Form 4473 and GLOCK (courtesy fbi.gov)
courtesy fbi.gov

The initial media take on Atlanta massage parlor shootings was that they were an obvious case of racist white supremacy in action. The three stores and their employees had clearly been targeted because they were mostly staffed with Asians.

Then investigators talked to the shooter and found out that was all a bunch of media-driven hysteria that conveniently furthered a narrative of far right racism they were all too eager to push. (Plenty of pundits and decrepit politicians are still finding the Asian angle on the story too useful to let go.)

It’s since been determined, however, that the murderer had bought the 9mm handgun used to kill those eight people earlier that same morning. So, as night follows day, the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex isn’t letting an opportunity go to waste.

They’re collaring ever compliant media stenographer they can find to claim that the Atlanta shootings present clear evidence that what America really needs is a waiting period for all handgun purchases.

One of those compliant stenographers is the Associated Press’s Lindsay Whitehurst who wrote this . . .

Not long before the deadly Atlanta-area shootings spread fear and anger through Asian American communities nationwide, police say the attacker made a legal purchase: a 9 mm handgun.

Within hours, they say, he had killed eight people, seven of them women and six of Asian descent, in a rampage targeting massage businesses.

If Georgia had required him to wait before getting a gun, lawmakers and advocates say, he might not have acted on his impulse.

“It’s really quick. You walk in, fill out the paperwork, get your background check and walk out with a gun,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “If you’re in a state of crisis, personal crisis, you can do a lot of harm fairly quickly.”

The purchase was a normal transaction at Big Woods Goods, a shop north of Atlanta that complies with federal background check laws and is cooperating with police, said Matt Kilgo, a lawyer for the store.

“There’s no indication there’s anything improper,” he said.

The vast majority of states are like Georgia, allowing buyers to walk out of a store with a firearm after a background check that sometimes can take minutes. Waiting periods are required in just 10 states and the District of Columbia, although several states are considering legislation this year to impose them.

Gun control advocates say mandating a window of even a couple of days between the purchase of a gun and taking possession can give more time for background checks and create a “cooling off” period for people considering harming themselves or someone else. Studies suggest that waiting periods may help bring down firearm suicide rates by up to 11% and gun homicides by about 17%, according to the Giffords Center.

Georgia Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would require people to wait five days between buying a gun and getting it, said Rep. David Wilkerson, who is minority whip in the state House.

“I think a waiting period just makes sense,” he said.

A 2020 analysis by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, also found that research links waiting periods to decreased suicide and homicide rates but determined that the effect on mass shootings was inconclusive because the sample size was too small.

California has one of the country’s longest waiting periods — 10 days. That did not stop more than 1.1 million people from buying guns last year, which was just shy of the record number sold in 2016. Gun sales nationwide, meanwhile, surged to record levels last year amid pandemic-related uncertainty.

Against that backdrop, lawmakers in at least four states — Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont — have proposed creating or expanding waiting periods.

New gun laws will not fix deep-seated problems such as racism, misogyny and violence, said Seo Yoon “Yoonie” Yang, a leader with Students Demand Action, a gun violence prevention group. But they can help keep guns out of the hands of people who would do harm in the meantime, she said.

“Legislation is practical. Research shows that it works,” she said. “It is change that can happen efficiently and quickly.”

In Colorado, Democratic state Rep. Tom Sullivan ran for office after his son, Alex, died along with 11 others when a gunman opened fire in an Aurora movie theater eight years ago. Sullivan said he hopes a waiting period in legislation he’s planning to sponsor could help curb domestic violence and suicide.

“In Atlanta, imagine if this guy’s parents or somebody else were notified that he was trying to get a firearm. Maybe they could have helped,” he said. “It wouldn’t have hurt anybody to wait … let it breathe a while. If there’s a problem, let it surface, we’ll sort it out.”

Gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, oppose waiting periods. The group points to 2018 federal firearm-tracing data that shows the average time between first retail sale of a gun and involvement in a crime was nearly nine years. They also argue that waiting periods create a delay for people buying legally, while leaving illegal weapons transfers unaffected.

