A woman in white, her arms folded defiantly, looks straight into the camera and talks about Illinois’s failure to recognize women’s right to defend themselves. It’s a YouTube video about gun rights, set to eighties music and featuring more zooms than a Mazda commercial. The video ends with her taking a gun out of her purse, pointing it at the camera and saying firmly, “Demand your right to defend yourself the only way that balances the strength of a hundred-pound woman against a two hundred-pound attacker.” She’s wearing a cross.
The question of whether or not guns are necessary to defend ourselves becomes even more prominent after the recent rash of highly publicized school shootings — at Virginia Tech, Louisiana Technical College and Northern Illinois University. There’s an argument being made that having more armed officers around, even armed students, would prevent or mitigate a gun-related catastrophe on a college campus.
However, the solution can’t logically involve more guns. On the contrary, more guns would only add tension to a situation creeping toward its breaking point. More guns means more possibilities that one of them will be used for violence.
So, as guns continue to find their way into dangerous hands, the system and its safeguards must be examined. The process, from applying for and getting a registration card, to finding a store to sell you the gun, turns out to be less complex than expected. There’s hardly any legislation in Illinois to demand that thorough background checks be performed on persons buying guns — and that’s without even considering online purchases, such as those made by both the Virginia Tech and NIU killers.
In fact, our system makes obtaining a firearm considering less grueling than getting a driver’s license: aside from the price of the gun, it only takes five bucks and a little time.
“The first thing you need is an [Firearm Owners Identification] card,” said John Riggio of Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, Ill., “You can print one out at isra.org.”
Riggio said that after sending in the form, five dollars and a personal picture to the Illinois State police, they’ll send back the card in about seven weeks, “if you’re a good guy.”
If and when the buyer decides to purchase a gun, the the seller contacts the police for a thumbs up or thumbs down. To obtain a rifle or shotgun, the buyer must be at least 18 years old, and the elapsed time between selection and pickup is 24 hours and one minute. For handguns, a 72-hour-and-one-minute waiting period is required, and the minimum age is 21.
Guns have been as commodified as dental floss and can be purchased either at megastores like Wal-Mart, alongside groceries and underwear or at specialty gun shops. One Illinois gun store was found to have made the most sales in the nation where the gun was later linked to a violent crime. Chuck’s Gun Shop, Riggio’s establishment, sold 2370 guns between 1996 and 2000 that were traced to crimes.
Despite the recent shootings, the constant crime and the inevitable accidents that occur with guns, owning a gun is still a right provided for by the Illinois legislature. The mounting number of tragedies tend to reflect our current gun laws’ glaring shortcomings. Maybe it’s time some laws were reevaluated. Maybe it’s time some lives were saved.