I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7819 
To amend the Communications Decency Act to remove immunity for online 
firearms marketplaces, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 18, 2022 
Mr. CROW (for himself, Mr. JEFFRIES, Ms. PORTER, and Ms. STEVENS) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Decency Act to remove im-
munity for online firearms marketplaces, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability for On-
line Firearms Marketplaces Act of 2022’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The core purpose of section 230 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) (com-
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monly known as the ‘‘Communications Decency 
Act’’) (referred to in this section as ‘‘Section 230’’) 
is to provide a specific protection for online plat-
forms acting as Good Samaritans to stop online 
abuse. Specifically, Section 230 states that providers 
of interactive computer services will not be treated 
as publishers or speakers of user-generated content. 
In turn, the provision entrusted providers to act as 
Good Samaritans police their platforms by blocking 
and screening offensive content. 
(2) Section 230 bars actions that hold providers 
liable as publishers of third-party content, but the 
statute is irrelevant to claims unrelated to such pub-
lications. If a claim does not treat the defendant as 
a publisher, Section 230 should not apply. 
(3) However, courts have interpreted Section 
230 as providing sweeping immunity for a broad 
array of providers, including providers alleged to 
have facilitated violations of criminal laws online. 
This interpretation is overly broad and discourages 
the self-policing that Section 230 intended to 
incentivize. 
(4) In Daniel v. Armslist, the Wisconsin Su-
preme Court read Section 230 to bar claims against 
an online firearms marketplace. The court’s decision 
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swept so broadly as to cover websites designed to en-
courage and facilitate firearms trafficking in viola-
tion of chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code. 
(5) Online firearms marketplaces have made it 
increasingly easy for people who are prohibited from 
gun ownership to purchase guns online. Online fire-
arms marketplaces facilitate such sales because 
while Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to 
perform background checks on prospective buyers, it 
does not require unlicensed sellers to do so. For 
more than a decade, online firearms marketplaces 
have exploited this legal loophole by allowing unli-
censed sellers to sell guns directly to people prohib-
ited from gun ownership. 
(6) Every year, unlicensed sellers post more 
than 1,000,000 advertisements on online firearms 
marketplaces in States that do not legally require a 
background check. Individuals with criminal his-
tories and other prohibited purchasers rely on these 
postings to evade basic background check laws and 
procure firearms. One study found that nearly 1 in 
9 prospective gun buyers who respond to advertise-
ments from unlicensed sellers on a major online fire-
arms marketplace would not pass a background 
check, which is a rate that is 7 times higher than 
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the denial rate in contexts where background checks 
are required. 
(7) Congress did not intend for Section 230 to 
bar otherwise valid claims against online firearms 
marketplaces for their own design of a website that 
encourages and contributes to its users circum-
venting Federal laws, including Federal gun laws. 
SEC. 3. PROTECTION OF VICTIMS OF GUN VIOLENCE. 
Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 230) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (c)— 
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘No pro-
vider’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 
paragraph (3), no provider’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) TREATMENT OF PUBLISHER OR SPEAKER 
DOES NOT APPLY TO ONLINE FIREARMS MARKET-
PLACE.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an online 
firearms marketplace, for purposes of any claim in 
an action brought against the online firearms mar-
ketplace in its capacity as an online firearms mar-
ketplace.’’; and 
(2) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the 
following: 
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‘‘(5) ONLINE
FIREARMS
MARKETPLACE.—The 
term ‘online firearms marketplace’ means an inter-
active computer service that— 
‘‘(A) facilitates transactions related to fire-
arms, firearms accessories, firearms equipment, 
and other firearms-related materials; 
‘‘(B) advertises or makes available any 
posting or listing of any statement by a trans-
feror or by a transferee that could be reason-
ably inferred to propose the transfer of a fire-
arm; or 
‘‘(C) makes digital instructions in the form 
of Computer Aided Design files or other code 
that can automatically program a 3-dimensional 
printer or similar device to produce a firearm or 
complete a firearm from an unfinished frame or 
receiver, 
regardless of whether such transactions or other ac-
tivities violate the terms of service of the interactive 
computer service. 
‘‘(6) FIREARM.— The term ‘firearm’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 921(a) of title 18, 
United States Code.’’. 
Æ 
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