Recently Google Shopping updated its terms of service to not allow any of the following Other prohibited categories
The following products are not allowed on Google Shopping:
- Vehicles
- Guns, ammunition and knives
- Tobacco and cigarettes
- Traffic devices (Learn more)
- Products related to casino and gambling
- Products or digital goods that require additional software installation in order to be purchased.
- Products bundled with service plans. (Note: The only products that are allowed to be submitted with a service plan are mobile devices.)
The NSSF is reporting that NSSF is attempting to reach Google to urge the company to reconsider this discriminatory policy that is hostile to the Second Amendment. We also plan to remind the company and emphasize that firearms cannot be purchased online and be transferred directly to the purchaser. A firearm that is purchased online must be physically sent from one federal firearms licensee to another, with the latter conducting the mandatory FBI background check on the purchaser (represented in person) and then transferring the firearm only after the purchaser has passed background check.
The company’s new, anti-gun policy has rightly caused firearms owners to reconsider having Google be their search engine of choice. According to reports, the search engine Bing.com, for example, currently does not block firearms from appearing in shopping results.
Google’s restrictive policy comes at a time when retailers and other online information resources have increased their content about firearms because of consumer demand. Fortunately, consumers have other online services to turn to instead of Google for their firearms information.