Amazon Gets into Book Censorship Business, Bans Liberator Pistol Code Book
There is a book that contains the entire code necessary for 3D printing a Liberator pistol. And up until Wednesday, you could buy “The Liberator Code Book” on Amazon.
With 425 pages of raw code and a section on how to put the gun together, the book soon caught the eye of the commerce site, according to the Washington Free Beacon. “This book was removed for violating our content guidelines,” Amazon spokesman Jack Evans told the Free Beacon.
When pressed, the paper reported, he would not cite a specific rule, just stated that “books must adhere to our guidelines.”
But we’re finding that those are some loose guidelines.
Amazon proudly sells “The Anarchist Cookbook,” which has instructions for constructing actual explosives.
All you need is a quick search on YouTube to find things like the tennis ball bomb — one of “The Anarchist Cookbook’s” numerous creations.
Looks a lot more dangerous than the single-shot plastic pistol, right?
The Liberator was named after the FP-45 Liberator, a World War II pistol made of cheap metal and designed to be dropped to resistance fighters and smuggled into prison camps. “The Liberator Code Book” contains all the code necessary to build the plastic version.
Although an editorial note exists in the banned book and reads “the purpose of this exercise is to give a physical analogy between computer code and books,” according to the Free Beacon, it wasn’t enough to save it from Amazon’s censors.
The note goes on to say “preventing the publishing of code online is no different than banning a book from circulation and pulling it from the shelves of a library.”
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon found (and owner of The Washington Post) must have taken that last line as a challenge to his power.
Amazon’s ruling on firearms is total. “Amazon prohibits the listing or sale of all firearms, including assault weapons, black powder guns, handguns, muzzleloaders, shotguns, rifles, and starter guns.”
Not the starter pistols, too, Jeff!
Despite how strict this is, Amazon still sells airsoft pistols that are incredibly similar to the real thing.
Many have been shot while holding one of these like an actual firearm, sometimes even children have made the mistake. But although it can look like a real firearm, an airsoft gun can’t, in most cases, cause grave or life-threatening injuries.
Knives on the other hand can be downright deadly.
Amazon has entire categories for knives. As well as listings for swords, throwing stars, and even spears. The online retailer even carries crossbows, which don’t even need to be used by a skilled shooter to cause injury and death.
The commerce giant may bow to pressure and remove the things listed above, but remember this:
It all began with a book.
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