No, that’s not an exaggeration. It’s from a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. A reporter, Helen Ubiñas, went to a gun store in Pennsylvania and told of her experience in buying an AR-15. Here is an excerpt…
Seven minutes. From the moment I handed the salesperson my driver's license to the moment I passed my background check.
It likely will take more time than that during the forthcoming round of vigils to respectfully read the names of the more than 100 people who were killed or injured.
What I found interesting about this story was the reaction to it from the gun hugging crowd. When she initially posted this story it was titled “I bought an AR-15 Assault Rifle in 7 Minutes”. Did they complain about the 7 minutes? No, don’t be silly. They complained that “The AR-15 isn’t an assault rifle!” You see that’s the important part. Confused? Well, I’ll forgive you but the NRA and their enablers won’t. Here’s the difference, an assault rifle is fully automatic. An assault weapon is semi-automatic and maybe be a civilian modified form of a fully automatic weapon. For example, the Belgian arms manufacturer FN Herstal makes the FN P90 which is an assault rifle for the military capable of firing 900 rounds per minute. They also make the FN PS90 which is an assault weapon for civilians that tops out at around 150 rounds per minute in skilled hands. Obviously these are totally different and should never, ever be confused with each other.
And we’ll be told that very, very few assault weapons are ever used to commit crimes. We’ll be told the vast majority of gun owners are good people that just want to shoot targets or turn a deer in to a puree in the field without having to wait. We’ll be told that killers can use poison gas, bombs, knifes or almost anything to murder their victims. And all of that might be true. But they can’t decide to kill dozens of people and in less then 10 minutes have the means to do so in their hands legally in any other way than with one of these weapons.
Some final thoughts from Ms. Ubiñas about her experience...
Go to a licensed gun store. Fill out about a page and a half of forms. Wait (if that's really the right word for it) for an instant background check, and then pay the man. I told the guy I was on a budget, so I got an AR-15 for $759.99. God bless America.
No, Helen, until this country comes to its senses and re-instates the ban on assault weapons I think I’ll change that last bit to the words of President Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
God damn, America.