How Reddit Became a Gun Market—and Authorized Its Logo on Assault Rifles

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Since 2011, part of the popular online forum Reddit has grown into an active marketplace for assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and other powerful firearms, according to an investigation by Mother Jones. In the last six months alone there have been more than 1,000 listings posted by more than 400 Redditors on the GunsForSale subreddit, one of thousands of niche communities on the sprawling discussion site. Not only has Reddit allowed a gun market to thrive, it has also literally put its stamp on it: Gun purchases brokered through the site have included nearly 100 AR-15s engraved with Reddit's alien logo, which was used on the assault rifles with explicit permission from the company—while it was owned by media giant Condé Nast—according to email correspondence obtained by Mother Jones.

In May 2011, a Redditor organizing a bulk order of AR-15s asked the company about a plan to engrave the logo and replace the standard "SAFE/FIRE" markings on the weapons' safety selectors with "UPVOTE/DOWNVOTE." Within a few days of the request, a Reddit business staffer working in the New York City headquarters of Condé Nast granted permission to use the logo in an email sent from a Condé Nast account. The staffer did note that for the safety selectors, "we would prefer that you keep the SAFE/FIRE language…to ensure the safety of all people who may come in contact with these guns." (See the document containing the full correspondence below.)

A Condé Nast spokesperson declined to comment, saying only that Reddit is "completely separate" from Condé Nast. (Reddit was spun off in 2012, about a year after the logo was licensed for the guns.)

In a statement provided to Mother Jones, Reddit's communications director, Victoria Taylor, confirmed that the logo was licensed to the gun group in May 2011. She said that Reddit was "allowed to operate independently" under Condé Nast, but that during that period "all Reddit employees were also technically Condé Nast employees."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/reddit-guns-assault-rifle-ar15-logo-conde-nast