How easy is it to buy a gun?

After a mass shooting, people always try to make it out like it was something super simple to do, like getting gas for your car or something.

Yet anyone who has actually purchased a firearm knows better. We know all the hoops one must jump through in order to take possession of a gun.

But the website QZ decided to tell everyone it was just super easy.

After Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two adults dead, we wondered how difficult it was to order a DDM4V7, one of the two rifles the gunman bought a few days after turning 18 years old, according to reports.

The answer: Five clicks.

The AR-15-style weapon, made by Georgia-based Daniel Defense, sells online for $1,870, plus tax. Shipping to a local gun shop is free.

After clicking “place order” we received an email confirming the purchase, promising to send a tracking number once the gun was on its way to the pickup point.

At no time were we asked for proof of age or of a clean criminal record, both of which are legally required to buy a firearm. That will happen when we pick up the gun at a local licensed dealer.

Aside from that, it was a routine purchase, not unlike ordering a Lego set from Amazon or a pair of shoes from Zappos. Except, of course, for the lethality of the product.

Except it’s very unlike ordering a Lego set.

See, if I order a Lego set from Amazon, it comes straight to me unless I want it delivered somewhere else. The default is that it’ll come to my house.

With a firearm, that’s not even close to the reality.

While they “purchased” the gun with those five clicks, that means jack squat and we all know it. Sure, you can get your credit card charged all day long, but that’s the easy part.

The next part is the part they gloss over.

Once you click the mouse the last time, you have to wait for it to be sent to a licensed gun dealer. There you will complete the Form 4473, show the ID to prove you’re old enough to take possession of a firearm, then undergo the NICS check.

In other words, it’s no different than buying in a gun store in any appreciable way. You don’t even get to save the gas for going to the gun store in the first place.

A paragraph simply alluding to that happening doesn’t really capture the fact. They gloss it over in hopes to make that part seem oh-so-trivial.

It’s not.

It’s the exact same thing gun control proponents have been screaming about when they call for “universal background checks.” The process there is absolutely no different.

If you order a gun online and cannot pass the background check, it’s returned to the seller and you’re given a refund. There’s simply no way for you to take possession of that firearm. That got left out as well.

Why?

Well, you know why. They want to make it sound too easy to get a gun. They want to scare people into demanding additional regulations, all while ultimately making light of the fact that they still haven’t run into the regulated part–and they will run into it if they continue with this purchase.

It’s possible that QZ isn’t lying, they just don’t understand that all they did was complete a simple, easy first step. They basically did the equivalent of picking out what they wanted in the gun store–though, admittedly, they did pay ahead of time.

Still, there’s no way to take possession of it unless they do all the other things.

The same things that will be conducted with universal background checks which many demand. If universal background checks are so great, then why is buying a gun online and having to go through the same steps so horrifying?