#making me pay an obnoxious fee for learning is anti-learning. to me.

[interrogatethecat]

hate college. hate money. why is it like this.

[isaacsapphire]

I'm going to be honest, I follow you and find your posts interesting even if I often disagree with them, but until recently I kind of thought you were a dude. This is not meant to be an insult, I just don't see women on tumblr with your takes on things like mutual aid, anti-capitalism or certain sections of feminism very often, and it's making me question if I'm in a smaller ideological bubble than I'd thought.

I wasn't sure if I was a (trans) guy or not when I came to Tumblr, and I started online in MMORPGs, where it was more pleasant to appear male to a casual glance (at least in RuneScape you could just collect a few items and pay a witch a reasonable fee and swap genders after you learned the hard way that female avis got obnoxious reactions from other players.) At this point the predators online have changed a bit, but it's still more defensive to appear male to a casual glance; terfs are less vicious to those they think are men.

I suspect that there's a kind of cafeteria table self-sorting going on, beyond identity/ideology ratios, and age/class sorting between different platforms.

I've met a few other people of various genders who have similar politics (IDK, sorta pissed and disillusioned by a wide range of political/ideological positions, but also still thinking most of them have some good points?), and you can see them in various reblogs, but then, I'm extremely close mouthed about my opinions on anything even slightly controversial in person, with my categorization of "controversial" getting bigger and bigger over time and me starting from a place of relational wariness after too many backstabs.

[adambethyname-blog]

LIBERAL LIE: “ANYONE can buy a gun on-line with no background check!” Here’s the truth because I did it...

What I am going to type out here is the time line involved in a single purchase of a handgun over the internet. Why am I doing this? Because in the light of the last mass shooting that occurred in Texas, know-nothing liberals who learned all that they know about guns from the “Die Hard 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray Box Set” are blowing up Twitter with their inane and ridiculous comments about what actually happened and what needs to be done to end “gun violence.” 

Keep in mind that none of these things will actually work, but whatever. 

One of the things I constantly hear from the anti-gun crowd is the ease in which you can buy a gun on-line. Somehow, going on-line to purchase a weapon circumvents a lot of the red tape put up by the government to keep us all safe and those dastardly Republicans with their camo hats and Pabst beer don’t want to close this loophole that will INSTANTLY transform America into a Utopia of hugs and kisses and puppies and fairy sprinkles. 

It’s not true. Any of it. And to prove it, I went through the process and documented everything to show you what happens. 

August 30, 2019 - 11:20pm: Surfing the internet, I saw an incredible offer for a handgun being offered at a legitimate gun store in Kansas. Put the item in my cart, checked out using a credit card.

Morning of August 31, 2019: read the confirmation email that asked me to have my local gun dealer contact the store in Kansas verifying that they are licensed to accept a mailed firearm & run a background check. I responded to the email w/ a general question about an ambiguous statement in the email that I needed to have clarified. 

Sept. 1, 2019: No response.

Sept. 2, 2019: No response.

Sept. 3, 2019: Still no response... resorted to being obnoxious and started faxing multiple copies of my email to the fax number on the Kansas store’s web site complaining that they aren’t answering emails. After about 12 faxes, they emailed me back answering my question. It turns out, my local gun store didn’t not have updated info on file and they needed to update their records. 

Sept. 3, 2019 - 10:34am: Called my local gun store and told them to call the store in Kansas to acknowledge my order and verify shipping to receive my order. The clerk at my local gun store told me that handguns are normally shipped via Fed Ex. 

Sept. 4, 2019 - 1:09pm: Received an e-mail from Kansas store. My gun has been shipped via 2-day air to my local gun store. Estimated delivery is Friday, Sept. 6, 2019. 

Sept. 6, 2019 - 12:20pm: Received text from USPS that my firearm was delivered to my local gun store. I get in the car and head on over. 

1:00pm: Clerk at the store said that just because they received the gun in the mail doesn’t mean that it’s ready to be transferred. He said they have to do some paperwork to document where the gun came from before they can transfer ownership to me.... I decide to go to lunch.

4:11pm: I’m back at the gun store. The clerk says the gun is in their system and they can start the process of transferring it over to me. I fill out the form for the BACKGROUND CHECK. Yes, you read that correctly. The BACKGROUND CHECK. 

Despite what every Democratic candidate is tweeting about right now, you cannot buy a gun on-line without going through a background check. There is no loophole here. I fill out the form and hand it in along with my DRIVER’S LICENSE... yes, you need ID to purchase an on-line firearm as well...and my concealed carry permit. Why did I hand in my permit? Because in Florida, if you have a CCP, the state waives the mandatory 3-day waiting period on handgun purchases. In 2018, Florida enacted a mandatory waiting period between the purchase and delivery of any firearm sold by a licensed firearm dealer. The mandatory waiting period is either 3 days, excluding weekends and holidays, or the time it takes to complete the required criminal background check—whichever occurs later; however, if you have a CCP, this is waived since you are fingerprinted in the CCP application process. I also had to pay $42 for the transfer fee and background check. 

4:39p: My background check came back as clear, and the gentleman handed me the box with my Sig Sauer P320 pistol in it. 

Total time to purchase the gun: about 7 days. 

Summary: Not a bad experience overall. Seven days could have been shorter if it wasn’t for the customer service issues I had at the beginning. I never got to speak to a live person at the store in Kansas despite leaving a voicemail. They did send me emails after I became a pain and tried to cripple their fax machine with nonsense, so it’s safe to say I won’t be shopping THERE anymore regardless of how good the deal is. I wanted to document this process to dispel a lot of the lies and purposeful misinformation that gets put out on Twitter and social media by the anti-gun crowd. Literally, 90% of what they say is inaccurate, false, or purposely deceptive. 

Conclusion: If you’re legally purchasing a gun, it’s probably LESS time consuming to do it locally (although it might be more expensive because you might find a better a deal on-line). If someone is going to commit a crime with a legally purchased weapon, there’s no point in going through the on-line transfer process because you save NO TIME and dodge NO RED TAPE. You’re adding shipping time, transfer time, multiple trips to the gun store, not to mention you’re dealing with multiple people AND the Post Office (which is a disaster for another column). Regulating the on-line market is just going to make it more difficult for patient, bargain-hunters to find a firearm, not impulsive mass shooters.