KTC California special muzzle brake (courtesy ktc-usa.com)

Our contact at KTC-USA.com just emailed this message from Amazon. Formerly. the online retail giant banned flash hiders. According to this letter, Amazon now bans AR-15 muzzle brakes and recoil compensators. Why? Because guns.

Hello from Amazon.

We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog: ASIN: B018OQQGS6, SKU: K03-0009, Title: “ktc california special muzzle brake – blem” [ED: as above]

This product has been identified as a muzzle brake or recoil compensator. Amazon policy prohibits the sale or listing of muzzle brakes or recoil compensators . . . Action Required . . .

Within 48 hours of this notice, please review your remaining listings and make any changes necessary to ensure compliance with our policies. Failure to comply with this request may result in the removal of your selling privileges.

We appreciate your cooperation and thank you for selling on Amazon.com.

Amazon Services

Please note: this e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Despite the warning, our contact contacted Amazon. “I mentioned to them there were almost 1800 returns when searching for muzzle brake on amazon and they replied: ‘For the other products you see that are active on Amazon catalog, they will eventually be actioned upon and removed from the catalog.'”

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85 COMMENTS

    • Why don’t you ban car and truck parts because people die in them all the time. You people are just not with it.
      You need to have yourself and all of your children neutered and spayed because your neighbors have too many kids.

    • Get some money and guys together and launch Gunazon……. Amazon is good generally amazingly good at what they do, but it’s, not like it’s THAT hard for a more specialized outfit to do it at least 85% as good….

  2. Old anti gun anti Second Amendment Amazon Friggin pigs! Well that seals the deal I’ll never order anything from Amazon again I never order gun parts from them idiots anyways. But I did order an occasional tool Or piece of equipment that I needed which will never happen again! Got a couple words for Amazon screw you!

    • You do know that you could not get magazines or adjustable stock from them before?Honestly I don’t blame them. They are NOT in the firearms business and do not want to play games figuring out what is and is not legal in a jurisdiction. Why don’t you start complaining that they don’t sell fireworks while your at it.

      • Are brakes and compensators regulated anywhere in the US?

        Why don’t they ban books while they’re at it? A given book might offend someone.

        • Didn’t you hear about the fiasco with a Kindle version of 1984? Apparently someone sold an “unlicensed” (from the publisher / rights owner) copy of 1984 on the Kindle store so Amazon just deleted it from the Kindle of anyone who purchased it. They later refunded it after everyone complained.

        • “Amazon just deleted it from the Kindle of anyone who purchased it. “

          And yet people to continue to fall for the line that centralized information storage (like the “cloud”) and information control is a Good Thing ™ in their lives.

          Ugh.

        • In NY you can’t have one on a semi-auto with detachable magazine but I don’t think they are regulated in and of themselves.

        • I’m no expert on the byzantine laws regulating “assault weapons” in the crappy states, but don’t at least California and New York have rules about which muzzle devices you can legally install on a rifle?

          Of course, that’s not really Amazon’s problem, but they probably have a few lawyers with too much free time, so you get policies like this.

    • They need to know WHY they are losing our business.
      We need to write to them and explain our displeasure.
      Honestly, from a business standpoint, I don’t see an upside to this sort of policy.

      I have ordered books and obscure items from amazon but for gun parts and gear I generally go to the manufacturer’s web site.

    • I buy from Amazon all the time… Especially Amazon Smile — and I make them Donate to various Gun Rights groups. SAF currently;

      • I don’t use MidwayUSA because their prices are higher than similar websites and you’ll pay 10 to 12 bucks shipping charges for a five buck part. I always order my shooting supplies from Graff and Sons.

  3. “actioned upon”

    And we wonder why the US is circling the drain?

    After 2 million years of evolution, it seems the human animal has peaked and is now de-evolving.

