For most U.S. citizens, buying a gun is pretty simple. Go to your local gun store, pick your gun, show photo I.D., fill out the background check form (approval is usually immediate), and then pay for your gun.
It's even easier in the case of private guns sales. If you purchase a firearm from a person who isn't a licensed dealer, the identification and background check requirements disappear -- even if the seller is at a gun show.
So let's take a look at eight common activities that require more time, information or effort than owning a gun:
1. Voting
Want to vote for president? Most states require you to register in advance, as much as 30 days, before Election Day.
Want a gun? In most states you can purchase a gun the day you decide you want one.
Additionally, if you purchase a gun through a private sale, there is no identification requirement. In some states, you must provide identification to vote.
2. Buying antihistamines
Due to ingredients in antihistamines being used to make meth, federal regulations now place a limit on the amount of pseudoephedrine an individual can purchase each month.
Federal law (and most state laws) does not limit the number of firearms that you can buy in one transaction.
3. Bringing a dog into a restaurant
Paris Hilton can't carry her Chihuahua into an Olive Garden in her purse, but a Glock 23 would be welcome.
Forty-nine states allow citizens to carry concealed firearms in public. The FDA prohibits most dogs in restaurants in all 50 states.
4. Driving a car
Buying a gun does not require providing a social security number, vision test or a competency test (such as a driver's test) in most states. Federal ATF form 4473 (the government form filled out when a person purchases a firearm) lists the Social Security Number field as "optional."
5. Drinking a beer
The age requirement to purchase a shotgun or rifle is18 years old, but you need to be 21 years old to drink alcohol. In Arizona you can also legally purchase a handgun at 18 through a private sale.
6. Getting a cell-phone contract
Wireless carriers will deny you a cell phone contract if you don't provide a social security number. You are not required to give your social security information to purchase a gun.
7. Getting a credit card
Again, most creditors require providing a social security number, not so for gun purchase.
8. Acquire a hunting or fishing license
You don't need to provide your SSN to purchase a gun, but you do to use it to hunt. Federal and state laws adopted to help enforce child-support payments require applicants for hunting and fishing licenses to provide their social security number the first time they purchase a license.
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Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used two shotguns, an assault rifle and a TEC-9 assault pistol to shoot 26 students at Columbine, killing 13. All four guns came from gun show sales. Their friend, Robyn Anderson, bought three of the guns for them from unlicensed sellers at a gun show. After the massacre, Ms. Anderson stated that had she been required to undergo a background check, she would not have purchased the guns.
Although most weapons were purchased by suspects under investigation by the program, there have been reports of at least one instance of ATF agents being directly involved in the transfer of weapons. On June 1st, 2010, ATF agent John Dodson used $2,500 of ATF funds to purchase six AK-47s from local gun dealers, which he then gave to Mr. Fernandez, a suspected gun trafficker, who reimbursed him for the expense of the guns, plus $700 for his assistance. Two days later, Agent Dodson went on a scheduled vacation without interdicting the weapons. As a result, the weapons were never recovered, no arrests were ever made, and the case was closed without charges being filed.
I think the author only 'knows' what she 'read' or was 'told'.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I see keep and bear arms, don't see where it says I can buy any gun or weapons system on the planet. nor do I see it say we can't pass laws that limit guns specifically designed to kill lots of people in the hands of the military and police only.
9. double big gulp in New york City. Mayor Gloomberg will have you arrested and put into rikers island quicker than the ice in the drink will melt.
if i want a salad from Mcdonalds! again my choice
goverment has no business deciding what i eat, drink or smoke!
I feel they have bigger fish to catch other then me!
and if Mayor/nanny bloomberg doesn't have any more pressing issues then me piging out, then he needs to find something else to do! Maybe chess or Majong!
I see your point, but the only apt example is voting, which in a lot of states you can register to vote the day off the election.
Money is speech so I'd say that's a lot of prayin'