 
Back in January Facebook changed its policies on the advertisement of private firearms sales on its social media platform.
At first it was not clear if this was a global decision or specific to the United States. Up until now there has been no official enforcement in Australia.
In the past week, Facebook has commenced removing Australia’s biggest trading pages. Hunting Australia’s Trading Post and Classifieds, one of Australia’s biggest firearms and gear trading pages at over 20,000 members, has already received notice and is likely to be shut down this week. 
In the past, firearms could be advertised, as long as facebook advertisements were not used to promote the sales. Local rules and regulations were enforced but maintained by local authorities.
Even though the sites are not breaking any Australian or State laws, the new policy seems to take a global stance which was pushed heavily by the Obama administration.
One cannot help but think that the current enforcement has stemmed from the latest tragedy in the United States where an extreme nut bag went about killing innocent people in an unprovoked attack.
Licensed firearm retailers will still be able to advertise on the sites, but updated policy will forbid individual users from coordinating peer-to-peer sales of guns, even with the listing of an authorised dealer.
Once again, it is the law abiding firearms owners that must suffer for the actions of small minority.
 
 
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