How Long It Takes to Buy an Assault Rifle in Orlando
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A new video posted by the Huffington Post shows just how easy it is to buy a semi-automatic rifle.
Days after Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX to kill 49 people and injure 53 more at Pulse nightclub, two HuffPost reporters bought a semi-automatic rifle from an Orlando gun shop in less time than it takes to watch an episode of Game of Thrones.
The Huffington Post - twitter.com
It took 38 minutes to buy the AR-15 rifle, a semi-auto weapon that's similar to the MCX Sig Sauer. And, according to HuffPost writers Andy Campbell and Roque Planas, the buying time was even delayed due to a spike in background checks, a common trend in the make of mass-shootings.
As the reporters noted, the experiment took place while Orlando was still under the state of emergency called for by Governor Rick Scott.
The purpose of the gun buying exercise was to demonstrate the ease and convenience of purchasing legal firearms in America, especially when it comes to semi-automatic rifles. In Florida, there's a three-day waiting period for handgun sales, but there's no such regulation for rifles. (Different states have different restrictions on gun sales, of course.)
The Huffington Post - twitter.com
Gun reform advocates are pushing for a ban on semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 and MCX Sig Sauer. They argue that these firearms are singularly designed to kill — not animals, but humans — and cite the fact that this style of weapon is commonly used in mass shootings. (The AR-15 alone was used to kill innocent people in Aurora, Newtown, and San Bernardino, to name a few examples.)
"All it took to attain one was a driver’s license (the one we used was from out of state) and a few minutes to wait for the background check to clear," Campbell and Planas wrote. "We signed state-issued proof of sale documents that asked whether we were felons or drug addicts, and where we lived."
[h/t The Huffington Post]
