This is how easy it is to buy an assault weapon in the United States

(Image credit: YouTube/Seven Days VT)

published 15 June 2016

It is easier to buy a gun in some parts of the United States than it is to buy a beer — in fact, President Obama once suggested it's even easier than buying a vegetable. But one reporter for Seven Days in Vermont put that to the test when he purchased an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle just 39 hours after a similar weapon was used to massacre 49 people in Orlando.

Vermont is "home to the nation's most permissive gun laws," reporter Paul Heintz explained, saying all he had to do was Google "AR-15 Vermont," get in touch with a seller, and a few emails later they had arranged to exchange the weapon in a parking lot — no ID, background check, license, or wait required:

A little after 5 p.m., a young man wearing a blue flannel shirt, Carhartts, and Timberlands approached me outside the Five Guys, which is sandwiched between a Chipotle and a GNC in a busy shopping center next to Interstate 189. The seller was tall and rail-thin, with short blond hair and stubbly facial hair."Hey, how are you?" he asked."Good. How are you?" I said as I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."The man pointed to his car across the parking lot and suggested I move mine to the space next to it. He opened his rear passenger-side door, apologized for the car's messy state and unzipped an olive green carrying case. The weapon was a generic AR-15, with a Radical Firearms mid-length barrel, an Aero Precision lower receiver and a Walther PS 22 red-dot sight. It came with three empty 30-round magazines. [Seven Days]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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