AR-15 Giveaway Shut Down By Facebook

An AR-15 giveaway was shut down by Facebook administrators. The owner of a gun store in Pittsburgh started the page in February. Eric Lowry, owner of Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms, says the fan page he created for his business has now been removed. On the page, he had an AR-15 giveaway. The AR-15 has been referred to as an assault weapon by politicians and the media.

Lowry did not receive any official notice or warning from Facebook. He attempted to contact the site subsequently and says he isn't sure precicely why his AR-15 giveaway page was taken down-but by then, it was too late. A secondary fan page he put together has also been removed.

Lowry said his business has decreased by about 40% and that the page had roughly 27,000 likes when it was removed.

The site may have received attention after an article about the giveaway was published. Someone contacted Facebook about the AR-15 giveaway, and Facebook said it violated their terms of service.

A spokesperson said that Facebook was "unaware" of the situation, but that "Our Ad Guidelines prohibit promotion of the sale of weapons and the Ad Guidelines apply to Pages with commercial content on them.

Ads may not promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition, or explosives. Most of these should be removed per our terms."

No word on how Lowry will pick a winner for his AR-15 giveaway or if it's off altogether. AR-15s were in the news recently when the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly, purchased an AR-15 and other guns from a gun store in Tuscon. Kelly, a gun control activist, reportedly purchased the weapon to make an example of how easy even assault rifles are to obtain.