not as though it matters

… but eBay just lost a customer.
I say it does not matter not out of any sense of self-deprication (though I have my own fair share of that), but rather because I have purchased all of maybe three things off that online bidding site since its inception. Sure, it is fun to poke around on, and look at things, but I never really understood the whole “bid for used items” aspect… or really the bidding aspect in general. Sure, you can sometimes luck out and get something a lot cheaper than you would otherwise find it, but only if you outbid someone else, who is no doubt just as interested in it as you are. Then the bidding wars start, then it just gets stupid.
Well, in addition to the bidding wars being stupid, eBay itself is trying to corner that particular market as well. Way back when, eBay banned the sale of all functional firearms on its site. That move I can definitely understand – the laws and regulations controlling the transfer of a firearm from one party to another are many and complicated, especially once you start crossing state borders, and all that nonsense. It should not be that way, granted, but it is, and I can definitely understand wanting to completely side-step that issue.
However, starting sometime this month, eBay is going to institute a ban covering “any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun.” For those of you who think that there are a variety of items that may be useful to firing a gun, but not necessarily “required”, this ban goes so far as to include “bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies, etc.”. Ouch. Matt Halprin, eBay’s Vice President, even bothered to explain that, “After much consideration, the Trust & Safety policy team – along with our executive leaders at eBay Inc.– have made the decision to further restrict more of these items than federal and state regulations require.”
So… huh?
eBay is taking it upon itself to impose tighter and stronger restrictions than even state and federal governments require? And they are doing this because….? Oh, right. Because they do not want the business of law-abiding, firearm-owning-and-enjoying individuals. Hell, if you believe the media these days, all firearm owners are evil demons just waiting to spring their atrocities upon the world, so who can blame them, right?
*sigh* I am against firearm crimes. I have always been against firearm crimes. I am firmly of the opinion that any crime committed with the aid of a firearm should have an appropriately MASSIVE punishment… like automatic life imprisonment, or something equivalent. However, there is an equally massive line between firearm crimes and legal firearm ownership, and eBay’s inability to understand that either is equivalent to inordinate amounts of stupidity, or inordinate amounts of irrational hatred.
Either way, I refuse to do business with a company exhibiting either of those Darwinian-lethal attributes. To be frank, they can bugger off, and take their idiotic hoplophobia with them. Thankfully, there are alternatives, for those of us who are interested in legal, safe self-defense by means of the tools science has granted us: Guns America, Auction Arms, Gun Broker, and Guns International. Granted, none of these sites cover anything except firearms and firearm-related items, but, hell, visit your local garage sales, and you can probably find most things for sale at eBay. And even if you cannot, is it really worth the convenience, when you are directly and indirectly supporting a corporation now intent upon not just limiting, but outright abolishing, our capabilities to find, procure, and maintain our means of self defense?
For me, not so much.
Trackposted to Right Pundits, Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, Committees of Correspondence, Mark My Words, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Big Dog’s Weblog, DragonLady’s World, The Pet Haven Blog, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Wake Up America, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Wyvern dreams, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, Stageleft, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.