They let you do that?
Discussions with gun control advocates share a tedious quality that I find when talking to creationists or anti-vaxxers: a tissue of claims, often elaborately constructed, that have no association with reality. Be it the belief that AR-15s are the most frequent choice used by mass shooters in committing their crimes—they are not—that the Assault Weapons Ban had a clear effect on mass shootings—the data are equivocal—or that the U.K.’s gun laws have resulted in that country’s low homicide rate—despite the rate having dropped long before gun control became a thing there—or many other notions, I am confronted with claims that gun control advocates are certain must be true, and the facts will not change things.
So it is with the assertion that anyone can buy a firearm on the Internet and have it shipped to one’s home without any check into the person’s legal ability to own guns.
Well, that is mostly false. If the device in question was manufactured before 1898 and does not use naughty things like rim or center primers in brass cases, those of us who are otherwise legally allowed to possess firearms may purchase and have such thundersticks sent to us, no questions beyond our credit card information and shipping address being asked. The same is true about reproductions of antiques made these days, such as the black powder, muzzle-loading revolvers manufactured in Italy by Pietta, Uberti, and the like—thus my clone of the Remington 1858 New Model Army, and if anyone wants to send me a Colt Navy—real or remake—leave a comment below.
Whether or not felons are included in this freedom is a tricky question that I must leave to lawyers, but as Lucky Ned Pepper said upon hearing Mattie Ross’s story about what today is an antique pistol misfiring, “They will do it. It will embarrass you every time.”
But there is another route to obtaining firearms that will be delivered to one’s door by a friendly package delivery person, signature naturally required.
Gun control advocates need not get agitated, however, at least no more than usual. Regarding firearms that are more than fifty years old or that have been deemed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives as having historical, mechanical, or similar characteristics that make it collectible, some people may purchase such things on-line and receive them—persons who have gone through the process of acquiring a Federal Firearms License 03 (Collector of Curio and Relics).
This is not as horrifying as it must sound to those who favor restricting gun rights, even though my most recent purchase (I have this license) has been a CZ vz. 82 with a—gasp!—twelve round magazine. The license must be renewed every three years, and the ATF checks the applicant’s background. And the license costs thirty dollars, again every three years. This is not Bubba and Rodney meeting each other in the White Castle parking lot. When I buy a qualifying firearm, I have to e-mail a picture of my license to the seller, and I am obliged to record the gun in my personal bound book upon receipt. Perhaps this is not onerous enough to satisfy a gun control advocate.
But why am I telling my readers about this?
For one thing, I have to admit that this is a niche interest. Yes, lots of people want a Luger pistol, in too many cases for dubious reasons, but demand for an Iver Johnson pocket revolver, say, that can only handle ammunition that is difficult to find will be low.
The truth, though, is that anything over fifty years of age or that is listed for specific approval qualifies, and it is worth pointing out that the AR-15 was available on the commercial market in 1964, for example. There are a lot of firearms that still have much utility—I will likely use my CZ vz. 82 when hot weather limits what I can wear as a concealing garment, thereby making smaller handguns easier to carry without announcing them to the world. And there are more kinds of interest in history than just a wish to see the return of the Nazis or some other evil government that commissioned the manufacture of weapons. That CZ pistol is the product of Czech inventors who drew on one of the oldest gun making traditions in the world and who insisted on indigenous designs as a measure of independence from Soviet domination, and this is an illustration of the historical back roads that such firearms open to the collector.
For my second point, I have to acknowledge a problem before explaining where I see a potential solution. The market for eligible firearms is nowhere near as flooded with cheap and simultaneously quality guns as it once was, back in the day when such beauties as a Mosin-Nagant or an SKS rifle or a Nagant 1895 revolver could be had for under a hundred dollars. I am here encouraging greater competition for the finite number of qualifying guns available.
But if the market retains a high demand, seller will work out a way to expand the supply. Every year, of course, more guns cross the fifty-year threshold, and there are many guns around the world that could be bought and sold as curios or relics if they could be imported.
And herein lies a reason to get more people interested in collecting. The more of us there are, the more pressure can be exerted on members of Congress to adjust the Byzantine rules that constrict what guns may currently be brought into the United States.
So get a Curio and Relic license. It is good to have a community of fellow participants if an activity is to survive, and there is a special pleasure in being an ordinary person who indeed can have good weapons delivered to one’s door.
And perhaps ammunition makers will take notice and make more oddball cartridges.