    They tell us that
    We lost our tails, evolving up
    From little snails
    I say it’s all, just wind in sails

    Are we not men?
    We are Devo
    Are we not men?
    D E V O

    We’re pinheads now
    We are not whole
    We’re pinheads all
    Jocko homo

    Are we not men?
    We are Devo
    Are we not men?
    D E V O

    Are we not pins?
    We are Devo

    Monkey men all
    In business suit
    Teachers and critics
    All dance the poot

    Are we not men?
    We are Devo
    Are we not men?
    D E V O

    Are we not pins?
    We are Devo
    Are we not men?
    D E V O

    Jocko homo
    Jocko homo
    Jocko homo

    We go now, God made man
    But he used the monkey to do it
    Apes in the plan
    We’re all here to prove it

    I can walk like an ape, Talk like an ape
    I can do what a monkey can do
    God made man
    But a monkey supplied the glue

    Are we not men?
    We are Devo
    Are we not men?
    We are Devo

    …

    We must be
    D E V O
    We must repeat
    Okay, let’s go

    –Mark Mothersbough

    • So its pure semantics? What is the difference between a muzzle brake and recoil tamer or recoil compensator? You can find many of the banned items for sale on Amazon right now.
      They don’t allow fireworks but do allow ammonium nitrate and flash powder. The flash powder isn’t the flake types but it will work if needed.
      I don’t believe they have a clue what they have for sale most of the time. Unless a complaint is made your items stay for sale.

  8. Amazon sells all kinds of parts and accessories for “assault weapons”, even though it’s against their stated policy. It’s all in the wording of the product title. E.G., use “.223” instead of “AR-15”.

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SILDTR4/

    They know what they’re doing. We should stop rocking to boat too much.

    • i agree that we should not rock the boat. but we should not use them. Online retailers have other methods for younto purchase their product that does not include amazon.

      You can use amazon to find them for your item. But take a few extra steps and let capitalism take care of Amazon’s unamerican business practices. Call the vender or search their website. Amazon wont get a cut of the profit. And Jeff Bezos will see his exorbanent slush fund depleted.

  9. I don’t blame them. Dealing with 50 different state laws and ungodly amounts of municipal and federal regulations is about as fun as staring at paint. Heck anyone who has moved a large business to another state knows the pain. My dad’s company expanded out to California, keep in mind his company is very eco-friendly, very green, solar power and its a German company, well sure as shit within 30 days of setting their flag in good ol’ Kommiefornia they get hit with a lawsuit about how they don’t use enough solar panels and how this agency and that agency needs to double check some things (warehouse is ironically a mile from Amazon and they get all the disgruntled workers!) Now imagine doing that with all the communist states, not in person, but online. On the other hand Amazon used to always sell plenty of gun accessories that weren’t illegal or questionable, I even bought a muzzle device for a rifle as well a some P-Mag round limiters a few months back…I wouldn’t jump to conclusions and say they are pulling a Dicks or a Wall Mart, for all we know Kommiefornia could be hitting them up with a 3000% tax for selling “assault weapon accessories”.

    • “I don’t blame them. Dealing with 50 different state laws and ungodly amounts of municipal and federal regulations is about as fun as staring at paint.”

      Illogical.

      There are not 50 different state laws and ungodly amounts of municipal and federal regulations regarding brakes and compensators.

      This “issue” is not about compliance with laws.

      • Awfully good excuse, then! You would need to monitor the legislatures of 50 states and the fed, because a new law concerning brakes or compensators could be passed and in effect by this afternoon. Too damn much trouble, too little profit. I think there are states where a threaded muzzle is illegal, current motion would require Amazon to report any orders for muzzle devices in violation of this common sense law, or be fined 100 billion dollars per violation.

  11. Just make them pay. Use smile.amazon.com and choose your favorite charity like 2AF or the like. Now every time you buy through smile.amazon.com, Amazon donates to your charity of choice.

  12. That’s funny because my friend searched ‘resin can’ and it produced all sorts of results. I lack the fortitude to to search that

  13. I guess Amazon hired another CalTard liberal. eBay does something similar by banning scary black gun parts. But if you live in your white ivory tower and work in your protected workplace, and never get to see life as it really is, you believe that gun parts are icky-bad. When your Prius breaks down in the hood though, you adopt a different belief.

  14. I’m curious to know why all the vitriol.

    Amazon decided to stop selling something in their catalog. They didn’t sign up to become the primary sponsors of MDA, et al, they didn’t declare an intention to see the 2A repealed, they didn’t even say they support greater gun control. They just decided that they would cull something from their catalog.

    They owe no obligations to any merchants or any particular goods or class of goods.

    While this will reduce the chances that I look to Amazon for muzzle related items for the AR that I might eventually build if I can get around to it, it has no impact on any other shopping I may do there.

