It's too easy to buy a gun in America. It's faster to buy a gun than to buy chocolate-covered pretzels at Trader Joe's. Or run a mile. Or create a Tinder profile.
People die because it's so easy to buy a gun in America. So for GunXGun, a gun control non-profit, we made a list of 100 things that take longer than buying a gun in the US. For each harmless thing, we told the story of one real gun that was purchased quickly and was used to end lives.
Examples:
1.
Buying chocolate-covered pretzels at Trader Joe’s
All you want is a bag of crisp pretzels bathed in dark chocolate. Just one bag. You know exactly where it is in the aisle, and you’re ready to pay however is most convenient for them. Cash? Credit? Apple Pay? You’ve got it all. But Trader Joe’s has no express checkout. So you’ll wait in line for nine minutes. It took less time for a man in Chesapeake, Virginia, to buy a gun. He used it to murder his whole family before killing himself.
20.
Buying two KLOTULLÖRT pillows at Ikea
Or should you get the ÄRENPRIS? What’s the difference? The HAMPDÅN pillows look nice as well. They’re all hypoallergenic. Maybe stick with your gut and get the KLOTULLÖRT. But it’s more expensive … Although they’re all cheap at the end of the day. You have to figure this out before you can get the Swedish meatballs. It was faster for a man in Charlotte to buy a gun. He killed two people with it.
30.
A Kanye West rant
You tell ‘em, Ye. Take 20 minutes to tell the world how it doesn’t appreciate your genius. Say some stuff that doesn’t make sense but still seems deep, you know? That’s a good use of everyone’s time. At the gun store outside town, it takes only five minutes to buy a gun. A man did just that before he killed four people in Channelview, Texas.
Read all 100 things here.