Author and contributing editor to the UK’s New Statesman magazine Laurie Penny visited a sporting goods store in the United States and was stunned by the availability of guns:
So I'm on a road trip. That's a thing that's happening. Getting excited by real-life glimpses of exotic things like strip malls.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
We stopped at a place called, in all seriousness, Dick's Sporting Goods. There were many guns for sale IRL. I could have just…bought one.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
I've just been to a place called Dick's Sporting Goods and discovered that everything they say about guns in America is true.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke let Penny know that she could not have “just bought one” there and walked out the door:
You bought a gun, did you? If not, why not? Show your work. https://t.co/lrB9p4LNF4
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) December 4, 2015
No, you couldn't. You're not a citizen/permanent resident. You don't have ID. You wouldn't pass background check. https://t.co/Q9dAymAZyL
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) December 4, 2015
Penny tried to explain her fascination and/or horror:
The fact that I'm astonished by a gun store doesn't mean I 'live in a bubble.' I live in London. You do realise US culture is not universal?
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
The fact that a shop that sells kids' clothes also sells rifles is arcane to me. Because you see, like most of the world, I'm not American.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
Recommended
Other things I find exotic and terrifying when I see them in real life include: waffle houses, raccoons, sick people not going to hospital.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
Others let her know that it’s not just as easy as throwing your money on the counter and walking out with a gun:
Did you submit yourself to the FBI NICS check? Because you would have to in order to buy a rifle from Dick's. @PennyRed
— Mike (@ThePantau) December 4, 2015
@PennyRed You didn't try? You didn't realize we have waiting periods and FBI checks? What kind of journalist are you?
— catsplainer in chief (@robo_tabby) December 4, 2015
.@tentacled_cat I asked- they said all I needed for a rifle was two forms of ID with an address.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) December 4, 2015
Two forms of ID, an address, and a FBI NICS check. https://t.co/Mkb88U9YdW You'd be denied if a nonresident. @PennyRed @tentacled_cat
— Mike (@ThePantau) December 4, 2015