Los Angeles Time - 08.08.2019

A8 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

Twitter on Air Force One
and lobbed insults at “failed”
Democratic Ohio Sen. Sher-
rod Brown and Democratic
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
(Before leaving the White
House, he also had sent a
tweet slamming Texas
Democrat Beto O’Rourke,
who has said the president’s
racist remarks are to blame
for violence.)
The Trump visits
Wednesday were the latest
among his trips to mass
shooting and disaster sites
despite local opposition. In
November, the president
went to Paradise, Calif., after
devastating damage from
the Camp fire and anger over
his inaccurate tweets criti-
cizing fire management in
the state.
Trump has faced the
harshest critique for the El
Paso shooting, where an
anti-immigrant screed by
the suspect echoed similar
language that the president
has used to say there is an
“invasion” of Latino immi-
grants. The motive for the
Dayton shooting remained
unclear, but Trump has
tried to paint the gunman —
who was killed by police at
the scene — as an extreme
leftist. A Twitter account
that appears to be linked to
the shooter retweeted anti-
police posts and those in
support of anti-fascists.
In Dayton, Trump met
with staff, victims and fam-
ilies at Miami Valley Hospi-
tal while demonstrators
shouted outside. The hospi-
tal treated more than a doz-
en victims, most of whom
have been released.
On Twitter, White House
Press Secretary Stephanie
Grisham said Trump told
those at the hospital: “You
had God watching. I want
you to know we’re with you
all the way.”
A similar scene took
place in El Paso at the Uni-
versity Medical Center,
where Trump also spoke to
victims and staff. He later
was driven to an emergency
operations center.
Media representatives,
who were not allowed to wit-
ness most of what happened
during the visits, were told
they were not “photo ops.”
After his Ohio visit, the
White House released a 50-
second promotional video of
Trump’s visit with back-
ground music and the slo-
gan, “America Stands with

Ohio!”

While Americans found

out little about the how the

president consoled those re-

covering from the tragedies,

they found out plenty about

his relationship with public

figures in the cities.

At a news conference in

Dayton with Whaley, Brown

said the president “did the

right things” at the hospital.

“His job in part is to comfort

people. I’m glad he did it in

those hospital rooms,” said

the senator, who joined

Trump in the hospital with

the mayor.

Whaley said she and

Brown “reiterated to the

president the importance of

action around these issues

and guns and that the peo-

ple of Dayton are waiting for

action from Washington,

D.C.”

“A lot of time his talk can

be very divisive,” Whaley

said, “and that is the last

thing we need in Dayton.”

The president took of-

fense. He called the com-

ments a “fraud.” White

House aide Dan Scavino

tweeted that they were “dis-

graceful politicians, doing

nothing but politicizing a

mass shooting, at every turn

they can.”

In Texas, two of Trump’s

two biggest critics this week

avoided him altogether and

attended an anti-Trump

rally in sweltering heat at

Washington Park.

“We are told to remain

silent,” O’Rourke said. “We

are standing up loud and

proud to be counted with our

fellow Americans as the best

example of this country after

one of the worst disasters

she has ever seen.”

U.S. Rep. Veronica

Escobar, a Democrat who

represents El Paso, also at-

tended after refusing to

meet Trump after he would

not speak with her about her

request that he retract anti-

immigrant and anti-Latino

statements.

Priscilla Nevarez, 32,

came to listen to O’Rourke

and support the victims of

the shooting and said she’d

have preferred Trump

stayed away from El Paso.

She stood with a sign

crafted to look like a target

that she could look through.

It read, “Am I next?”

At the memorial outside

the El Paso Walmart crime

scene late Wednesday,

scores of people gathered to

pay their respects.

Some brought signs say-

ing, “Go home devil” and

“Trump go home.”

That upset Brenda Vigil,

who found a fellow Trump

supporter and a sign of their

own, in red, white and blue:

“Welcome Trump.” “He

loves El Paso because El

Paso loves him,” she said.

Kaleem reported from Los

Angeles, Hennessy-Fiske

and Montero from El Paso

and Stokols from Dayton.

Trump visits victims, assails critics

[Trump,from A1]

IN DAYTON,protesters gather before President Trump’s visit. Many urged him to enact measures to counter gun violence.

