Editor's note: This story was first published on June 13, 2016, shortly after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Miami, Florida, that killed 50 people.
The monstrous shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, two Sundays ago has brought America’s lax gun laws back into tragic focus.
The killer, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, used a 9mm Glock 17 and a Sig Sauer MCX assault rifle that he purchased legally — despite investigations in 2013 and 2014 by the Federal Bureau of Investigations for his potential ties to terrorism.
The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, according to data compiled by The Guardian, with around 88 guns for every 100 people. That’s almost one gun for every person in the country, including children.
The next runner up, Yemen, is currently in the middle of a violent civil war; it has just 54.8 guns for every 100 people.
The U.S. comes in 28th in the world in terms of gun violence, behind developing nations like El Salvador and Jamaica, according to The Guardian. No other developed nation comes close to the U.S.’s gun homicide rate.
The biggest reason for these numbers is America’s easy access to guns. As Vox pointed out last year, studies consistently show that more guns mean more gun deaths.
But why are there so many guns in the U.S. to begin with? Here are seven disturbing reasons:
1. The only real restriction is your age.
Under federal law, a person has to be 18 to buy a shotgun or rifle and 21 to buy a handgun. There are other federal restrictions, too, which are generally enforced using background checks. But as you’ll see below, the background check system has more holes than the targets at a firing range.
2. Unlike a car, you don’t need a license.
Every state in the U.S. requires a permit to operate a motor vehicle. But most don’t require a permit to purchase or own a firearm. Just 14 states require a permit to own a gun, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and many of those laws don’t cover rifles and shotguns.
3. Background checks are incomplete.
Gun dealers in the U.S. who are licensed by the federal government are required to run an FBI background check before selling someone a weapon. These background checks are meant to catch people banned from purchasing a gun under federal law, and includes:
● anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison
● fugitives
● anyone found dangerous or incompetent due to mental illness
● anyone dishonorably discharged from the military
● anyone subject to certain kinds of restraining order
● anyone convicted of domestic violence
The man who killed 32 people and injured 17 at Virginia Tech in 2007 shouldn’t have been able to purchase the handguns he used in the massacre because a Virginia court had declared him a danger to himself. But gaps in the reporting process let him slip through the cracks.
The Virginia Tech massacre led to legislation, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008, aimed at closing loopholes in background checks. But there are still major gaps, according to a 2014 report by the gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Many states report only a subset of all prohibiting records, for example reporting mental health commitments but not other court findings that a person poses a danger to the public,” the report said.
4. If a background check takes more than three days, you can still buy a weapon.
The FBI has three days to complete a criminal background check on a person who wants to buy a gun. If the bureau cannot complete the check in three days — because of problems getting records from states, budget shortfalls, or understaffing, for example — the person can buy the weapon. It's a fail-open system, and it makes no sense.
The Nazi sympathizer who killed nine people at a black church in Charleston, S.C., last year should not have been able to purchase the handgun he used because he had previously admitted to drug possession, according to The New York Times. But the gun seller didn’t get an answer back from the FBI background check within three days; on the fourth day, the future killer walked away with a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun.
5. Suspected terrorists can buy weapons, even with a full background check.
As you can see above, the list of people barred from purchasing a gun under federal law isn’t short. But there’s one notable exception: suspected terrorists.
Some members of Congress tried to plug that loophole after an attack in San Bernardino, Calif., last December left 14 dead. But the measure failed in a vote that largely split along party lines.
But after Orlando, and a 15-hour filibuster by Sen. Chris Murphy (D - Conn.) last Wednesday (June 15), Congress is once again considering bills that aim to limit suspected terrorists’ access to firearms.
It’s worth noting that some left-leaning groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have been critical of this approach because of what they say are flaws in terrorism watch lists.
6. ‘Individual sellers’ don’t have to do background checks at all.
So-called "private sellers" — friends, relatives, and collectors, for example — don’t have to do background checks under federal law. This loophole is commonly called the “gun show loophole” because these kinds of sellers often frequent gun shows. But, as Vox pointed out earlier this year, that’s a misnomer; licensed gun dealers still have to perform background checks at gun shows.
Some states do require background checks for private sales, at least on handguns. They’re not required under federal law, and many states don’t require them, either.
7. Guns are easily available on the internet.
The internet has opened up news ways for people to purchase guns. Private sellers can usually ship within their own state without doing a background check. To ship to another state (called "interstate sales"), they have to use a licensed dealer as an intermediary. In those cases, the dealer must do a background check, as licensed dealers always have to do a background check, online and off. Last year, however, a reporter at Wired Magazine built his own semiautomatic assault rifle with parts and equipment he bought online.
Related: 5 Things That Are Harder to Get in America Than a Gun