“A right delayed is a right denied,” Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb said.

Gun control legislation also is making its way through Congress. The Senate is expected to consider a bill to expand background checks, but it faces a difficult road — Democrats would need at least 10 Republican votes to pass it. While the House approved two bills to strengthen the checks this month, Congress has not passed any major gun control laws since the mid-1990s.

In Georgia, the Republican-controlled Legislature may resist new firearms laws before it concludes business at the end of the month. But Wilkerson pointed to recent long-sought victories that once seemed improbable, including passage of a hate crimes law and the likely repeal of a citizen’s arrest law a year after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man pursued by armed white men while jogging.

“You’re going to run into resistance. It doesn’t mean you don’t try,” Wilkerson said. “In tragedy, sometimes we can move forward. This may be the opportunity to look at another tragedy and do something about it.”

46 COMMENTS

  1. Too late Jim Crow Gun Control Zealots…Reports show Asian Americans are not waiting to buy firearms.

    • that guy was a religious nutcase with inner conflicts…he frequented these places but hated himself for it…so he externalized his self-hate…and blamed these places for his own personal failings..the fact that a lot of these victims were Asian is incidental…as a lot of Asian girls tend to work in these places….

    • “Where did he find ammo?”

      That sound you just heard was –

      Every. Last. Redneck. In Georgia busting out laughing… 😉

      • @ Geoff
        Redneck here in Washington State just chuckled at it. I was even looking for 300 blk again today. I saw that comment and had a little lol

        • I have a 300 BLK braced pistol build almost complete.

          I’m looking forward to it… 😉

    • Good point! I’ve not seen a 9mm I didn’t own or dared shoot one I did own for months, keeping my handgun proficiency up with a Beeman P5 “springer” air pistol. Pellets are still cheap and available.

  2. And the potential victims also have to wait…so there is that to consider.
    Especially if it is a domestic violence victim.

  3. As a POTG, this is what stuck out to me in that article:
    [quote] California has one of the country’s longest waiting periods — 10 days. That did not stop more than 1.1 million people from buying guns last year, which was just shy of the record number sold in 2016.[/quote]

    2020 busted records all over the country, for all lines in our industry, and California still managed not to live up to 2016’s hype?

    Gun control must actually work.

    • Probably cuz the limited number of options (stupid roster), all the available guns sold out? Just a guess

  4. “It’s really quick. You walk in, fill out the paperwork, get your ballot .If you’re in a state of crisis, personal crisis, you can do a lot of harm fairly quickly by voting for Socialism and Communism. ”

    We must impose ID checks and cooling off periods for voters.. we wouldn’t want them to vote for the wrong things.

    • a waiting period for a first time buyer is one thing…barring an emergency…but once you’ve done it further restrictions are pointless…and a lot of people are repeat buyers…..

  5. I can see _maybe_ requiring a waiting period on a *first-time* gun purchase (though I really lean more to the ‘a right delayed is a right denied’ thinking), to deal with this “personal crisis cooling off” argument.

    However, if someone already owns a gun, I find it unlikely that having to wait a few days on a new gun is going to prevent them from just using a gun they already own.

    • And I know that the only way a first time purchase would be able to be confirmed is if there was a registry, which I categorically disagree with, so you’re stuck with honesty on the form.

      • You’re not thinking this through thoroughly, as a good politician would. You see, leaving aside the fact that you MIGHT be lying about already having a gun, you may also have emptied all of your old gun’s clipazines of bullets, rendering them useless, and thus need a NEW gun with new, full clipazines with which to shoot babies, puppies, and minorities. You might also be trying to upgrade your arsenal from ‘223 something’ to ‘556 something’ bullets, the latter being over TWICE as big and thus more shootier, to perform a similar nefarious deed.
        You could also have gone completely insane since the last time you bought a gun, have forgotten that you even HAVE one, and thus haven’t thought to use it in a massacre of sex workers. Therefore, THIS one might as well BE your ‘first,’ and you should be adequately screened by Government behavioral experts before you A/buy a gun or B/remember that you already have one.
        It’s also for the children.

