This week, Huffington Post reporters Andy Campbell and Roque Planas
were in Orlando covering the aftermath of the massacre at Pulse nightclub, which killed 49 people.
One
day, Campbell and Planas decided to see how hard it would be for them
to buy an AR-15 -- a semiautomatic rifle that's similar to the
Sig Sauer MCX the shooter used. Spoiler alert:
It was easy.
Must Reads: How did you guys come up with the idea?
Andy Campbell: Roque
came up with the idea to show how easy it is to buy the weapon that's
used in so many American atrocities. We knew it was easy, but we had no
idea that all it would take is a driver's license and a credit card. The
fact that we could obtain it in Orlando two days after 49 people were
killed by a man with a similar gun was terrifying. Even the officers I
handed it off to were surprised.
Roque Planas: I
thought of the idea, but it would have been impossible to execute
without Andy. First off, I know nothing about guns, so I was incapable
of bantering with the sales staff. I also don't have an ID from a state
without restrictions on semi-automatic rifles, so I couldn't have made
the purchase even if I appeared competent.
Must Reads: How did you plan it out? What did you consider?
Andy Campbell: First,
we wanted to make sure we
were legally within our right to buy a gun. (We were, as I have
permanent residence and ID from Washington state, and purchasing the AR
is legal there.) Then we wanted to see how various gun shops would react
if we identified ourselves as reporters and asked to do a story
first. That idea did NOT go over well. If they didn't hang up on us,
they said "absolutely not."
We
decided to go in and buy the gun like any normal citizen would, without
identifying ourselves as reporters. We also decided that after buying
the gun, we would call back, say we were reporters, and ask if they
wanted to comment on the record. But we didn't name the shop or
employees in the story, because we didn't want them to take some sort of
flak simply because we chose their store that
day.
Then we got a video team to record the process from outside the store. It took 38 minutes.
Roque Planas:
We checked the regs with the state Department of Law
Enforcement. Turns out you can buy a rifle at 18, three years before
you're legally allowed to buy your first beer. Oddly, you can't buy a
handgun until you turn 21 and you face a three-day waiting period,
whereas you can walk away with an AR-15 within minutes of asking, if you
meet the very minimal requirements.
Must Reads: Did you have experience with guns before this? Had you ever owned one? Shot one?
Andy Campbell:
I'm a military brat from the woods, and have plenty of experience firing
guns, including the AR-15. I've never owned one, but my family owns
legal guns that are locked up in a safe and used for target practice
when we're bored. We have one small, locked up handgun in a hidden spot
for that oh-so-non-existent burglary/kidnapping/attack incident.
What
strikes me about semi-automatics is that there is never a justifiable
need to pop off 20 rounds in quick succession. When you're hunting deer,
you use higher-caliber ammunition and shoot for the heart. If you were
being robbed or threatened in your home, you wouldn't need more than a
revolver and a little practice to adequately protect yourself. You know
when you need a semi-automatic weapon? When you need to kill as many
people as possible by yourself.
I'm
all for guns, but man, I do not need a semi-automatic. And we
especially do not need more of them on the market -- there are millions.
Enough with the "taking away our guns" talk. Start by banning future
sales of semi-automatics.
Roque Planas: I
know next to nothing about guns and have never owned one. I shot a
handgun with a family friend at a range when I was a teenager in West
Palm Beach, Fla., but that's about it.
Must Reads:
Were you nervous about the purchase? What did you think would happen?
Did you think you'd get the gun so quickly? How did doing it make you
feel?
Andy Campbell:
We were a little nervous because we didn't want to get kicked
out of the shop and ruin the story. We wanted to make it as similar to
the experience as anyone else, and we ended up getting a lot more than
we bargained for when an employee started discussing how to kill
someone. (He was joking, but holy shit). We actually thought we'd get
the gun quicker than we did. And we would have, except there was a queue
in the state background check system because so many people wanted guns
in the wake of the shooting.
That's
pretty crazy. Nobody, including the president, has moved to confiscate
guns. The idea that they'll all go away immediately after the next big
shooting is ridiculous. We can't even study gun violence on the
government level, let alone litigate.
Roque Planas: My
biggest fear was that the purchase would get torpedoed somehow and we'd
be left without a good backup. But once we were in there, it was clear
that the only thing they wanted to do was make the sale, and I don't
blame them for it. It's a legal business trying to make money legally.
They did everything they were supposed to do. If there's a problem that
deserves a response here, it has little to do with the business and a
lot to do with state and federal lawmakers.
Consider
this -- you can buy an AR-15 in less time than it takes to get a
marriage license and with less documentation or testing of knowledge
than it takes to
drive in the state of Florida. The shop itself has nothing to do with
that, which is why we didn't name the store or the workers.
Must Reads: What's the response to the piece been like?
Andy Campbell: Mixed.
To gun owners, this is nothing new, and they continue to tell me that
every day. A lot are like: "So you went in to buy something you're
legally allowed to buy? What's the story here? Second Amendment.
America."
But
I think a lot more people are struck by how easy it is to get these
weapons. There are a LOT MORE guns that are even more lethal that I
could have walked out with that day. It's interesting, and terrifying,
that these things are flooding the market after each shooting, and it
was scary that the guy buying a gun before me in line was actually
looking to kill another human with it, and nobody cared.
Roque Planas: Likewise
mixed. But I think the general sentiment was surprise that it was so
easy. I think that's what made the piece do well. A lot of publications
wrote about that, but they didn't walk you through the process
firsthand. When you experience it, either personally or through a
report, something about it feels wrong in a visceral way that can't be
captured by explaining how lax our guns laws are in a more
abstract sense.
Must Reads: Has this changed how you've thought about guns at all?
Roque Planas:
Before and after this story, I wouldn't consider myself a gung-ho pro-
or anti-gun type person. But I have a hard time imagining why the
restrictions have to be so incredibly weak. To get a driver's license in
the state of New York, I need a social security card, an eye test, a
driving test -- all kinds of things. I just can't imagine a case
scenario in which one needs to buy a semi-automatic rifle so fast and
with so little scrutiny.
We
know that these weapons have been used in several mass murders by
people who might not have been able to obtain those guns if they'd been
subjected to a psychiatric examination and a more thorough background
check. We just experienced the worst mass shooting in our country's
history. And yet our lawmakers behave as if they're truly convinced that
there's some scenario in which someone needs to instantly murder the
shit out of a deer and we as a society have to be prepared for that.
Want to know more? Watch the video.
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