By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
The online store Shopify recently surprised customers that it had updated its rules and would no longer allow the sale of many firearms, ammunition and accessories.
As reported by CBS News and others, Shopify listed the restricted items, and it is a long list. TGM checked the Shopify website to find that the list includes semi-auto firearms that can accept a detachable magazine that holds more than ten rounds, bump stocks, “rapid fire trigger activator or trigger crank,’ threaded barrel capable of accepting a flash suppressor, sound suppressor or silencer, firearms without serial numbers, grenade or rocket launcher, and much more.
Also listed were 80-percent or unfinished lower receivers, forward pistol grips, thumbhole stocks and “any part, component or kit for a firearm part or including a firearm part listed above.”
According to CBS News, the Ottawa-based Canadian store is an “e-commerce giant.” It has more than 600,000 small business clients but has “banned merchants from using its technology to sell weapons including semi-automatic firearms, silencers, grenades, rocket launchers and 3D-printed guns.”
The updated rules followed other efforts by some businesses to pressure American firearms manufacturers as part of a wave of gun control activity sparked by the school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, on Valentine’s Day, the story suggested.
But CBS also noted that, “The decision to enter the fray over guns—a particularly heated debate in the US—marks a change in stance for Shopify, which in the past has shown a reluctance to get drawn into cross-border debates.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation weighed in on the controversy asserting, “This policy update is misinformed and doesn’t contribute to increasing public safety. Instead, it limits customer choice and alienates law-abiding gun owners.”
“Today’s gun owners can trust NSSF-member retailers,” the organization said, “who offer online services, to provide them with the respect, dignity and service they have come to expect. When gun owners support these NSSF-member retailers, they contribute to a variety of industry-driven and effective public safety solutions.”
The problem posed by Shopify’s policy changes seems to further complicate the competition between store-front and online retailers which had previously been reported as favoring the online businesses.