    It’s like when I went into Boot Barn and they said they weren’t restocking on Yetis for a while. Yeah, it was disappointing (I get 20% off there), but it isn’t the end of the world and it isn’t like BB is campaigning to have Yetis banned. They just decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle of having them in their catalog.

    • Guns and gun parts are big business right now. If Amazon was dropping an item from their catalog because it was not a good seller, that would make perfect business sense.

      Dropping profitable items for other reasons merit asking the question “why?” Also, given they allow a bunch of other similar (competing) products is “interesting.”

      In other words, if we truly lived in a “free market,” your comment would make a lot more sense. But many of us hold no illusions that we do, and therefore such decisions are often made for other reasons. Some of those other reasons are benign, but some well aren’t.

      • I’m really shocked by your response to this JR…

        A private company is choosing NOT do deal in a certain product or type of product and not only is that a problem, but the problem is because the market isn’t free enough elsewhere we have a reasonable and righteous expectation of LESS freedom?

        Help me out here, you’re a pillar of reason here on TTAG and I’m not understanding your rationale on this.

        • “Help me out here, you’re a pillar of reason here on TTAG and I’m not understanding your rationale on this.”

          Thanks for the compliment. I’ll try to clear up my response to Katy.

          (1) I have zero problems with Amazon choosing or not to sell any product they want. My comment was aimed more at expressing a general curiosity about an apparent inconsistency in their product line choices, though.

          (2) The market will (should) decide which products are profitable, not social justice warrior-ism and pressure from various .gov angles.

          (3) Guns and gun parts are profitable, and Amazon in general seems to be about carrying any and all products they can push to make a profit. They certainly don’t reject a bunch of other gun related items, or even things that have other ‘social justice’ reasons for giving second thoughts (slave labor manufacturing, for example).

          (4) If Amazon is choosing not to sell a profitable item, I support merely asking the question “Why not?” Asking that question in itself is not a condemnation of the choice.

          (4a) Is it because they don’t see profit it in, or something else?

          (4b) If something else, is it something other than .gov pressure? If yes, then I guess I really don’t care all that much, but I sure would like to know if there is something else going on. Why THIS item?

          (5) If Amazon has a decidedly anti-gun stance (which apparently they do not judging by hundreds if not thousands of other products they have no problem selling), I’d like to know that, too. If so, I’d see no problem with those POTG that choose to boycotting them on principle.

          So, there’s something just a bit “odd” about the inconsistency here. Again, why this product?

          The answer to that could be any of at least tens of reasonable justifications to make this particular business decision. But, there’s one (or two) reason that I don’t find reasonable in a “free market.”

          So, I’m not justifying toying with Amazon’s internal decision making process on the basis of market non-freeness elsewhere…just want a tiny bit of honest transparency regarding what is behind this, and that’s only because it seems a bit odd given the myriad other products they DO sell and continue to sell, no problem.

          Kinda like me asking, “So Amazon, if you don’t mind profiting off the gun parts market that exists right now, what’s the issue with this item and ones like it”?

        • @JR

          Thanks for clarifying a bit, it helps.

          I understand your curiosity as to “why” it was this one thing because it is worth the raise of an eyebrow. As I mentioned elsewhere in the article, Amazon doesn’t review each vendor/product available for purchase on their site as they are introduced. They do, however, make reviews when a complaint has been lodged. Google/youTube, Twitter, eBay, Etsy, etc all handle their users/products this way. Due to the tragedy of modern law, their rules and guidelines are obscenely vague which allows a staff reviewer with an agenda to make a “justifiable” decision to remove an entire product or vendor based on ambiguous language in a terms of service agreement.

          The reason similar products HAVEN’T been pulled is because complaints haven’t been lodged against them. (Test it out, it’s pretty easy to get things pulled from Amazon.) It’s a safe bet that this particular product fell into a crowd-sourcing crack and whoever reviewed it did some linguistic gymnastics to come to the conclusion that the product violated the terms of use. Much the same way other vendors contort product names and descriptions to sell similar products under different names. 😉

          In the long run: This article is much ado about nothing. If this was a focused effort to scrub Amazon of firearms related products we’d be reading a much different story. We all agree that not selling a muzzle break “because guns” is silly, but how much of our gun budgets do we spend on Amazon anyway? And how many other muzzle breaks are still available there? Besides, if it isn’t a Prime item nobody should buy it in the first place…

    • Any retailer can decide whether or not to sell gun parts.

