Greg's Corner

Another police death linked to Armslist

Previously, when we’ve discussed Armslist, better known as the craigslist of guns, we’ve talked about two different police shootings. One happened in Boston that left the officer with considerable medical issues, and the other one that happened in Chicago resulted in the death of a police commander. Now the controversial online firearms marketplace is back in the news linked again to the death of another police officer. The controversy surrounding Armslist is that the guns sold through their platform fall under a loophole in the law that doesn’t require any kind of background check between a private seller and a buyer. In too many cases, not even an ID is asked for. This loophole is known as the gun show loophole since it first allowed private sellers at gun shows to sell their firearms without having to conduct a background check.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A51Gr0zpX_c%5D

An unfortunate incident occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2015 when Police Officer Daniel Webster was shot by an assailant who had purchased the murder weapon through Armslist illegally. During the trial, the seller of the gun testified that the gun in question was supposed to be recalled since it had a problem of occasionally firing when dropped. Instead of turning the gun in the seller decided to make some money instead. He sold it to a man who contacted the seller through Armslist. The sale took place in a restaurant parking lot and the buyer claimed he had no ID on him. An ID is supposed to be required to sell a gun privately in order to trace the gun if needed. Instead, the seller allowed the buyer to just write any name down on a bill of sale. The accused gunman used an alias on the bill of sale and walked away with the firearm. The gunman was also a previously convicted felon who was banned by law from owning a gun.

Armslist doesn’t help matters when they use what we call the ‘Backpage defense’. Armslist contends that they’re well within their First Amendment rights to facilitate the sale of guns between private citizens and also try hiding behind the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Much like Backpage tried to defend their profiting off of human trafficking as free speech. While Armslist doesn’t physically sell firearms to people, they do very little to discourage the illegal sale of firearms outside of making users click on a button that says they’re over 18 and they’re legally able to purchase a gun. That’s not exactly what should be called reasonable steps to help prevent illegal gun sales. That seems to be enough for Armslist through as they continue to make money off of the blood of shooting victims which includes fallen police officers.