If you’re an American, then it is your fundamental right to bear and keep arms. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees that right.
Buying a gun, however, is not as easy as buying candy from a store. It is heavily regulated, particularly if you’re buying your firearm through a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), a category under which Walmart and other mom-and-pop stores selling guns fall.
Federal law requires these retailers to conduct a background check on anyone trying to buy a gun from them. By running the information they provide through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System or NICS, authorities can find out whether or not prospective firearms buyers are eligible to buy and own a gun.
Owning a gun may be a fundamental right of Americans, but not all Americans have that right. Ask a gun crime lawyer about it, and he or she will tell you the same thing.
Convicted felons who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison, for example, are not allowed to own a gun legally. The same goes for people who have been legally declared to be mentally ill. Former soldiers from any service of the U.S. Armed Forces could not buy a gun if they ended their military career with a dishonorable discharge. Drug users or addicts, illegal immigrants, fugitives from the law, domestic violence convicts, and even Americans who have renounced their U.S. citizenship are not allowed to buy a gun legally either.
Aside from federal laws, states also have their own gun laws, and they vary from state to state. Some states have lenient gun laws particularly when it comes to carrying guns in public. Arizona, for instance, allows its citizens to carry a handgun, either concealed or openly, without a permit. California, in contrast, doesn’t even have a provision in its state constitution that explicitly guarantees the right of private citizens to buy, own, or carry firearms.
If you want to know more facts about gun laws, check out the infographic below.
