You can buy a gun on the internet.

That’s what anti-gun politicians have been screaming for years now. They swear up and down you can buy an AR-15 online and that represents a huge problem.

And, they’re sorta right. You can buy a gun online. You just can’t take possession of it until it passes through the hands of an FFL holder who will conduct a background check first.

The problem is, many people don’t really understand that. They hear about the specter of “online gun sales” and just assume that you can do that. This misconception isn’t helped by the fact that you can go to online gun stores or gun manufacturers and find what looks like a normal retail interface waiting for you.

Well, it seems that many are finding out the hard way that online gun sales aren’t really a thing.

Here at Omaha Outdoors, we’ve been inundated with inquiries from out-of-state folks – many from California – asking if we can ship them a gun directly. The answer is, of course, no. Despite what politicians and many in popular media claim, you can’t buy a gun online and have it shipped to your house. Well, you could, if you were a federally licensed firearm dealer (or federally licensed curio and relic collector) and your home was your place of business. Other than that, no, you can’t buy a gun online and have it shipped, especially across state lines, to your home.

What you’ll need to do to buy a gun from us is order it on our online store and select an FFL, a federally licensed firearm dealer, during the online checkout process. We ship the gun to the dealer near you – presuming the firearm and its accessories are legal in your area – and you visit the dealer to fill out the required ATF Form 4473 and undergo the federal and any applicable state background checks. Some states might require a waiting period – sure to be a sore point at a time when people feel the need for a gun to protect themselves NOW. Only then can you take your new firearm home.

Now, some of the more knowledgeable anti-gunners–assuming you really can consider them “knowledgeable” about guns–will argue that what the term really means is using the internet to facilitate face-to-face transfers that do bypass background check procedures in many states.

The problem is, they use a term like “online gun sales” or “gun show loophole” to describe the exact same kind of transaction, a face-to-face transfer. As a result, people think you can buy a gun at a gun show without a background check (you can’t) or online.

The truth of the matter is that I believe this confusion is intentional. I think gun control advocates actually want people to be confused by these terms, though. I think they want them terrified that bad guys can buy guns nine ways to Sunday and if we don’t close these so-called “loopholes” then they’ll never be stopped.

None of that is true.

But right now, that intention is being undermined by a little virus. The Covid-19 bug has a lot of people worried. So worried, in fact, that they’re wanting guns. Unfortunately, they’re finding out just what the gun laws in this country are like and they’re nowhere near the free-for-all that’s been described.

One little virus has just given a lot of people a glimpse behind the curtain and just how much BS the anti-gun movement has been peddling for years.

Frankly, I think it’s hilarious.