Former President Barack Obama lied through his teeth Friday about U.S. gun laws, telling a crowd of Brazilians that they allow people to “buy any weapon, any time,” including the ability to buy guns online and even “buy machine guns."
“The most difficult day that I’ve had, was the day where there was a shooting at a school. Uh, where, 20 small children were shot, as well as some teachers,” Obama told his audience, referring to the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. “I had to go and comfort the parents.”
"Some of you may be aware our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense,” Obama said, “Anybody can buy any weapon any time — without much if any regulation, they can buy it over the Internet, they can buy machine guns."
Except that they can’t.
Not only is it blatantly false that U.S. gun laws allow “anybody” to “buy any weapon any time” (there's a whole slew of things that'll get you kicked off the clear-to-buy list), federal regulations bar anyone without a difficult-to-obtain federal firearms permit to purchase automatic firearms, or “machine guns.” Federal law also mandates that all guns purchased online must be shipped to a federally licensed firearms dealer to be picked up after the purchaser has completed all other requirements, such as background checks.
Then again, it's not like Obama is known for telling the truth, or understanding anything about guns.