Paper Trails

While on the way home from the bike shop yesterday I noticed a sign on the roadside advertising a gun sale at the local hardware store. I've been wanting to pick up a semiautomatic pistol for a while and thought I'd stop in to see what they had to offer. After talking with the nice fellow behind the counter about 380's, 45's, and 9mm's, I asked what the LAW was concerning my taking home a pistol. He informed me that if I had a Concealed Weapons Permit, I could leave right then and there with it (after paying, of course). However, if I had not previously submitted to scrutiny by the State/Fed, I'd have to wait TEN days to acquire my property... a sort of pay-now-pick-it-up-later plan. The State apparently is assuming I'm planning on taking the gun from the store and shooting someone post-haste.

 

Needless to say, the hardware store will be keeping their pistols. I refuse to purchase a self-defense weapon where there's a paper trail. Those of us old enough to remember the movie Red Dawn may recall that one of the very first things the Cubans and Nicaraguans did after they landed on U.S. soil was to go to the local gun stores and collect the Federal Form 4473's so they can find out who owned firearms so they could confiscate weapons from the citizenry. Even in the early 80's--when that movie came out--the realization that licensing provided the State with the ability to keep track of who had guns and who didn't. I personally like to keep the element of surprise on my side.

 

I'll get my pistol. I just won't get it from someone who demands I ask the State for permission first.