      But when a retailer decides not to sell CERTAIN gun parts, for reasons other than economics, (i.e. Dick’s Sporting Goods discontinuing black rifles after Sandy Hook), they are making a political statement with regard to my rights.

      That’s when I make my own political statement, with my wallet.

      • I’ll answer the question you didn’t directly ask: Amazon pulled the product in response to a user complaint. I’d be willing to bet that Amazon doesn’t (read; couldn’t possibly) manually review every product that is sold via their system, but sets guidelines (some of which are probably loose/vague) for sellers. When a particular product or vendor is flagged, then a monkey with a keyboard takes a look and makes a judgement call.

        Pulling the product seems silly to me, but I’m skeptical of an Amazonian conspiracy to further a gun control agenda…

        • “When a particular product or vendor is flagged, then a monkey with a keyboard takes a look and makes a judgement call.”

          Okay, so Devil’s Advocate: Is this all it takes for anti’s to kill (or injure) the gun parts market from one of the largest online retailers that exist? Flag an item as “icky” and with no serious business-sense vetting, it’s done?

          If that’s the case, what’s to stop MDA from ’employing’ a hundred out-of-work college aged future Moms and tasking them with flagging 20-50 Amazon products per night?

          I’d hope there’s more to the process than a keyboard Monkey making a judgment call, otherwise Amazon’s product offerings become more a wikipedia “content war” than business decisions.

        • Dude, did you read the post? This is what Amazon wrote to the vendor:

          “This product has been identified as a muzzle brake or recoil compensator. Amazon policy prohibits the sale or listing of muzzle brakes or recoil compensators . . .”

          This is not the removal of a product due to customer complaints. This is policy that has nothing to do with economics, customer satisfaction, or even safety.

  15. Some entrapaneur could make a good business featuring the items that Amazon dis-allows.

    Guns and acessories, tobacco, sex toys, and booze. I’m sure there are a few othet categories.

  16. It was a good reminder to cancel my Prime account. $99 will go to somebody I actually respect. I was also reminded the other day that Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos. I don’t see any reason to support any of that. Most things I bought on Amazon REALLY didn’t need to be at my house within 2 days.

  17. Getting butthurt over this is silly. It’s their playground and their ball, they can do what they want.

    I’ve never bought a muzzle device off Amazon. Sportsmansguide has them and so does Gunbroker. And so does Ebay apparently.

  18. This silliness goes on in every product category. Most of this wrath is brought on by the sellers themselves by selling crap, shipping the wrong thing, or misrepresenting the product. Amazon tracks that stuff and it puts the item on their radar. After some threshold, a selling denial kicks in.

    But there is plenty of room to still make this worse by freaking out as if a tyrannical government just kicked in your door

    Chill out and consider the banned item and how they were marketed and sold on Amazon. Bezos knows what he’s doing.

  20. Amazon has been in cahoots with the White House for awhile. They even took on Obama’s former press secretary Jay Carney.

  23. Publicly traded business; they can do what they like. Customer base will punish them, or not. No obligation to sell products POTG like.

  25. Noveske Keymod panels are also banned, even though they were stocking and shipping them via Prime a few months ago.

    Yes, plastic polymer panels have been deemed an assault weapon item. Amazon is worse than eBay when it comes to gun parts.

  26. Eh. Amazon isn’t a gun store and probably doesn’t want to inadvertently have to deal with the ATF. I wonder how long people selling 80% lowers as ‘art’ is going to last. Eventually you’ll get some moron trying to sell an oil filter adapter kit for ‘cleaning’ or something that looks suspiciously like a lightning link or DIAS but supposedly isn’t, and then Amazon has the ATF breathing down their neck.

  27. I get pricing on Amazon, then run it past my LGS/FFL buddy and if he can even get in the same ballpark, I’ll buy it from him. My wife has an Amazon Prime account, but my gun related purchases are my business. I’d rather pick up these items in person than face an “inquisition” after Fedex or UPS makes a stop when I’m not home.

  28. I used to sell gun parts on Amazon. It got stupid. They sent me a letter to take down a product which was an adjustable stock for a Mossberg shotgun because they said it was an “assault weapon” part. I finally stopped selling there all together because of that crap.

