Amazon and Gun Products

The Firearm Blog points out that Amazon is removing gun products. I decided to look at Amazon’s policy in this regard, and I don’t notice any changes from the last time I looked at it. Obviously there are products some regulated products Amazon doesn’t want to deal with, but for the most part they have allowed accessories and related products. Without knowing what product was threatened, it’s hard to say whether it fits into Amazon’s policy or not. A book on home made firearms doesn’t seem to violate their restricted products, however, but that might just be a better of a stupid employee rather than representing a major change in policy. Or they might be making some creative interpretation of their policy on books that teach people how to make explosives. While I certainly don’t agree with all of Amazon’s policies in terms of items they won’t deal with, I can understand why retailers might not want to deal in certain highly regulated items, like firearms, magazines or ammunition. I’m not going to call for tar and feathers yet, but it might be something to watch.

UPDATE: Just noticed this: “Parts or accessories related to assault weapons.” Was that there before? Is Amazon aware that “assault weapon” has no clear definition? It is a made-up term.

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27 thoughts on “Amazon and Gun Products”

  1. I actually buy a fair amount of accessories, as we have a Prime membership. In fact, in the past week I bought a pocket holster and some revolver quick strips. Each item was ~$1-2 more than the usual gun gear sites, but with free and fast shipping, I came out ahead.

    Amazon prime is great for buying <$10 worth of stuff, like cleaning jags or snap caps.

  2. I really hope that Amazon doesn’t go fully anti-gun. I dropped Goggle as my search engine because of their stance; I would not like to stop shopping at Amazon because of the convenience.

    Paul

  3. Charitable organizations like The Calguns Foundation get quite a bit of money by partnering with Amazon.com. Our Shop42A.com program has been very successful.

    Here’s to hoping that Amazon hasn’t changed their policies.

  4. It’s a made up term with no clear definition, but it’s also a well-defined legal term in various states.

    And sadly, like it or not, it has a good-enough definition in common use, as “scary looking rifle thing”.

    It’s a bad idea to use such a term in policies, but it’s not prohibited or impossible – unlike the Law, Amazon has no requirement of being completely unambiguous in its policies.

  5. (To clarify the above:

    Yes, they shouldn’t use that bullshit term, for more than one reason.

    No, nobody can stop them and it won’t be any sort of “problem” for them as a company in itself.)

  6. “Too big to boycott” is becoming a nice new concept for me. But referring to the Bell Atlantic comment earlier, at least it’s not new to the cause.

  7. Just noticed this: “Parts or accessories related to assault weapons.” Was that there before? Is Amazon aware that “assault weapon” has no clear definition? It is a made-up term.

    You know, I can actually understand why Amazon would make this part of their policies. As Sigivald noted, “assault weapon” does have a legal definition in several states, and with wildly varying levels of regulation. If I were Amazon, I wouldn’t want to have to be constantly checking the laws of all 50 states to make sure that selling an AR pistol grip to someone in Kalifornia hadn’t suddenly become the felony crime of “accessory to constructive possession of an assault weapon”, or something similar.

    1. I actually don’t blame them for that, they’re a business and their purpose is to make money. As long as they’re not shilling for the antis I don’t mind too much if they want to stay out of it.

  8. “Is Amazon aware that “assault weapon” has no clear definition?”

    Ask them if they care. They like wiggle room as much as legislators do. Like “law,” it will mean whatever is expedient on any given day, and it will depend on who the entities involved are.

  9. Really? They’ve been really good so far. They’re not a full stop shop but I’ve been able to get accessories without a problem.

    They were even running a sale on hunting and optics a few weeks back.

  10. On a related topic: Can anyone recommend a good gunsmithing book? Amazon’s book reviews all almost uniformly state that they “have information, but are not complete”.

    I’d like to know how to make one start to finish.

  11. They were listing AR-15 parts kits just a few days ago. Let”s check. Hmm still there, along with rails and grips and other stuff.

    1. Then, per my comment above, it would seem that what’s expedient for the present is, to make money off us — and that’s great and the way it should be. But it sounds like it is presently expedient for them to violate some of their stated policy already — in our favor. Just don’t expect it not to work both ways.

      1. Amazon cares about one thing and one thing only: Money.

        Stop buying gun parts from them and it becomes painless for them to sanctimoniously dump gun parts.

  14. Anyone have a contact email or phone number for Amazon? I will add them to my “call list” in addition to my legislators.

  15. There IS a ban! I just typed in “shoulder thing that goes up” into Amazon’s search field and no shoulder things for assault weapons came up in the results!

  18. You are all looking to be offended so badly that you skipped over the highlighted text that reads:
    Note that while Amazon permits these products, certain jurisdictions may prohibit the sale of these products. You must comply with all applicable laws when selling weapons or any other product on Amazon.com.

    1. I’m not sure if we’re looking to be offended, so much as we’re hypersensitive to potential problems. I agree that we shouldn’t quickly jump to conclusions–but we also need to keep an eye out on things like this…

  19. I picked up a quad rail forend, reflex sight, and Tapco grip for my AK variant through Amazon around Christmas. I’ll be watching…

  20. The timing couldn’t be better (or worse). I just got an e-mail from the Second Amendment Foundation asking me to shop Amazon through their special link so they can get up to 10% of the purchase. I wonder if they are aware of Amazon’s policy change.

    1. I’m not sure anyone has confirmed that it is an actual policy change.

      I also wonder if they’re simply being cautious on restocking some items. It would certainly suck to have, say, 1000 adjustable AR stocks in inventory that are suddenly illegal to sell!

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