No if you buy from a store they check your name against the federal list of people banned from buying guns and if there you can't. Of course states are not obligated to report these things owing to a case the NRA backed.
Buying in a private sale of course is generally legal.
Handguns, rifles and ammunition are regulated differently under federal law and by the individual states. In general, no licenses or permits are required. Commercial sales are subject to federal instant background checks. Private sales are generally not regulated and no background checks are required, although you're not supposed to sell guns to people who you have reason to believe shouldn't have them. Some states -- but not most -- impose their own licensing, registration, waiting periods, etc. If you buy a gun online it must be delivered to you through a licensed firearms dealer. The right to carry a
concealed handgun is regulated and licensed separately by the states, not the federal government. Ammunition is an over-the-counter or mail order purchase in most states, no ID, no records. Every Walmart has glass cabinets with shelves of ammunition.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/doesn-t-make-sense-how-easy-it-buy-gun-n490756
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/02/world/international-gun-laws.html
http://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/background-checks/background-check-procedures/
OK, well you thank you both for those clear polite explanations. And thanks too of course to Thermal for pointing it out to me in his/her earlier post.
Obviously from my reply to Thermal, and in fact from almost all my previous posts here, I had no idea that in many US sates you can simply walk into a gun store (even Walmart!) and just buy guns and bullets with, in effect, no questions asked at all (not just a lack of any declaration forms or any need to provide a certificate of legal responsibility/ownership etc. … but merely a shopkeeper who looks to see if your name is on a list of barred people) …
… frankly I'm amazed at how completely irresponsible US laws (local state laws) are if they allow almost anyone to buy guns (any sort of guns?) and bullets (any sort of bullets?) so easily and nonchalantly as that.
Well, what should I say? OK, that just looks like an open-goal opportunity to virtually ensure endless gun murders all over the USA.
Even if your name was on the banned list, is there is anything to stop your mate going into the shop and buying the guns and just giving them to you 30 seconds later outside the car park?
It also seems to render entirely meaningless any statements about the numbers of “legally owned” guns used in any of these shootings. Because if in effect all that you need to do is to just pay for the gun and the shop owner then just hands you whatever guns you want to buy, then all that “legally owned” would mean is that you did pay for the guns rather than stealing them!
OK, so … if that really is the case of such almost complete lack of any worthwhile restriction on anyone at all buying guns in many states, then I have to agree with Thermal that the US does at the very least need to introduce strict registration, licensing, and suitability/safety checks, on all gun purchase/ownership/usage, and that may (as Thermal says) have a significant impact on the number of fatalities every year. Though having said that, the licensing (or whatever term we use), still would not stop any of those gun owners keeping as many guns and bullets as they want in their own home … and imho, that home ownership remains the real heart of the problem (for all the reasons previously explained).
No offense is taken. I think the discussion is pretty cordial. But please, how am I misreading this?
