General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Connecticut gun makers demand apology from governor [View all]billh58
(6,655 posts)right-wing NRA apologist steps up with a half-truth parading as "fact." When a "federally licensed dealer" sells to a legitimate buyer after the required background check, the process (and the gun) then goes into a black hole.
This is when the straw purchaser hands over the "legal" weapon to a criminal, or their crazy Uncle Billy Bob. In turn the criminal or Uncle BB uses it for whatever purpose, and then re-sells it to another criminal or mentally deranged person. This does not even take into consideration all of the "legal" firearms which are irresponsibly left unsecured to be stolen, allowed to accidentally kill children, or used for suicide by a family member.
Because there is no national database or gun registry in the USA, guns move around freely on the black market every day of the year. At some point in the chain, ALL guns are legal (manufacturer to dealer, dealer to customer) and then the oversight vanishes. Various sources estimate that there are around 300 million guns in the USA, but no one has a clue where most of them are.
The old bullshit line that "criminals will always find a way to get guns" is ironically true because of lax oversight and regulation of guns. But that state of affairs is both promoted and encouraged by the NRA and its supporters, because it sells multitudes of more guns under the marketing ploy of "only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun." See, when you ensure a steady supply of bad guys through a lack of oversight and regulation, you have a built-in market for selling guns to so-called "good guys" like George Zimmerman.
The promotion of what amounts to a domestic arms race between the bad guys and the good guys is a highly profitable enterprise. Just like the Bush family during WWII, the NRA and its right-wing supporters count on selling arms to both sides (indirectly to criminals through the black market) of the conflict. The Americans killed in the crossfire, according to the NRA and DU Gungeoneers, are "statistically insignificant" because the Second Amendment gives them the right to the unchecked proliferation of deadly weapons in this country for their fun and pleasure.