r/guns rules, stats, and what to post

This is a community for discussing guns, and the description draws a hard line right away: it is not for gun issues, meaning politics stays out except in the bi-weekly politics threads. It is also not for air guns, toy guns, replica guns, or anything else that happens to be called a gun, and the description calls out blowgun guy by name to make the point. The people here own firearms and talk about them, and the rules expect you to read the sidebar on old Reddit, use the FAQ, and post like someone who already belongs. Broad questions and product searches belong in the stickied threads rather than the main feed.

This community runs on old Reddit, and rule 15, “FULL RULES ARE DISPLAYED HERE”, says you are still banable even if you claim you never read them. The survival move is opening old.reddit.com/r/guns in a browser before you post anything. Several rules decide whether a marketing-adjacent post lives or dies. Rule 2, “No Memes, image macros, blogspam, Etc.”, kills screenshots, AI generated content, and low effort links. Rule 3, “No Politics”, keeps gun issues out except in the bi-weekly politics threads. Rule 7, “No conducting firearms-related transactions.”, bans links to products for sale, so any post that smells like a storefront is gone. Rule 9, “No advertising accounts.”, bans promo accounts but lets you participate in threads as comments, which is the honest door for a founder. Rule 14, “No open ended questions.”, pushes broad product questions into the Moronic Monday, What Should I Buy Wednesday, or Thickheaded Thursday stickied threads. Rule 13, “Link posts require a detailed description in the comments.”, and rule 12, “All posts must have a descriptive title.”, cover the mechanics, and rule 11, “PARTICIPATE IN YOUR THREAD”, means ghosting your own post earns a timeout. Rule 6, “No Talking About Illegal Firearms Modifications or giving dangerous advice”, and rule 5, “PDFs require a warning, No URL shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc).”, round out the traps.

A good post here is specific, descriptive, and stays for the conversation. If you share a photo or a link, it counts as a link post, so write a detailed description in the comments and give it a descriptive title. Talk about the thing itself, like a range session, a build, or how a piece of gear actually performed, and keep politics out of it entirely. If your question is broad or turns into a product search, take it to Moronic Monday, What Should I Buy Wednesday, or Thickheaded Thursday instead of the main feed. If you are a founder, join as a regular account, answer questions in comments where you genuinely know the answer, and never link to a page with products for sale. Stick around after you post, because ghosting your own thread gets you a timeout.

The removal list is long and specific. Rule 2 bans memes, screenshots, image macros, blogspam, social media content from facebook, instagram, twitter, 4chan, or tiktok, petitions, low effort links, and shitty phone videos where nothing happens. Rule 3 bans politics outside the bi-weekly threads. Rule 4 bans doxxing. Rule 5 bans URL shorteners and requires a warning on PDF links. Rule 6 bans talking about illegal firearms modifications and giving dangerous advice, with the memorable line that the fact that it seats does not mean it yeets. Rule 7 bans firearms-related transactions and even jokes about them, plus links to products for sale and asking where to find something in stock. Rule 8 bans surveys, polls, and GoogleDocs without pre-approval, and the mods say they almost never approve them. Rule 9 bans advertising accounts. Rule 10 gives moderators wide discretion on trolls. Rule 11 punishes ghosting your own thread, rule 12 requires descriptive titles, rule 13 requires a detailed comment on link posts, and rule 14 bans open ended questions outside the stickied threads.

The description alone tells you everything about the room. They are tired of blowgun guy, tired of politics, and tired of people who post and vanish. If you show up having actually read the old Reddit sidebar, you are already ahead of most people who ever got banned here.