The idea of buying weapons online raises many questions and concerns among gun enthusiasts, but the process of buying from online gun dealers is legal, regulated, and offers some advantages over the local gun shop. Here are four advantages to online gun dealers.
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Selection — The assortment of weapons available through online gun dealers is vast, and buyers can access more makes, styles, and calibers than are available in a typical gun shop.
Purchasing options — Online gun dealers also can sell guns via an auction format or straight transaction. These options can be an advantage to gun values online.
Price — Online gun prices are considered wholesale, with the average online transaction for weapons being about $100 less than at a local store,
according to Laws.com.
Convenience — While local gun shops have a limited selection and may have to place items on back order, this rarely happens with online gun dealers. The Internet also makes it possible to streamline the purchase of gun parts and accessories.
Many commenters on the online forum The Firing Line, however, touted the benefits of supporting a local gun shop, where gun enthusiasts can handle the guns before buying them.
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Online gun dealers are subject to the same laws to which local gun shops must adhere, with the transfer of the weapon being completed by a Federal Firearms Licensee, typically a local gun shop. Still, the advantages of buying weapons online also bring rise to concerns among gun control advocates.
An article
Sam Biddle wrote for Gizmodo illustrates how easy it is to buy the guns, ammunition, and paraphernalia purchased online by James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in a 2012 attack at an Aurora, Colorado, theater.
“The Internet has made guns easier to buy than they've ever been in the history of civilization. The Internet has made 22,000 rounds of rifle ammo, delivered to your doorstep overnight, a thing that's possible. The Internet lets you comparison shop shotguns while lying in bed,” Biddle wrote.
Such incidents raise concerns for online retailers as well. The parents of a woman killed in that 2012 Colorado rampage filed a lawsuit on Sept. 16 accusing four online retailers of improperly selling ammunition and paraphernalia.
But the issue is far from simple. The lawsuit will have a difficult time overcoming the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects the legal manufacture and sale of weapons and ammunition,
Dave Kopel of the conservative think tank Independence Institute told The Associated Press.
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