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:
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