Sampling of guns for sale on Instagram.
Criminals, thugs, domestic abusers as well as seriously mentally ill people who wouldn’t otherwise pass the background check are able to buy guns easy on the Internet – over Instagram.
Instagram – makes it very easy for somebody to buy guns no questions asked.”
Instagram is just one of many-many sites where guns are being transacted…
Although not all the people selling guns on the Internet are criminals, because there are no background checks, it makes it exceptionally easy for dangerous people to buy guns no questions asked.
It represents a loophole that is ought to be closed…
Title 18 United States Code 922(a)(3) and 922(b)(3) makes it a FELONY to send a weapon across state lines without going to an FFL (licensed gun dealer) in the buyers state, and the FFL is then required to perform the mandatory background check before giving the weapon to the buyer. Anything else is a felony. Buying/selling to someone within the state you live is covered by your state laws. Instigram is no different than advertising in the local newspaper, or putting a 3″x5″ card on the laundromat bulletin board. And federal laws 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(3) and (5), 922(d), 27 CFR 478.29 and 478.30 a person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of his State, if he does not know or have reasonable cause to believe the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal law., and if you have any reason to think the person is prohibited, then the law says you must go through an FFL. If you are a felon, and have not been relieved of the disability from owning a firearm (e.g. Martha Stewart), then it’s a felony to purchase a firearm.
Instagram make it easy as hell to bypass that need for a background check altogether and that has many people worried.
Including Senator Edward Markey – one of the most powerful and influential people in Congress.
Edward Markey, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Instagram Monday urging the popular online social media site to adopt a no-gun policy (source: Call for Instagram gun ban gun sales http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/senator-joins-call-instagram-gun-ban-article-1.1506883).