    • In FL you need a concealed carry permit to take a handgun home same day, all others ARE three days, rifles and shotguns are same day for everyone…

    • Exactly! Sometime Ca will make you wait almost a month. If it takes a month, then you have to go through the process again.

  6. Let’s put a waiting period on news anchors, newspapers and the internet. Also put a 10 day waiting period on politicians enacting unconstitutional bovine scatology!

  7. Hawaii is worse than Commiefornia? The waiting period to obtain a firearm in Hawaii is 14 days. On the island of Oahu, someone wanting to obtain a firearm must repeatedly try to get an on-line appointment at the only location of the Records Division at the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) to submit four pieces of paperwork: the Firearms Information Form, the Medical Information Waiver, the Mental Health Waiver, and lastly the Firearms Application and Questionnaire along with having your fingerprints submitted and entered into the FBI RapBack system. If you are lucky enough to get an appointment (currently all appointments are booked solid 90 days out) after the 14 days have passed, the applicant has 6 days to pick up their approved Permit to Acquire otherwise the whole process must be started up again from square one. Oh and did I mention that it costs a mere $43.25 for the background check? Further, after picking up your permit you have to then go back to the local gun shop (or FFL) where you previously purchased the approved firearm, then having previously made and obtained another on-line appointment must return back to the same HPD office to have the firearm physically inspected by an officer who will then issue the firearms registration form to the new owner. Every resident who desires to acquire a handgun must go through this same process for each one. Currently, approved long gun Permits to Acquire are valid for one year and the firearm still must be inspected and registered at HPD, but our state legislators are chomping at the bit to have this changed.

    If every state had this type of process, then only the criminals would have guns…

    • Why a Medical Information Waiver? Are infirm people, some of the most vulnerable citizens, denied the right of self-protection?

    • if anything would constitute “abridgement’ that would…it should be challenged in court….

  8. This person obviously does not care about human life. What stops him from killing someone for their sidearm during that waiting period?

    Here yet again…no one in power cares about dealing with the criminals. All they want is power to rule over everyone else’s life.

  9. In Atlanta, imagine if this guy’s parents or somebody else were notified that he was trying to get a firearm

    Uhhhhh, hello Mrs. Smith, Billy Bob from Harold Eugene’s Beer Parlor and BBQ and Gun Emporium… Ummmm your son is in here wanting to buy this gun and I just wondered if Y’all knew what he’s up to, him only bein 35 and all… Somebody WAS notified, it’s called an NCIC background check… Who missed his mental history, or was it NOT documented…

    • Mental health history only matters if you were adjudicated as a danger to self or others. Putting yourself into treatment for sex addiction, or any other addiction, isn’t exclusionary.

  10. The effect of an X day waiting period would be to force the bad guy to wait X days after purchase before going on his murder spree. If he already owns a gun, or has the right connections to buy one illegally, he won’t have to wait at all. Waiting periods are a dumbass idea promoted by dumbasses who can’t think logically.

    • this whole concept is an exercise in presumption…that he would change his mind…which is a bit of a stretch…

  11. Okay, How many times in the past ten years has it happened that somebody bought a gun, left the store with it that day and went right out and killed someone (never mind 8 people)? I mean is 1 in 100, 1 in 10,000, 1 in 1,000,000? Or just one in the last 10 years? Inquiring minds want to know and I don’t feel like looking it up tonight…

    • I am sure, that in the case of suicide, it happens on a somewhat regular basis. Let’s face it, a gun kills you quick and if you are determined to do the deed, that is a fast way to get ‘er done. How many people a year, go to a range the rent a gun(as if they wish to buy one) and then try or complete a suicide right at the firing line?
      I would think that in other cases, where a scared person is wanting some protection(woman who is targeted by her ex, someone that has some problem with a gang or bookie collectors), this would just make it more dangerous for that person. The laws making that person a victim.

