Reddit decided to ban all user-to-user sales and/or trades of firearms parts or accessories. The sale or trade of firearms was already banned on Reddit. This rule took effect on October 9th, 2025. The announcement also bans the subreddit r/RetroARMarket completely.
No one on Reddit will be allowed to facilitate user-to-user transactions involving firearms parts and enhancements. Even specific instructions, such as those for 3D printing files to create such items, are prohibited.
According to Wikipedia, Reddit was the seventh most visited website on the planet as of February 2025. Over 50% of the traffic comes from the United States, about 7 percent each from the UK and Canada, then about 4% from Australia and Germany at 3%. The rest is split among numerous other countries. It appears service is worldwide except for China and Indonesia. People who have DNS service in Indonesia are said to be able to access the site.
In the notification of the change in rules, no reason is given for the change. From the notification:
“This means that on and after this date, communities will not be permitted to allow user to user transactions involving any firearm parts or enhancements. Discussions, reviews , links to external licensed vendors, and user to user transactions involving items such as holsters, safes, or other non-enhancing items are still allowed.”
People in the affected subreddits are unhappy with the rule change.
There is a clear pattern from those who want a disarmed population. This group encompasses most governments worldwide. They realize that to keep the population disarmed, they must prevent the people from having access to information about how to make firearms and ammunition.
Australia bans the possession of computer files used to print firearms parts – even toy firearms – on 3D printers. New York State has attempted to do the same. These attempts in the United States are being challenged as not allowed under the First Amendment, which protects free speech and the freedom to publish.
By making it more difficult for enthusiasts to trade or purchase legal items online, Reddit is following the footsteps of other services such as eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace. The Internet is a big place. As the Gun Control Act of 1968 caused enormous numbers of retail outlets to stop selling firearms, it also caused hundreds of thousands of dedicated firearms stores to spring up. These stores served as gathering places for Second Amendment enthusiasts.
Similarly, we may see Internet spaces that are friendly to firearms enthusiasts grow because they have an advantage over those that ban user-to-user sale and trade in the larger spaces.
Where firearms are highly regulated, there persist active firearms communities. As rights protected by the Second Amendment are restored in the United States, firearm-friendly Internet communities are likely to thrive inside the United States.
It is very difficult to stop the flow of information over the Internet. As much as Europe tried to maintain a monopoly on the manufacture of modern firearms, it was impossible to stop the spread of such a powerful technology. Stopping the spread of how to make firearms and ammunition is a much more difficult task.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
