How I Bought a Gun in 40 Minutes

Today I purchased a gun. I've never used a gun before, never even handled one, unless you count my little brother's BB gun 30 years ago.

I set out to buy a 9-mm Glock 17, the same model that George Hennard had used two days earlier in his massacre of 23 people in Killeen, 175 miles north of Houston. I called Carter's Country, a gun store, first. They did not carry it but suggested several stores, including Wal-Mart. I decided to try the chain but struck out at the first Wal-Mart I visited. "I don't stock them," said the salesman. "This...

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