Scott OlsonGetty Images

PRESIDENT TRUMPtold reporters at the White House that he wanted to “stay

out of the political fray,” but later in the day he leveled attacks against his critics.

Shawn ThewEPA/Shutterstock

In recent weeks, as shoot-
ers embarked on deadly
rampages in Gilroy, El Paso
and Dayton, Ohio, a shopper
on EBay could buy a variety
of products designed to
make the types of weapons
used in those attacks as
deadly as possible.
One could find legal 10-
round magazines for popu-
lar assault rifle models such
as the AR-15 and the AK-47,
in various materials and de-
signs; an “enhanced mag
pull” intended to promote
“quick and fumble-free mag-
azine changes,” and an olive-
drab tactical vest for holding
up to eight such magazines
at a time.
There are accessories for
high-capacity magazines,
banned in California, includ-
ing a Magpul-brand coupler
that holds two 30-round
clips of M16 bullets. “I love it
how you can double your
rounds without having to
use a drum and all the prob-
lems with a drum,” raves a
top review, referring to the
type of ammunition drum
used in the Dayton massa-
cre.
Listings promote vintage
AK-47 bayonets, despite as-
sault rifle bayonets having
their own entry in EBay’s
prohibited items list, and en-
hanced AR-15 charging han-
dles, allowing a shooter to
cock the gun more quickly
after changing magazines.
Sellers hawk barrel-
mounted grips useful for
pairing with a “bump stock”
— a federally banned item
that allows a semiautomatic
weapon to function as if it
were fully automatic — and
various collapsible stocks
and tactical single-point
slings that make bulky rifles
easier to conceal.
With 25 million sellers
and more than 1.2 billion list-
ings, preventing buyers and
sellers from finding ways
around its rules is a Sisyphe-
an task for EBay, akin to the
struggles Facebook and
YouTube face policing
extremist content and mis-

information.

In a statement, the San

Jose company says software

systems “prevent most pro-

hibited items and unsuit-

able content from ever being

listed. Our team also reviews

content and images in finer

detail to address items or

content that was not auto-

matically prevented.”

Yet EBay lists and profits

from the sale of dozens of

products that appear to vio-

late its rules. Some show up

as promoted results, mean-

ing the seller has paid EBay

to display them prominently

in searches. Some appear on

pages promoted by EBay in

Google searches — even

though Google has a policy

of its own barring any adver-

tising for gun-related prod-

ucts.

(Asked about the EBay

promotions, a Google

spokeswoman said com-

pany policy prohibits adver-

tising “any part or compo-

nent, whether finished or

unfinished, that’s essential

to or enhances the function-

ality of a gun.”)

And some of them are

among the top-selling items

in their categories, such as

the UTG Leapers RB-

TPG172B Combat Tactical

Rifle Pistol Grip, which, as of

July 31, was the No. 7 item on

all of EBay in rifle parts, with

49 units sold in July at a price

of $10.95. (Circuit City sells

the same item in its EBay

store, for $11.49.) Click on any

of them and you are likely to

get retargeting emails for

days afterward prompting

you to return to EBay and

finish the purchase.

The product description

for that tactical pistol grip il-

lustrates one common way

sellers are able to skirt

EBay’s prohibitions. On a

Google Shopping listing

linking to the EBay page, the

item is advertised as “a per-

fect fit for your AR-15/M

combat firearm.” But those

gun model names don’t ap-

pear on the EBay page itself,

where it’s instead described

as a “UTG .223/5.56 combat

sniper grip.” Those mea-

surements, 0.223 inch and

5.56 millimeters, represent

the calibers of cartridges de-

veloped for use in those ri-

fles, respectively.

While there are other ri-

fles that use them, “most

people identify the .223 or

5.56 with an AR-15,” said

Mark Oliva, director of pub-

lic affairs for the National

Shooting Sports Founda-

tion. Indeed, since a grip has

nothing to do with a gun’s in-

ternal mechanics, there’s no

reason to include those cali-

bers except to announce it

as a product for AR-15s and

M16s.

Pistol grips, forward pis-

tol grips, folding or telescop-

ing stocks, flash suppressors

and grenade launchers are

features that separate lawful

rifles from assault weapons,

as classified by California

law. Under SB 880, Califor-

nians who possessed a semi-

automatic rifle with a re-

movable magazine and any

of those features had until

Jan. 1, 2017, to register them

or face up to three years in

jail and a $10,000 fine. The

law does not bar the sale of

such accessories in the state.

