I went undercover to buy a gun in Renton but this is what actually happened
Jun 27, 2016, 5:41 PM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 10:00 am
I don’t own a gun. I’ve never even held a gun. So I was feeling really out of my element sitting in my car down the block from Pinto’s Gun Shop in Renton, getting ready to walk in as an “undercover journalist” to see how fast I could buy one.
I clipped a small “undercover journalist” lavaliere microphone to my collar, slid the wire under my clothes, and tucked my digital recorder into my pocket.
Days after the deadly Orlando club massacre, Philly.com Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas wrote an article called, “I Bought an AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle in Philly in 7 Minutes.”
Without a concealed carry permit or any training, Ubinas was able to buy a gun very similar to the one the Orlando shooter used. Her thoughts on her speedy purchase: “It’s obscene. Horrifying.”
Nervous, I walked into Pinto’s and was greeted by a friendly, ginger-bearded employee. With time on my mind, I launched right in.
“I wanted to get something that I could get today,” I whispered to the clerk, feeling unsure and like a complete hack. “Um, what kind of things can I buy today on the spot?”
“We’re talking about a gun?” he asked, straight-faced.
“Yes, yes,” I responded.
Clearly, I am not a seasoned “undercover journalist” and I am not a very good actor either.
The clerk explained that I could buy any long gun, a rifle or a shotgun, right then and there. To take home a handgun I’d need a concealed permit, or I’d have to wait a few days.
“What about the AK-15?” I asked, wanting to see how easily and quickly I could buy one. “Do you guys carry those?”
“Uh, it would be more like the AR-15 or the AK-47,” the clerk corrected me.
“I know the names of things!” I nervously laughed, too loud and for too long. “I should have a gun, clearly. Can you just show me some things?”
If you’re cringing right now, please believe that I am cringing more. The too-loud girlish laughter, accidentally calling the gun by the wrong name. I was so nervous! Walking into a gun store and pretending you want to buy a gun on the spot is much harder than it sounds.
The clerk asked if the gun was for home protection. I said yes and he suggested a 20 gauge shotgun. By this time, I was well beyond the seven minute mark, so I decided to speed the process up.
“Yeah, let’s…let’s…let’s do this one,” I said, gesturing to the shotgun. “Just go through the process and I can give you my ID. Is that cool?”
“Yeah,” he responded tentatively, doubtfully eyeing me. “But have you ever shot before?”
“No, I haven’t,” I answered immediately, with more nervous laughter.
“Okay,” he said. “So why are you interested in doing this? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Yeah, I think just because of what’s been going on in the news,” I answered slowly, trying to formulate a believable response. “It just seems like a lot of people are wanting protection. More people are getting guns. It seems like something that would be a good idea. I definitely would do a class! I wouldn’t trust myself to just have this! Or for my husband…”
Yes, I made up a husband. Husbands use guns, right? I am a real lady trying to buy a real gun that her real husband might use!
I asked him how long it would take to do my background check and ring me up. He said it wouldn’t take long.
“So, really, I could be out of here in like five minutes?” I asked.
“Well, it’s probably not that quick,” he said. “There was a journalist who did a piece on, you know, how she went into a gun shop and bought an AR in seven minutes or something like that. I mean, we’ve already been talking for five minutes, so…”
So apparently he also read Helen Ubinas’ article.
The thing is, I didn’t actually want to buy the gun. I wanted to do the background check, to see how long the process would take, and then just when I was about to pay I’d say I changed my mind, stop the clock and leave. But it doesn’t work that way.
“Here at our shop we collect payment for the gun, have the paperwork filled out, then we do the background check,” he explained. “So if you fail the background check and you’re not going to appeal it, we will do a refund, less a service fee for the paperwork we have to do on this end.”
I wasn’t about to spend $300 of my own money on a 20 gauge rifle I didn’t want — so I came clean.
“Can I be honest with you? I’m with the media and I just wanted to see how long it would take and I’m really bad at this.”
“I kind of wondered,” he replied. “Well, now, you’re not on the radio are you? You are? Okay. With Ron and Don? Okay. I thought I recognized your voice.”
BUSTED.
This dude knew who I was the entire time.
“Thor? Nice to meet you, I’m Rachel.”
Thor Gulsvig says buying a gun takes longer than seven minutes.
“No line or anything like that, I would say probably 10-15 minutes. So I would say fairly quick.”
This story turned out to be kind of funny because I am terrible at “undercover journalism.” But gun violence is not funny, and I don’t want this story to make light of a heavy subject.
Think about it. You don’t need a permit to buy a gun. You don’t need training. You just need an ID, to fill out a form and pass the instant background check, which completely depends on individual states reporting criminal records to the FBI. If they don’t report, the FBI background check is pretty much useless.
“Washington is one of the better states about submitting information to the FBI,” Gulsvig explained. “My understanding is there are about 30 states that send in occasional information, mental records, things that would disqualify somebody. There are about half a dozen states that have never sent any information in.”
Gulsvig says the reason you can buy a long gun on the spot, but you have to wait three days to buy a handgun, is because the wait was designed as a cooling-off period. So someone doesn’t get in a heated argument with their wife or neighbor, storm off to a gun shop, come home and kill them.
But these days, where mass shootings are depressingly commonplace, the weapon of choice are often long guns. So why not make everyone wait three days to buy any guy?
“I don’t think that a three-day waiting period necessarily would make much difference,” says Gulsvig. “If you look at this most recent incident in Orlando, you look at San Bernardino, he had the guns for a little while before anything happened. Someone who is bent on terrorism, mayhem, distraction, I don’t think that having to wait a few days is going to make any difference to them.”
So what do we do to prevent devastatingly sad mass shootings?
“It’s not easy to figure out how to allow law abiding citizens the access they should be able to enjoy and yet keep the criminal or psychopathic, sociopath element away from them,” he said.
It may not be easy, but there has to be a way. If we want to prevent innocent people from being shot and killed, we must continue to look for a solution.
