cool out the paperwork. if the ATF says your good you can have the gun. otherwise you’ll have to settle for most of the ammo
I enjoy posts like this where Americans get hooked into the legalities of what guns can be bought, the ammo, whether it’s permitted in some states, etc.
It’s a movie about a robot from the future which time travelled. And people are questioning the legalities of buying guns in the 80’s.
And also the answer is easy, yes. Then, now, tomorrow, yes you can just buy any gun anywhere you want at any time. To be clear, I am American. Living in Amerikkka. Before posting this I went into my local Starbucks and bought a mortar launcher and a semi automatic pistol. After that I went over to fed ex and printed 3 luigi pistols in 4 different colors.
Could you just imagine the suppression people face in other countries? Calling them colours or whatever it is in the metic system.
Question about the pistol here, is the mount reliable enough to keep it zero’d and accurate? That’s a huge pistol and the kickback on the slide would be nuts, lots of energy moving around there to knock something loose, or at least a little off center, I feel like.
Modern day, sure no problem. Today’s micro red dots can be mounted to the moving slides themselves and survive.
In the 1980s? Maaaybe…
The laser in the movie is mounted to the frame by way of the grip, so it will shake around much less than if it were on the slide. Mounting optics to the frame is how competition guns were (and sometimes still are) set up.
The question comes down to the durability of a laser device made in the 80s. The movie’s laser was a specially made prop. On one hand it was made by the precursor to Surefire which is known for quality equipment, on the other hand I doubt the movie cared about it actually holding a zero.
Well, he did come from the future after all. It wouldn’t be hard for Skynet to dig through criminal records, court cases, sales records, bank info, etc… and pinpoint where to get an optimal shopping experience for this mission.
Part of the plot was that Skynet didn’t have great records. The terminator had to use a phone book and go down the line killing Sarah Conners because it didn’t know which one was the target
I mean kinda, but you gotta sit for a background check
I mean the accent isn’t really relevant (though it would probably get a comment) but the large quantity of guns and ammo would raise suspicion.
American Police: “Want to buy some guns? Go right ahead.”
Also American Police: “Withdrawing more than $10,000 in cash to pay for it? Get’m boys!”
That depends heavily on where you are in the country.
the large quantity of guns and ammo would raise suspicion.
iirc there a law where more than 1,000 rounds in one purchase would have a federal note that someone bought a lot of ammo, so people just started buying 999 bullets instead lmao
yeah, and I should have been clearer that I more meant the gun part. buying a lot of guns isn’t that concerning, but buying a bunch at once is.
He also asks for an “Uzi 9mm” a full-auto machine gun, which you could NOT just buy over the counter at a retail gun store.
There was a ban on selling machine guns to civilians that was passed in 1986.
The original Terminator film came out in 1984. So now? Yes, but then?
Probably accurate.
Not entirely. Machineguns have, since 1934, been required to be registered with the federal government, and for a normal person individually require a federal approval to buy (a “stamp”).
What happened in 1986 was the machinegun registry changed from open to closed. This means, that new machineguns are no longer added to the registry, meaning that for the average person (ie not somebody involved in the industry with their own special licensing) the number of machineguns for sale is limited and supply over time will always be going slowly down.
The process for buying a machinegun is as simple as buying any other NFA item like a silencer/suppressor or an SBR. The cost has skyrocketed thanks to limited supply.
There are still transferrable Mac 10s out there though
The above point was you don’t just buy them over the counter in a one step, walk in transaction. The precise model doesn’t matter.
In the 80s it was. Nowadays you’d have to pass a background check.
1984? In some states, yeah, It would have been that easy.
In 1984, a full auto would still have been on an NFA registry. Open, rather than closed like today, but still not a simple one step sale.
This is of course, fact checking the finer points of gun law in a movie about a time traveling robot.
Damn not very 1984 of them
If you find a one in a million firearms store who buys their own stock and resells out back illegally, it still is.
Also some pawn shops, technically anything made before a certain date is an Antique and skips a lot of regulations.
They’ll pry my right to sell a late medieval firearm to children from my cold dead hands.
Antique guns are pre 1898. Those guns are far more dangerous as a club than a gun.
You know the revolvers cowboys are famous for using are all pre-1898 and more than good guns, yeah? Assuming they’ve been maintained properly, that is
Even the black powder stuff is still going to be really damn good for most peoples uses (accuracy at short to medium range is just fine), I wouldn’t assume just because it’s older or powder that it’s not a good gun
“Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.”
