Jul 22, 2012, 3:06 pm National Politics
The Mormon Church sells unregulated guns

By Libby Spencer

The Mormon Church isn’t just a house of worship, it’s a business too. In fact it’s a huge corporate conglomerate with many commericial subsidiaries, including “one of the most active and unregulated gun sale websites in America.”

The site, KSL.com, is owned by Deseret Media, one of the for-profit enterprises of the Mormon Church. It runs classified ads “which allow individuals to buy and sell handguns and other firearms without proper background checks and no questions asked.”

http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2012/07/22/the-mormon-church-sells-unregulated-guns/

How about that...

The church is perfect, KSL classified oversight isn't.

They aren't breaking any laws there. The story is being a little crooked itself. The statement:

"The Mormon Church isn’t just a house of worship, it’s a business too. In fact it’s a huge corporate conglomerate with many commericial subsidiaries, including “one of the most active and unregulated gun sale websites in America"

The article makes it sound like this is a website devoted to guns sales, which is completely wrong. KSL.com is a news site with a classified section, one of at least a hundred sections happens to be guns. The church makes no money off this section as an agent or seller, posting the ads are free from private citizen to private citizen, and buyers contact the seller with KSL doing nothing.


The article makes it sound like illegal activity as well. Private citizens can sell guns to private citizens without federal, or any other kind of background check. That's the law.

There are so many things wrong with the church that making up stuff just makes the public leery of any comment about the church. Reporters and others should stick to the facts without sensationalizing, they would have much more credibility.

how is it OK for just anyone to buy a gun? A 14 year old kid with no parental oversite can buy one using those ads...I think sales of guns should be monitored better than that...
just sayin...

When I was a kid, people used to say about abortion, "There's a difference between what is legal and what is moral."

Would the KSL site take ads for temple recommends? For garments? For porn magazine collections? (Maybe the last one--Mormons don't seem to have a problem making money off of porn).

KSL could easily have a rule against accepting ads for guns. They just don't, because they don't want to lose the money they make from the ads. Its the same reason that mormon-church-owned businesses stay open on Sunday.

I'm not trying to defend the church here . . . it's more like I am trying to defend people who make accusations about the church.

Maybe they could make meaningful accusations. There are plenty of real topics most people aren't aware of.

Again, they don't make money from the ads. The guns are sold as a sporting good item mostly. Most people in America don't consider this to be a moral issue, not even me, and I'm about as liberal as they come on most things.

To me, it's just a little too sensationalized and digging a little too hard where there's not much dirt. That's all.

The ads are free I have bought and sold items on this service and never been charged a dime.

There are PAID ads also. Many will pay for extra features, but you can post ads for free. I guess I'll go get me a gun then!!

"There are so many things wrong with the church that making up stuff just makes the public leery of any comment about the church. Reporters and others should stick to the facts without sensationalizing, they would have much more credibility."

..."Mormon church-owned business turns blind eye to unregulated gun sales."

Guns are bought and unsold like this in Utah regularly. It is both legal and moral. I myself bought one handgun and one tactical shotgun on this same website...It is not so much a KSL issue but private sales between individuals. The Mormon Church is not making the sales.

It is just a legal classified ads section. As if Detroit is lilly white.

That is a ridiculous headline. That is like a headline saying "Craigslist sells sexual services"

ksl.com is not the Mormon church. The argument that the detroit news is making is ridiculous.

Here are some variants:

I sold a motorcycle on ksl (truth). Therefore, the Mormon church sells motorcycles. Therefore, I must be an active part of the Mormon church.

Bad arguments.

Agreed. They are grasping at straws.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0308.pdf

Let's compare the murder rate in Michigan and the murder rate in Utah.

The next thing you know, a whorehouse somewhere in the world was sold out and it was previously owned by...you know who.

Yeah, this one isn't worth the time, sorry. Classified ads are classified ads.

Topping because it is relevant again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9067367/Mormon-Church-owns-unregulated-gun-sale-website.html

I realize that this is like craigslist, so the church isn't liable for everything that goes on. However, why is the church (any church) involved in this kind of activity, guns or no guns, in the first place?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2012 09:38AM by Jesus Smith.

The church isn't involved in the activity...KSL runs the website. Third parties are the ones doing the buying and selling. KSL is a buisness so they do things that their customers want. About a year ago they tried to back out of the gunsales but the users of the website got pretty uptight and kept pressure to keep it going.

I use this service to buy and sell guns on quite often. I bought three guns off of it this year alone. It really isn't an LDS issue.

For what it is worth though most people selling will only sell to a concealed weapon holder which gives somewhat of a background check....

Craigslist did allow ads in which underaged girls were trafficked for sex until two young girls told their stories, and Craig Newmark was forced to face up to what was happening on his list. On September 3, 2010 the "adult services" section of Craigslist was shut down. If you want to know more about this, google "Polaris project" and sexual trafficking for more information.

I own two target rifles and pistol (secured in a huge gun safe at all times) and am a competitive shooter. No one except military and police need automatic assault weapons, period.

A friend of mine, a committed competitive shooter and gun collector and visitor to gun shows, often said that some of the people at gun shows were the scariest and craziest people he'd ever seen. There are no records of sales at gun shows, either.

If the TSCC is part of trafficking weapons, legal or not, it bears a share of the responsibility for what is done with these weapons just as Craigslist bore responsibility for what was being done with its ads.

All the money and baloney thrown out by the NRA officials and gun lobbyists is not worth the life of even one of those little children in Newtown.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2012 02:17PM by bordergirl.

A bit over stated.

Seriously?

gawd...
who knew that the only thing needed to make exmos into morg apologists is to criticize gun sales.

y'all suck

No one is apologizing for the morg....It is a classified ad section..It has nothing to do with the church.

except that the church could shut it down any time they they'd want to.

is that what you mean by has nothing to do with the church?

It is between third parties...KSL owns the website. They tried to remove the gun section a year ago but it pissed off the masses...You have no clue how many guns are bought and sold through that website.People threatened to boycot KSL.com if they took them off so they kept them.

Third party sales of guns are legal..People buy them and people sell them. I suspect that more people here on RFM are doing buisness themselves on KSL...There is enough of a demand for guns and they are being bought and sold on all sorts of classified ad websites...

Not everyone thinks guns are bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2012 12:59AM by whiskeytango.

people threatened to boycott KSL?! well, we certainly can't have that!!

nothing says only true church like making money of the sale of guns without background checks through legal loopholes!

you're certainly right when you say that not everyone thinks guns are bad. hell, not EVERYONE thinks shooting a class full of children is bad.

+1000

I believe the (then Both) Seattle papers discontinued accepting ads for firearms some time ago, as a matter of Ethics.

Don't quote me on this.