsewhere and FB will begin it’s slow decline into obscurity. If it hasn’t already.
The way to pressure Facebook is not to send feedback 9dont think that will work); The way to pressure Facebook is to write your Senator/Delegate at both the state/national and tell them Facebook is anti-gun anti-freedom and does not respect the 1st amendment. Nothing will get their attention like some Facebook-centric legislation, and people campaigning against Facebook (they routinely censor political speech in other countries). Plus, Zuckerberg has some pet projects and has been running ads for conservatives as cover. Hard for me to see them going too far on this, but then the squeaky wheel gets the oil. And, Mothers against guns is surely a tiny little mouse.
Hi, I really like my SCCY. 5.9″ long 10+1. Got it for $250 with a free third magazine. Shoots great and what I like about it is the long revolver type trigger. Much safer I think. I would not carry a handgun with a short light trigger with a round in the chamber (such as a Glock) for safety reasons.
Nick, I think that this statement of yours is a little bit hyperbolic, don’t you?
“It only makes sense that Michael Bloomberg and his employees would want to silence the gun rights pages on Facebook. Removing gun owners’ ability to communicate and coordinate effectively would be a massive blow, and allow the gun control advocates to “divide and conquer” the various cliques of gun owners one at a time like they did with the Brady bill and the Assault Weapons Ban.”
It would not be a massive blow at all. Gun rights advocates could well be the most well connected political demographic in the country today. I think that our successes are a testimony to that fact, not to mention that we have truth, rationality, facts, data and history on our side. Facebook, Twitter and all of the rest could pull the plug tomorrow and it would be hardly a speed bump. We’ll adapt and adapt well.
MAIG and MDA, for all of their hysterics and rantings, will be made to look even more petty and small by these kind of shenanigans than they already do. By their suppression of First amendment rights they make it far more clear that they are actually more about totalitarianism than they are about public safety. This kind of BS doesn’t sit at all well with the majority of Americans and it will likely backfire on them.
Man, I sure do feel bad for you guys that like Bookface….
Shannon Where is Jack The Ripper when you need him
Method changes, but the Message remains the same. Just as most churches have realized that casual dress and modern music are good because it draws a younger crowd, things like gun raffles can attract people who normally spend their Sunday mornings elsewhere. I think Jesus would have used popular music and amplification if they were popular in his day. Some Christians may say this is “shallow”. I say it’s using the right bait to hook ’em, dunk ’em, and then get them in the deeper(spiritual) water. As for the God/self-defense thing, see my book: “A Time To Kill: The Myth Of Christian Pacifism.”
So if no gun is undetectable, does that mean nothing violates the Undetectable Firearms Act?
At 1:28 in what type of God awful ugly revolver is that?
This is great news for lofo voters who were hyperventilating over the impending doom of gun printing. “You hear that, gun nuts? Your nationwide terrorist assault on our airports is going to have to wait!” Expect similarly framed pieces in every msm outlet, including (and maybe especially) fox news.
And highly trained professional screeners will still let warheads, nunchucks, AR’s, grenades, crates of ACME Explosives through.
But your toothpaste will see you detained for 6 hours.
Amen
Wanna bet $20 whose church will get more tithes and offerings over the next decade?
Excellent!
Sooo…..if anyone wanted to smuggle a firearm someplace, they should design it such that its disassembled components resemble other things’ outlines?
Nice. Thank you. Here’s another armed Lutheran who has some good stuff: http://www.armedlutheran.us/
Thanks for bringing some balance in.
Exo
10% of my ammo?
Thanks Paul.
FaceFook can stick it up there a$$ because sooner or later they won’t matter!
Figures that a Brit would use his labor to come up with such a travesty. QUICK! A free man might be harmed! Your majesty, we simply can’t have that!
Nicely stated.
Has anyone tracked the cars that Oprah gave away, to see if any innocent victim has been killed in or by any of them?
One of the my favorite quotes from “The Patriot”
A shepherd must tend his flock. And at times… fight off the wolves.
Moderated
Well done Paul.
Free flow of information is the essence of the internet. The first crack in that principle is the death knell of any entity that violates.
If someone else is censored, you realize that it is no longer yours but you are there by permission only.
Then the erosion of that platform begins and is soon irrelevant.
Lawmakers ought to take a step back when passing legislation and ask themselves:
“Will we have to commit a humanitarian atrocity to enforce this law against people who have done no harm beyond noncompliance with said law?”
If this question is never asked then you are an incompetent lawmaker. If the answer is yes, then you are evil.
I wonder if they tested it on breast implants. I’m seeng a lot of false positives for hidden explosives…and a lot of very happy TSA agents
If you’re going to microwave my junk, I just may shoot you…
Well stated Paul, thank you
Well, as a catholic I trust in the authority of the Church to teach and to have determined which books constitute scripture (aka the Bible) in the first place. I rely on that teaching and authority when it states:
2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.
Another solution to another problem that doesn’t exist. Just like when Cali banned the 50bmg because, ” you could shoot an airliner down”, never been a crime committed with one that I can find, and in regards to shooting down a plane, well, maybe when it’s still on the ground, but then again, not really shooting it “down”.
Seems like politicians like to imagine really implausible things, and then make up laws, guess they have all the real problems sorted out already 😛
Piston system seems fine, but carrier tilt has been a thing of the past for a couple years now with better designed BCGs.
How about you give me a SR-22 and we call it good?
How about a retail price? And possibly a link to the manufacturer for specs?
Wow, that sorta hurt my eyes.
Dude looks like Woody Harrelson.
Mods – this is not an ad hominem attack. Some folks would consider that a compliment.
P.s. wassup with the 500/502’s?
Seriously, some people never change… But then again, the antis spout the same shit so much, it’ll have stuck in their brains. But that shouldn’t surprise us, their heads are so far up their arses…
Police Chiefs are Political appointees, and as such the views they share are generally reflective of the people that appointed them to the position.
Which is why it is important to vote in local elections and to pay attention to who is running for Sherrif.
The dangers of relinquishing power from the legislative process and giving it to an agency like the ATF or RCMP
Can I just say what a relief to find somebody who genuinely knows what they are
discussing online. You actually know how to bring
a problem to light and make it important. A lot more people really need
to read this and understand this side of the story. I can’t believe you’re not more
popular since you certainly have the gift.
If I ever had a daughter some day I’m finding this shirt and wearing it outside the house 🙂
I love this blog. Hell, this is the only blog that I come to on a daily basis and with that having been said I humbly request that Mr. Farago quit with the sensitivity training. I am surrounded by that sort of madness constantly with TTAG being one of my brief moments of respite. I am sure that this will be deleted under the new posting policy so I don’t expect anyone to read this other than “he who cuts” but, one has to ponder, what is the point? There is no convincing an anti-gunner of anything contrary to their own pea-brained views. Under any circumstances. I should know. I have been trying to convince my sister since birth that books with facts are more important than uninformed supposition and innuendo, to no avail. So, I am expected (asked really) to NOT make a joke about or say directly to them that they are idiots and morons? I am merely informing them of what they seem to not know: THEY ARE COMPLETE IDIOTS. That is why they can’t take a joke and the very same reason why facts eternally elude them. I don’t need sensitivity training any more than you or anyone else here.
Has this world gone crazy that CA is getting more gun friendly and the NRA is responding (with a righteous burn) in a timely manner to anti-gun rhetoric?
I did Facebook for a year. The novelty wore off and I deleted my account. No tweeting for me either.
Insane if they think it will do one bit of good keeping guns from kids or crimanals.. The web is 10 steps ahead of all of it. And I would say there are some groups that will make things difficult for Facebook… ANONYMOUS