For nearly three days, a large, pro-Trump, conspiracy theory-filled, private Facebook group named Let’s Go Brandon #FJB has hosted a post advertising a gun for sale. According to commerce policies stated by Meta, Facebook's parent company, the sale of firearms is not allowed on its platforms.
Members in the same Facebook group recently called for the "doxxing" of former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. The posts about Psaki were only removed after we contacted Facebook's parent company Meta to inquire about the matter. We also reached out to the White House but did not receive a response.
The post about the gun began with the words, "PRO SECOND AMENDMENT PPL!" It asked if any other members were interested in purchasing the gun, which was said to be "loaded with optics." At the end of the post, it asked users, "lmk ASAP" ("let me know as soon as possible").
One user commented under the post, saying, "DM sent." The Facebook profile for the user who was interested in the gun showed a cover photo with the hashtag, "#WeAreKyleRittenhouse." This referenced Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted after the August 2020 shootings that left two men dead and a third injured during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
We reached out to Meta with several questions. We asked how many times the Let’s Go Brandon #FJB Facebook group (#288262926271546) had violated the company's policies in the past. We also inquired whether there were any detection systems meant to remove this kind of content sooner.
In response, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that they don't allow the promotion or sale of weapons, ammunition, or explosives. They also said that post was removed for violating that policy.
Snopes was alerted to the group's post by a reader. That reader mentioned also using the platform's manual reporting functionality. However, the reader received a response from the company that said the post did not violate the any policies. This story will be updated if we receive a response from Meta.