Comment on We have had guns for 200 years but mass shootings only became common in the last 30. So what changed?

• elscallr@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  People aren’t buying automatic weapons now. But 50 years ago they absolutely were available. They were banned in 1986.

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  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Correction: they can cost as little as $40,000 now. That’s close to the minimum price for a legally tranferrable machine gun. An M134 minigun would currently run right around $200,000. There is no legal way for a regular person to get a post-'86 machine gun; dealer samples, et al. are not generally transferable (see also: Larry Vickers).

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• Drewlb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Actually, before 1986 and the Hughes Amendment, anyone could buy an automatic weapon in Walmart (idk if Walmart sold them, but legally they could). After 86 they became effectively impossible to get (takes months for extensive background checks and costs more than a car)

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• Bgugi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  No, but 100 years ago, you could buy actual machine guns out of the sears catalog. No background check, no ID. Just a money order and postage on delivery.

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  • Drewlb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That ended in 1986

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    • Bgugi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      No, it ended in 1934. 1986 ended when you could buy new ones with fingerprinting, background checks, and an (originally) prohibitively expensive tax.

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• oatscoop@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Thompson submachine guns (Tommy guns) were available by mail order in the 1920s with zero background checks. All you had to do was fill out the order slip, a check or money order, and drop it in the mail.

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  • ArdMacha@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Wow America is terrifying

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• tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I remember when my oldest sister bought her first AR-15 at the hardware store, for cash. They didn’t so much as ask for ID. It wasn’t locked up or anything, just take it off the shelf and go check out, no big deal.

  This was in 1991.

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  • AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Uh, when I first got an AR-15 about ten years ago, I went to Walmart first to see what they had. They had a bunch on a rotating rack you could pick up. Magazines and ammo were inside a glass shelf next to it. You just bought it all there, the only thing they did was walk you out of the store before handing it over.

    I didn’t actually end up buying one though, I was given one by a local gun store as payment for saving them about $3500 a year on their IT bill and building them PCs. A nice little mostly custom AR chambered in .300 BLK. My father-in-law took it hog hunting one year.

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