I thought there were all sorts of barriers in place and background checks and such for getting a license as well as purchasing the weapon itself. Perhaps I’m not remembering correctly.
I paid about $75 for a lifetime concealed carry permit. They supposedly did a background check and fingerprinted me for it, but it took like two days, so fuck knows how hard they actually looked. On top of that, I was gifted a 1911A1 handgun and was shocked to discover that I don’t have to register it in any way, shape, or form. So if I go out and shoot someone in the head with it, wipe my prints off really well, and ditch the gun, there’s nothing to tie it back to me.
If more protections were put in place, the people who have a desire to mutilate other human beings will go to the trouble of acquiring weapons anyway, legally or not.
I’m so fucking sick of hearing this excuse. “They’ll get guns illegally anyway, so why bother?” Fuck everything about that.
And yes, I know you followed it up with:
It won’t inherently solve the problem, just make it so that it doesn’t occur as often because it’s more difficult for them. Though of course that’s better than nothing.
Yep, that’s better than nothing, but “they’ll get them illegally anyway” is literally the excuse that’s been used for years to do exactly that - nothing. And people keep fucking dying.