With more than 1.6 billion active users online, many use Facebook as another outlet to socialize, and for some do business.
On Friday, Facebook announced that it was changing its policies to ban users from arranging the private sale of guns on the social media platform. Its impact is being felt nationwide by private gun sellers who use their Facebook pages to not only sell the firearms, but to also engage with different members of the gun and shooting communities.
The policy will also apply to Instagram, which Facebook owns.
So, what might this mean for gun stores? J.D. Clay, retail manager for Sharp Shooters Knife and Gun Exchange, says he doesn’t believe the ban will necessarily bring in more business for his store, or that online sells will decrease.
“The Internet community is already adapting to the changes. Which is kind of funny to watch, which is kind of interesting,” said Clay. “I don’t know if it’s going to slow down these private sales at all.”
But it is especially frustrating to those here in Lubbock who work directly with the Facebook pages.
“I believe the question or issue most people have with the change in their policy is: why is a legal activity is being restricted? It’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Blake Ball, an admin for one of the Facebook gun selling pages.
Clay, who stated even he has visited pages and sites similar agrees that the ban doesn’t exactly ban anything illegal.
“Private sales have always been legal in the state of Texas. Majority of the U.S. actually.”
But regardless of whether you buy your firearm in store or online, both sides can agree to always exercise some caution and to feel free to ask an expert for whatever questions or uncertainties you may have.
“You can buy a gun $300 off an individual out in the Walmart parking lot, or come here and spend $350 and you know that we’ll service it, we’ll warranty it, we’ll work with you and you can trust us with the product you are buying,” said Clay. “And through Facebook, just use caution just as you would anywhere else. You know, if you need advice or anything like that, then call somebody, call us and say ‘hey what’s going on?’ We’ll do the best we can.”