Internet makes getting guns in Alabama easier than ever (2024)

Thanks in part to increasing online sales, it's never been easier to buy a firearm in the state of Alabama.

That's not exactly breaking news, but with guns and gun control drifting back into the national conversation, let's take a look at facts, figures and how the Internet is making it easier than ever to own a firearm.

During an address in the immediate aftermath of the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina last month, President Barack Obama saidit should be more difficult to obtain a firearm in the United States.

"I've had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times," Obama said."We don't have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun."

No matter how you feel about Obama placing part of the blame for the killings on easy access to guns, he's right about one thing -- it's not hard to find and buy them.

In Alabama, the lion's share of the people who want to do so go to a pawn shop, gun store or any dealerthat holds afederal firearms license. According toa report released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosiveson July 10, there are 2,371 active licenses in the Yellowhammer state.

Buying from a licensed dealer means submitting to a check run through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which usually ensures that convicted felons and other persons prohibited from owning a firearm aren't able to buy one.

According to FBI statistics, 308,542 NICS checks have been run in Alabama so far in 2015. Interestingly, that puts the state at No. 9 in the nation for number of checks run this year, despite being No. 23 by population.

Of course, the system is not without flaws. FBI Director James Coney said last week that Dylann Roof should not have been able to buy the firearm he allegedly used to kill the nine victims in Charleston. Coney said a clerical error and the discretion of the licensed dealer Roof bought from allowed him to purchase the gun even though the NICS check should have prevented it.

"[Roof] should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he allegedly used that evening," Coney said. "We are all sick that this has happened. We wish we could turn back time, because from this vantage point everything seems obvious, but we can't."

You can read his full explanation and statement here.

Going through an FFL isn't the only option for people looking to purchase a gun, of course. In Alabama and many other states, it's perfectly legal for private individuals to sell firearms without the federal license and without running the NICS check.

Eddie Fulmer, the president of BamaCarry, the state's largest group of gun rights activists, said these sales have existed as long as firearms have, but things are easier than ever thanks to technology and the Internet.

"Legal gun transactions have been going on between citizens for years and years," Fulmer said. "We used to use the newspaper and want ads, but now the Internet has enhanced those meetings so you can find exactly the kind of firearm you're looking for quickly and easily."

Using the Web to find afirearm can take many different shapes. You can buy a gun directly on some websites, but it must be shipped to the holder of an FFL, who will usually charge a small fee to receive the firearm and run the buyer through NICS.

Other sites look a lot more like the want ads Fulmer mentioned. The biggest such site, Armslist, is a free website dedicated to hosting ads for the sale and purchase of weapons. (In the interest of full disclosure, I've used the sitetwice to find and buy firearms.)

The site works like any other classifieds page.People post what they're selling or looking to buy, and other users can filter the thousands of ads as much or as little as they want to.

Interested parties can contact the poster, usually through an anonymous email system, and work out the finer details directly. After that, it's just a matter of meeting up in person to swap the gun for cash or a trade.

In Alabama, the only law governing such sales in that the seller must not knowingly transfer a firearm to someone they know to be a felon, illegal immigrant, or anyone else federally banned from owning a firearm.

Any other caveats for the sale are left strictly up to the seller.At most, a sellermay run the buyer through a NICS check by using a federally licensed dealer's NICS system. They may ask to see their potential buyer'spistol permit before the gun changes hands ordraw up a bill of sale officially documenting the trade, but none of thatislegally required.

Atit* least vetted,the two can meet in theparking lotof their neighborhood department store andmake the deal without so much as trading names orshaking hands.

Supporters of stricter gun control measures refer to the legal ease of private sales as "the gun show loophole," because in the past, that's where many such sales were taking place. Armslist and sites like it streamline that process,connecting buyers withsellers faster than ever.

Armslist only keeps ads on the site for 90 days, and in the last three months, a little more than 2,100 ads for buying or selling guns have been posted on the site's Alabama page.

That's a drop in the bucket compared to the 308,000 NICS checks that have been run by FFLs so far this year, but direct and indirect sales on the Internet make up an increasingly large portion of guns sold every year, and for better or worse, make it easier than ever to get your hands on a firearm.

Not all online sales in Alabama go through Armslist. There are many other online options, such as Gunbrokeror Cheaper Than Dirt,for private transactions or sales through licensed dealers.

Some aren't even sales. Even though Craigslist officially bars firearms sales, it's easy to search Craigslist in Alabama and find people offering to trade guns, offers such as a love seat in Pell City for a Glock, or a Glock in Daphne for a small quadcopter.

Measures of public opinion about gun control seem to vary wildly, at times offering seemingly contradictory results. In July 2014,aQuinnipiac University Pollfound that 92 percent of registered voters favored universal background checks for all gun sales, but the same poll found only 50 percent of votersfavored "stricter gun control."

Fulmer said he was "kind of OK" with the system as it is now, but said he'd be vehemently opposed to universal backgrounds checks. He said many people worry that such a measure would establish a national gun registry that could be used as a sort of checklist if the government ever decided to seize certain or all firearms from its citizens.