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When Leleux checked the details of the new policy he discovered more than 20 categories of weapons and ammunitions were to be banned, ranging from semi-automatic firearms to guns printed with the use of a 3D printer. He said the prohibitions cover the vast majority of his inventory.

“Everything we sell is legal and protected by the U.S. Constitution,” Leleux said.

Late Tuesday, Leleux was still trying to determine from Shopify just how much time he had to comply with the new directive against weapons sales. He has little option but to comply because Shopify’s technology underpins the entire online operation. The underlying software is also proprietary, making it more difficult for Spike’s Tactical and other online retailers to quickly switch to another software provider.

Shopify declined to shed much light on the matter.

“From time to time,” the company said in a prepared statement, “Shopify reviews and amends the terms, conditions and policies governing the use of our platform. We have recently amended our acceptable use policy to restrict the sale of certain firearms and parts on our platform.”

It’s not clear what prompted the change in policy, though the emergence of guns capable of being created with the use of 3D printers may have been a factor. Tighter gun control legislation in California covers many of the same weapons identified in Shopify’s new policy.

Shopify executives have been struggling for years to come up with a policy that respects online merchants’ freedom to sell merchandise and services that are legal, as well as community standards about what’s appropriate.