      • Suicides with rental happened a few times at the former Targetmasters in Milpitas, CA. They had to change their policy to only rent if you brought your own gun, or you came with a group. A jilted Asian woman got around the second method because her family approved of her death and escorted her to the range.

  12. Of course. Never let a tragedy go to waste.

    A waiting period might have helped in THIS particular case, but not in the vast majority of others. Odds are slim to none in general.

    • Or may not have helped in this case. They want to limit our rights based on nothing more than speculation.

    • On the instant background check system.

      In 1994, I was stationed in Virginia when the Marine Lance Cpl. Rayna Ross court trial was in the news. I read all I could find about the story. Fortunately I was stationed at Fort Eustis and a Man by the name of Philip Van Cleave was on the local talk radio station. From a group called the “Virginia citizens Defense League”. He was protesting against the Rayna Ross trial. He said everyone should have quick access to a firearm.

      Rayna Ross, a black woman, was the first known person in the entire USA, to have a DGU less than 24 hours after the purchase of a gun, using the instant background check system. The day her boyfriend threatened to murder her and her daughter. She went and bought a gun. Philip Van Cleave and Aaron Zelman (RIP) of the JPFO really opened my eyes and educated me about what the Second Amendment really means. Clayton E Cramer was a really big help too. Back in 1994.

      Yes I know the instant check system was tuned off last year by the government. But this is the 21st century. We have to deal with this instant check system and its flaws.

      fyi
      1. “Marine Corps Drops Charges Against Marine Who Acted in ‘Self- Defense’

      https://apnews.com/article/429b1d4c97bbf14c32755ef726c8d809

      2. “Marines’ Decision to Try Woman Greeted by Furor : Virginia: State authorities decided that a female Leatherneck acted in self-defense when she shot to death a male Marine who had stalked her, assaulted her, and broke into her home wielding a bayonet.”
      https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-27-mn-27882-story.html

      3. “Sexism Charged In Controversial Marine Murder Case — Cops Cleared Woman Who Shot Intruder”
      https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940220&slug=1896239

    • Longer waiting periods….aka longer planning periods…… merely lets the perp get more deranged and plan his attack with greater precision. For the Rio Linda turds among us, that’s sarcasm.

  13. Because when BLM is burning, looting, and murdering their way toward your house, what they want is to make sure that you can’t run down to the gun store and get something in time to defend yourself.

  14. BLM is burning, looting, and murdering their way toward your house,

    If you are not prepared way before they get that close then your best bet is to get the hell out of there and don’t look back because your fight is over before you ever got to throw a punch…

  15. As a student of psychology, and an instructor of the same, the individuals who plan such a course of action usually go through stages of planning, purchasing, and practicing. Perhaps offering him more time to select his route and tactics could have resulted in more deaths. Perhaps a waiting period may have been the time frame in which he decided he needed better guns, more guns, more targeted locations. Unlikely that he would have reflected on his decisions and had a moment of clarity, or an intervention from a concerned friend. Once mass murderers have the ball rolling, they like to keep it in motion. Another “common sense” gun control idea that really only impacts legal gun owners without ill intent.

  16. Almost threw up just thinking this, but I have more respect for someone like “Beto” actually saying what their agenda is instead of believing we’re stupid enough not to see the baby steps they’re using!!

  17. To be totally honest, I wouldn’t even mind a waiting period… If it were part of ordering it online and waiting for it to arrive at my FFL.

  18. I hate to break the news to democrats and gun grabbers inc.
    Guns. Are. Not. The. Problem. People are the problem. If anyone wants to kill someone, they will use the easiest available means. Edged weapons, clubs, rope, cars, ieds, hands, arrows, you name it. The only thing that gun registration and gun control measures are doing is GUARANTEEING that only the bad guys have guns. Remember this one thing when it comes to you and your families safety. When SECONDS count, law enforcement is only MINUTES away.

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