The National Shooting Sports Foundation is preparing to file a class-action suit against Google and has put out a public call to any other businesses who believe they, too, have been discriminated against by the search giant after being banned from using AdWords and AdSense.
“Do you run a business in the United States that has been stopped from using Google AdWords/AdSense for being gun-related? A class action civil lawsuit is pending in San José, the NSSF warns,” GunsWeek reports.
The organization notes that as far back as the horrific shootings of first-graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, social media and IT firms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and others have been engaged in what can fairly be considered discriminatory business practices against firearms companies and other weapons makers.
The discrimination has only increased in recent years as additional acts of violence – the Las Vegas shootings in October 2017 and the Parkland, Fla., shootings in February – have taken place. (Related: Flashback: Obama admin deliberately put firearms into the hands of drug dealers who killed more people than died in Las Vegas.)
And though in every instance firearms groups and companies have condemned the acts of violence, virtue-signaling tech companies have nonetheless deplatformed guns and gun makers and sellers while eCommerce and IT firms have either dropped them or otherwise distanced themselves from those companies.
Now, the NSSF is set to file a legal challenge to this alleged discrimination following Google’s decision to suspend or terminate a number of AdSense/AdWord accounts tied to websites and/or businesses that, according to the search engine’s new terms of service, advertise “any products that:
(i) were designed to injure an opponent in sport, self-defense or combat such as knives, crossbows and guns, or
(ii) which comprised any part or component necessary to the function of a gun, or
(iii) which were intended for attachment to a gun” in violation of Google’s “dangerous products or services policy.”
None of those products are illegal to sell or own in the United States unless you live in some far-Left enclave where self-defense is more criminalized than being in the country illegally.
Other practices being challenged as discriminatory
In a message to members on Oct. 29, the NSSF invited any businesses that have been subjected to this alleged discrimination to join in the class-action suit.
“You do not necessarily have to hold an FFL to become a plaintiff in this lawsuit. Your business does not need to be based in California, it can be located anywhere in the United States,” the organization said on its website. “No attorney fees or costs will be charged to join this federal class action lawsuit. Rather, plaintiff’s counsel will be paid by court order on a contingent basis.”
Any business owners who believe they have been treated unfairly by Google can contact William McGrane, Esq., “who is acting as putative class action counsel in the pending federal class-action lawsuit by emailing him at [email protected],” the group noted.
It’s not just social media and IT firms that have started punishing gun makers and gun dealers in recent years. Retail outlets have also implemented practices that have caused some to either consider or file lawsuits for alleged discrimination.
For example, following the Parkland shootings – which were committed by a known problem student with a long history of legal issues and mental problems, by the way – Dick’s Sporting Goods not only stopped selling “assault” weapons, but along with Walmart raised the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21, including rifles (though the federal age limit is 18).
Some have filed age discrimination lawsuits against both of those retailers, including a 20-year-old in Oregon who was denied the right to purchase a rifle at a Dick’s location in March.
Dick’s sales plummeted after the chain introduced its anti-gun policies, along with the company’s stock prices.
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