Let me rephrase. I'd be shocked if there was a good reason for this other than "google doesn't like guns."
As for ethics, I would go as far as to say that punching holes in paper from 100 yards away is about as benign an activity as one can imagine. But perhaps environmentalists would take isuse, so I'll retract that as well.
I actually have no problem with Ebay's decision. The regulation in firearms sales is indeed complex and uncertain. At the time Ebay dropped gun sales, gun control was a hot topic politically. And online auctions were new enough so that one could imagine ebay getting caught in the middle of something bad.
But google is a mystery. Their TOS seem to indicate that they simply have a distaste for the shooting sports industry. But they send me tons of traffic. They could just drop shooting sites from the index. That gives me hope that there is some arcane legal reasoning behind their thoughts, but I suspect it's just a choice they've made, and that they cannot stomach the backlash they would incur by dropping huge legal categories from their results. I would love to hear from someone who has some knowledge on this, as it's been confusing me for years.
As for ethics, I would go as far as to say that punching holes in paper from 100 yards away is about as benign an activity as one can imagine. But perhaps environmentalists would take isuse, so I'll retract that as well.