(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
A Craigslist for Guns, With No Background Checks [1]
['Serge F. Kovaleski', 'Glenn Thrush']
Date: 2023-08-01
Another school week had just begun at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis when Orlando Harris, armed with a recently purchased AR-15-style rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition, burst into the building with a declaration: “You are all going to die!”
Mr. Harris, a 19-year-old graduate of the school, opened fire that morning in October, killing Alexzandria Bell, 15, and Jean Kuczka, a 61-year-old physical education teacher. More than half a dozen others were injured before the police fatally shot the gunman in a third-floor room where he had barricaded himself.
Mr. Harris had struggled with mental health issues so severe that his family had him committed more than once, triggering an automatic rejection on the federal background check system when he tried to purchase a gun at a licensed dealer 16 days before the shooting. But Missouri is one of 29 states that have no background check requirement for private sales. So, Mr. Harris found a weapon by browsing the online site Armslist.
Federal law requires background checks only for purchases made through the approximately 80,000 businesses that sell, ship, import or manufacture weapons licensed through the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Unlicensed private sellers, by contrast, can legally sell their wares at gun shows, out of their houses and, increasingly, through online platforms such as Armslist that match buyers with sellers.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/us/gun-laws-private-sales-background-checks-armslist.html
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
