On Easter Sunday, the Reddit Gun Deals Community Rose Again

A couple of weeks ago, Reddit rolled out a new policy that banned users from “soliciting or facilitating any transaction or gift involving certain goods and services,” including firearms. Consequently, the biggest gun-related board, or “subreddit,” to be wiped out as a result of the new policy was /r/gundeals, which had over 135,000 active users when the new rules came down. The community shares links to gun-related sales. But all is not lost for tech-savvy gun owners: on Easter Sunday, the Reddit Gun Deals board rose again.

Reddit Gun Deals Returns

In a post entitled, “We’re Back, Baby,” the Reddit Gun Deals moderators gave a timeline of exactly what led to the reinstatement of the forum. Essentially, the moderators had extensive discussions with Reddit’s overlords to ensure the subreddit was in compliance with Reddit’s new policy. The time between Reddit announcing its new rules and Gun Deals returning was 11 days.

Reddit Gun Deals has also instituted a permanent blacklisting of domains with “non-zero” risk. These domains include Gunbroker.com and Armslist.com. Moderators had previously made case-by-case exceptions after verifying that the end-seller was a licensed dealer, but that’s over now.

Furthermore, r/GunDeals moderators are also banning any political discussion surrounding guns. “We’re back, let’s keep it clean,” they say.

In addition, they’ve outlined a few additional subreddit rule changes as a result of the new Reddit policy. “Thankfully r/GunDeals was already in compliance with the policy change, but we need to stress certain rules and explicity state others,” the moderators say.

Here’s an overview of the new rules:

Rules

Any links submitted to /r/Gundeals for items under the purview of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA ’68), to include all categories of firearms, suppressors, ammunition, etc., must point to the retail website of a federal firearm license (FFL) holder. If you are in doubt as to the status of a retail website’s FFL, please contact the /r/Gundeals moderators for assistance.
Any links submitted to /r/Gundeals for firearm accessories not subject to GCA ’68 purview, such as stocks; magazines; hand guards; optics; etc., may point to retail websites for companies that do not hold a FFL.
As an extension of prior subreddit policies, links to external websites where direct firearm transactions between non-FFL holders may take place will be strictly prohibited. Unfortunately, case-by-case exceptions can no longer be made for links to Gunbroker, Armslist, state/local forums, etc., regardless if the seller in question meets the above licensing requirements and the listing follows subreddit standards of “readily available to the wider community”.
Directly arranging or servicing firearm transactions, either through subreddit discussion or private messages, is strictly prohibited. This rule applies regardless of whether one or both parties involved are Federal Firearm License (FFL) holders. Vendors needing to provide resolution to order issues for firearms may refer users to the contact pages of their respective websites. Links to additional items on a vendor’s website may be provided during the course of discussion, but negotiation/arranging of sales/discounts within that discussion is prohibited. Violations of this rule may result in immediate ban from /r/Gundeals as well as Reddit.com.