  29. Watch that stock price. Stock as in NYSE, not the soon-to-be-gone rifle stocks.
    Free market, baby.
    I wish CTD or MIDWAY, et al would offer a Amazon Prime-type membership, offering free shipping. I’d be in real quick.

  30. As an Amazon employee, I’m disappointed we are not being customer focused and not allowing sellers to sell customers legal products.

  32. Thanks for the post Robert, I just wanted everyone to know about Amazon’s policy change.

    As an Amazon Seller, I’m surprised Amazon didn’t contact its sellers with updated policy’s regarding restricted items. It used to just contain flash hiders, but now it’s muzzle brakes also. I just got an email saying they were now banned.

    New Amazon Policy:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200277700

    Amazon has been a great place to sell product, but it costs me less to sell from my website and shipping is free (USPS Priority). It’s unfortunate they have made this policy change, and I hope they change their mind in the future.

    The reality is we are in a culture war regarding the Second Amendment. There is an ongoing attempt to sanitize the presence of guns from society little by little. Considering the statistics on guns, the only real reason is to eliminate firearms is that “they” want to have more control without the repercussion of a violent armed uprising. If you are curious about Amazon’s leaning… here’s a clue:
    http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2013/05/amazoncom-helps-fund-gun-buybacks.html

    Anyone interested in our products can go to our website – Thank you.

    In Honor of The Truth About Guns for keeping us informed use the promo/coupon code:
    TTAB-ROCKS for 10% off from now until 1-24-16.

  33. I just went AMAZON, and searched: AR-15 Muzzle Brakes and Compensators, and I have 8 pages of listings,
    I do not understand if they are banned, why are they still listed?

  34. I was just on Amazon and there seems to be a large variety of AR-15 muzzle brakes for sale. What am I missing here?

  36. I am the owner of Mechforce and our fantastic muzzle brake just got pulled off from Amazon. I guess it is time to build my own site now. So sad right now.

  37. Just FYI all the guys who’ve said they won’t buy from Amazon bc of this, also those who say it makes sense they shouldn’t have to deal with figuring out what’s banned where:

    Everybody seems to like Aim Surplus & I have ordered from them myself. They are specifically a firearm oriented retailer. However they will not sell lowers (ar-15 or ar-308) to Maryland among other states. Obviously they are now illegal in some states, but have never been illegal or banned in MD. Lowers are registered as pistols & can be built into rifles. Ar-15s have to be HBAR but ar-308s are unregulated. So to get to the point, this is a firearm retailer refusing to sell legal firearms to people in my state. Just a little food for thought & take from it whatever you will.
    BTW I have emailed Aim to inform them of this & they just say their lawyers advise against it. But hundreds of other retailers will sell to MD & help us “behind enemy lines” retain our right to bear arms. So anyone who boycotts Amazon, will you boycott Aim? I’m not asking you to. Just don’t be hypocritical.

    • AIM supports the firearm community and are tiny. One lawsuit by MD and they lose their homes.

      • MD is not suing any companies for selling perfectly legal items. I’m not saying I dislike Aim. I’m saying even companies that are gun-centric (support the gun community) will refuse to sell certain legal items, at minimum to specific areas. There are multiple other tiny & XL retailers that sell to MD with zero issues. I know it’s not the exact same thing as Amazon but there are correlations. & in a way I think it’s worse bc they are a firearms retailer. People in the ban states need all the support they can get from the community. Not asking them to break the law.

  38. I was looking at my AR15 trigger Wish List and noticed ALL triggers don’t show up now. So I then check my M&P Wishlist, (ie. Apex Tactical trigger parts…) and they were also NOT available at all. Pissed!!

    So did some DuckDuckGo searching and found this page.

    This is after I just ordered 5 items tonight, that supposedly will be delivered tomorrow on Sunday, doubt it, since it’s only happened once. Since showed up as getting all on Sun., within 14-18 hrs. I thought maybe I should order a few more things, this time gun related.

    I at least used the SAF.org Amazon link for my order though !!!

    Highly recommend and do it every-time for the last 6 months or so. That means won’t order anything from my mobile app, but that’s just fine. Just go to SAF.org and click the link and save it in your Bookmarks Toolbar so it’s easily accessible IF and when you do order from Amazon.

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