a legal purchase through a private sale, which may or may not happen out in the parking lot of some gun show

So when travelling with a straw man that big, make sure to look out for flying monkeys and green-skinned witches. Not to worry though, a fairly large percentage of your travelling companions will have their eyes peeled for anyone who's not white and acting outside their expectations.

The concern has always been unregulated sales between people who are not within the spirit of the exception, and it's a real risk, evidenced in part by the pedantic nitpicking that the right will do of every utterance even tangentially threatening to the sacred guns.