EBay changes firearms policy

You already couldn’t buy or sell firearms on EBay, and now they’ve added even more things to the list of prohibited items.

eBay currently bans guns and other weapons from its site (see its “Prohibited and Restricted Items list), and is now adding any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun.

Once these changes take effect in mid-August, sellers will be prohibited from listing on eBay.com and eBay.ca such items as bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies.

Apparently, this is in response to the VA Tech shooting; as “some” of the parts (maybe the magazines?) may have been purchased on eBay. My general reaction to this is “whatever” – I don’t use eBay anyway, and I generally avoid Paypal like the plague. Since eBay is a private company, they’re free to ban whomever and whatever they wish from their website.

Losing this business probably won’t hurt eBay, I’d imagine that the percentage they took from sales of gun parts wasn’t a significant portion of their revenue. However, it will have the effect of driving those customers to the firearms friendly auction sites, such as Gunbroker or Auction Arms. So, if eBay wants to lose those customers, that’s fine with me. I’ll just continue to not use them for anything, and I’ll encourage my four readers to do the same.