Despite the seeming

clarity of SB 880, the differ-

ence between military-style

weapons and civilian hunt-

ing rifles is a spectrum, not a

bright line. “There really

isn’t a universally accepted

definition of what an assault

rifle is,” said Kyleanne Hunt-

er, vice president of pro-

grams for the Brady Cam-

paign to Prevent Gun Vi-

olence. “That’s why this is so

hard to police.”

SB 880 attempts to nego-

tiate that ambiguity by fo-

cusing on features that

make rifles easier to handle

in close quarters or to con-

ceal. But the modularity of

the top-selling semiauto-

matic rifle platforms means

they can go from legal to il-

legal and back again with the

easy addition or subtraction

of components.

That makes nonsense of

a policy that relies on la-

beling specific guns as one

thing or another. While

EBay sellers must use coded

language to list AR-15 acces-

sories, they can openly sell

add-ons for the Ruger Mini

14, a semiautomatic rifle that

can fire the same ammuni-

tion and be configured with

a pistol grip and folding

stock. “It becomes a really

difficult proposition be-

cause it’s virtually impos-

sible to say, ‘This is only for

an assault weapon,’ ” Hunt-

er said.

A shortcoming of EBay’s

policy is evident in its han-

dling of a new category of

products, introduced in re-

sponse to SB 880, whose pur-

pose is to allow owners of

military-style semiauto-

matic rifles to make them le-

gal by rendering them “fea-

tureless” under the letter of

the law. These include fin-

like grips that block the

thumb from wrapping

around, making a gun some-

what harder to handle; muz-

zle brakes that damp recoil

without suppressing flash;

and fixed stocks.

Although there’s not

much data to draw from,

Hunter, of the Brady Cam-

paign, said there’s reason to

think making semiauto-

matic rifles featureless via

these modifications de-

creases their deadliness

somewhat. “If you look at

what we consider an assault

rifle, the lethality of it,

they’re really easy to shoot

because they’re easy to hold,

you can shoot a lot of bullets

really quickly and you can

reload them really quickly,”

she said.

Replacing pistol grips

with fin grips and flash sup-

pressors with muzzle brakes

“makes it harder to fire

them,” which is a step in the

right direction if the goal is

to decrease gun deaths.

EBay says featureless

parts are against its rules,

however. “In this case, since

the item is designed to be

used on assault weapons like

an AR-15 to make them com-

pliant under California law,

it would also be prohibited

under our policy,” a spokes-

woman said. Listings for two

such items disappeared af-

ter The Times inquired

about them.

Yet more than two weeks

after EBay clarified its policy

to The Times, a search for

the keyword “featureless” in

the rifle category of EBay

turned up 99 listings, includ-

ing numerous fin and paddle

grips, muzzle brakes and

fixed stocks.

Like other big internet

platforms, EBay employs a

self-serve system that allows

sellers to promote their list-

ings against specific key-

words, with a vast menu of

keywords drawn from user

searches. It’s a similar sys-

tem to the one that allowed

Facebook advertisers to tar-

get their ads to users inter-

ested in topics such as “How

to burn Jews” and “Joseph

Goebbels.” EBay’s spokes-

person said the company

regularly reviews the list of

keywords against which sell-

ers can buy promotion as

well as the list EBay itself

uses to troll for shoppers on

Google.

Given the ambiguities in-

herent in defining assault

weapons, the easiest way for

EBay to crack down on the

trade of assault rifle parts

and accessories without de-

voting vastly more resources

to oversight might be to get

out of selling gun-related

products altogether.

As an advocate for sport

shooters and an AR-15 owner

himself, Oliva doesn’t want

to see EBay do that. But he

said a policy that goes be-

yond the requirements of

the law while being all but

unenforceable screams pub-

lic relations more than pub-

lic safety.

“We would refer to it as

‘corporate policy virtue sig-

naling,’ ” he said. “They’re

waving a big flag saying,

‘Look how holy I am.’ ”

Assault rifle parts sellers evade EBay’s ban

A PISTOLgrip, the type of assault weapon accessory prohibited by EBay, is ad-

vertised for sale on July 31, 2019, days after the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting.

EBay

[EBay,from A1]