“Hey, just what ya see, pal.”
“Hey wait a minute. Those haven’t been invented yet. What are you? Some kind of time traveling killer robot with incomplete historical records. Hang on just one second pal, I gotta go to the back.”
lol no. Maybe in the past but now there’s a background check and often a mandatory waiting period before you can just walk out with a gun.
In fairness you could probably just walk out with it if you do what Arnie does in the movie…
No. That wouldn’t happen in a gun store.
You’d have to go to a gun show.
Edit: a gun show is like comic con, only for guns.
a gun show is like comic con, only for guns.
So people dress up as sexy guns?
They cosplay as tough guys.
I mean Terminator 1 takes place in 1984. As far a quick search goes, there were no background checks, no assault weapon ban, no waiting period, …etc
The NFA existed.
Background checks started in '68, they didn’t become instant until like '93 because internet but they still existed, I think it was by phone back then. The rest of that isn’t around now either except for some states, the national AWB expired 21yr ago, and there’s never been national waiting periods.
Background checks started in '68, they didn’t become instant until like '93 because internet but they still existed
They may have existed and some states imposed them but they weren’t required federally until the Brady bill in '93 .
there’s never been national waiting periods.
There was a 5 day waiting period required nationally between when the Brady bill was first enacted in '93 and when the national instant criminal background check system came online in '98
Huh no shit TIL about that waiting period, thanks! I can’t look it up until later (at work, can fire off a message but not do research y’know) but would you happen to know how long it lasted?
Though the questionnaires in the 60s were largely ineffective and took time, unless I am mistaken they were stored by the FBI until the ATF started existing in the early 70s, but yes “NICs” wasn’t until “I” was possible as I mentioned.
How long it lasted?
Between '94 and '98, after they mandated the background checks but before they had the infrastructure to do instant background checks.
Thanks!
I think you could still buy machine guns. No phased plasma rifles though.
It’s really difficult to buy them even now.
I mean you can still buy them with a tax stamp if they’re made before '86, but you’re going to pay a lot and it’ll take some time to transfer. I think at the time that you could just walk into a gun store and buy a new Uzi.
The process is quite simple. It’s just the prices…
Hey pal, only what you see here.
What, not even one in the 40-watt range?
Private sales are private sales. Has nothing to do with gun shows, that shit is just ignorance from anti-2a groups/people. The pro2a people have been asking for access to the NICS for years. Even if we had to pay $10 for a BG check to come back as clear or not, but they don’t want that because it takes away from their wedge issue.
It’s required in Illinois to use a private seller portal for private sales through the state police site. It does some kind of check and it’s free to use.
even as a foreigner, it is clear to me that gun-wary Americans tend not to be anti-2a, but want background checks and gun limits. Maybe politicians fit your narrative, especially Democrats, but if you are talking about citizens you are likely straw-manning.
The point is that private sellers have been asking to access NICS (the background check system) but politicians, who are in charge of giving that access through laws, have not allowed it. It is not “strawmanning” to be talking about the people with the actual ability to provide the access.
but they don’t want that because it takes away from their wedge issue.
Who is “they” in this case?
Republicans and Democrats. They both require wedge issues to keep us divided and easily steered.
Both sides, someone still insists, as one side may start street raids that send people to Gitmo.
Yes, both sides require wedge issues to perpetuate a two party system in which neither has to enact the will of the people if they can campaign on divisive issues that effectovely change nothing.
I did not say both parties were the same.
Republicans are actively marching towards oligarchy, autocracy, and evil.
Democrats have shown they are too cowardly to rock the boat and fight back. As the opposition party they have shown their true colors: ameaningless foil beholden to the same wealthy donor class as those they purport to oppose.
As the “other” side crushes leftist movement and worker power, provides no real resistance to the right wing (that they’re totally not a part of at all). They smush leftist politicians from joining the DNC and stymie and primary out leftist members already within the DNC in favor of moving to the right/moderate members. then one of their premier members says things like how “America needs a strong republican party”
Yo we’re all like: “when will you get it”?? it’s 2025 alright and ya still don’t see, even tho they keep showing ya.
Now if you’re not ready to put down the happy fantasy you grew up with, that beautiful dream that the world will be fixed without your personal effort and sacrifice, cool. It’s a scary prospect.
