By Dan Friedman, New York Daily News
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America wants Facebook, which owns Instagram, to ‘immediately enact a policy prohibiting all sales and trades of firearms on their platforms.’ Group founder Shannon Watts claims, ‘Facebook and Instagram are effectively hosting online gun shows — allowing private sales and trades that are not subject to background checks.’
A group of mothers supporting gun control called Monday for Facebook and Instagram to ban postings that the advocates say are effectively online gun shows.
But the social media sites say they are already doing all they can to thwart illegal guns.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, formed in the wake of the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school massacre, wants Facebook, which owns Instagram, to “immediately enact a policy prohibiting all sales and trades of firearms on their platforms.”
“Facebook and Instagram are effectively hosting online gun shows — allowing private sales and trades that are not subject to background checks,” group founder Shannon Watts said.
The group succeeded last year in pressing Starbucks to tighten its rules against guns in its stores.
Now it wants to force Facebook to follow eBay and Craigslist, which ban gun sales.
But unlike those sites, Facebook and Instagram are social media sites, not e-commerce outfits, a Facebook official said.
Many gun owners post pictures of weapons for sale on their Facebook pages. But the site does not facilitate sales, the official said.
He said Facebook already bans gun ads.