A Chicago journalist set out to prove last year just how easy it was for anyone to buy an “assault rifle.” In the process, the gun store rejected him for failing his background check — to which he concluded that the store held him to a different standard than “the American public.”
Neil Steinberg, a journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times, tried to buy a semi-automatic rifle at Maxon Shooter’s Supplies in Des Plaines, Illinois, following the Orlando nightclub massacre, to prove how easy it was to obtain an “assault rifle.”
To make the purchase, Steinberg needed a Firearm’s Owners’ Identification Card (FOID), which he had, and he needed to fill out the background check forms that are required to buy a firearm.
During the 24-hour waiting period, the gun store informed Steinberg that he was not legally eligible to purchase the gun because he failed his background check due to “an admitted history of alcohol abuse, and a charge for domestic battery involving his wife.”
In his article, Steinberg tried to dismiss the reason why he was rejected by trying to claim that terrorists could buy guns but reporters could not.
“Would-be terrorists can buy guns. Insane people can buy guns. But reporters . . . that’s a different story,” Steinberg wrote.
Steinberg also claimed that the standards applied to him by the gun store were not the same standards applied to the American public — despite offering no proof to validate his claims.
“Were that same standard applied to the American public, there would be a whole lot fewer guns sold,” Steinberg continued. “Besides, they knew I planned to immediately sell it back to them.”