In the meantime, stop shouting down the people who have made the step? It’s a tough enough ask already without the endless whining and disbelief at how much the truth sucks by those like you who haven’t accepted it yet.
Liberal bickering is morally equivalent to fucking Nazis, says someone who cannot figure out why their message won’t catch on.
“My” message is catching on without my help, since its, yaknow, true.
More importantly, you misunderstand my purpose in speaking to you. Your personal understanding of my “message” is not required. Folks like you, folks who figured they learned enough about politics and history in highschool, will believe whatever theyre told if it’s someone they trust. You’ll come around when and if “my” message becomes common sense. Only then. And you will at that time claim to have always known what I’m telling you, right now.
Except Comic Con is rare, and they don’t have to take down their “gun show this weekend!” signs here in Iowa because that’s every weekend, or so it seems.
Agreed though. I was actually worried about what maga might do if Harris won, so I made my first purchases before the election. I had to provide ID, enter some personal identifiers into a website and be approved by a federal agency. It took an extra 30 minutes or so.
I live next to fairgrounds. Every Saturday: Gun and Knife Show.
But I also remember working at a marina and where I saw far more transactions take place between two parked vehicles than anything that requires paperwork.
What would not be like that? Nidal Hasan did it pretty much like that prior to his 2009 Fort Hood shooting?
Total fiction. Everyone knows you have to go to a unlicensed seller at a gun show in the majority of states for that, not a gun store
unlicensed seller at a gun show
Says people who have never been to a gun show. Find me ONE table that’s unlicensed.
I’m sure there are plenty.
The finer detail though is that any FFL with a table still has to run a NICS background check. While any non-FFL doesn’t (and to my knowledge can’t even if they wanted to), which is exactly the same as if they were selling privately in any other way.
So, it is true you can buy a gun without a background check at a gun show, but it’s not like it’s a special law free zone where FFLs suddenly are exempt from the rules. It’s a unique situation where businesses and private sellers are selling guns right next to each other, each following different legal requirements.
There’s one gun show near me that allows private sellers to register for a table. The only time I’ve ever seen it is people in a historic items collectors club that show up, and I’ve only ever seen one with a gun to sell that was in working order and manufactured post-1899. He wanted $5,000 for a beat up m1917 Enfield. I don’t know whether he was stupid, or looking for someone else who was.
Tbf, some states allow private sellers at gun shows, some don’t, some shows in states that do allow it won’t allow it themselves, etc. It’s kinda a mixed bag leaning more towards “mostly FFLs.”
My local has both, for instance.
I can find several people walking around with an AR15 strapped on their back with a sign that says “For sale, $1200”. That’s the actual private sales loophole.
It doesn’t have to be a gun show, can be anywhere. I’ve legally purchased a handful of guns in random parking lots.
in the majority of states
States Where You Can Buy a Gun at a Gun Show Without a Waiting Period or Background Check
In the following states, private sellers (non-licensed individuals) at gun shows can sell firearms without conducting a background check or imposing a waiting period:
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas Georgia Idaho Indiana Kentucky Louisiana Maine Mississippi Missouri Montana New Hampshire New Mexico North Carolina (only for rifles & shotguns; handguns require a permit) North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
FREEDOM
All you need to do to stop that is make it possible for private individuals to conduct or verify a background check without involving an FFL dealer.
Sellers have a responsibility to sell only to non-prohibited people. Without a public background check option, that means you can’t sell if you have reason to believe they are prohibited.
As soon as you provide the option, your refusal to conduct a check stops being exculpatory evidence and starts demonstrating malfeasance.
I love that the only surprising part of that list is that north Carolina was somewhat responsible
According to another comment reply that info is out of date
Of course that’s good because like 60% of pistol purchase permit denials were to black people and it was a jim crow law designed for exactly that, but yeah I remember reading about that when they ended it.
North Carolina no longer requires a permit, except for concealed carry.
Which is good because it was a racist Jim Crow law and the majority of denials were to black people.
I did not know that. I do know you still have to get the federal background check, but that is handled by the gun shops and not the state.
Well gun shops and FBI of course, but yeah not the state.
Virginia implemented a universal background check law a couple years ago that banned private sales without going through an FFL so they can be removed from the list. Though I’m not sure about the other half of the country
