Is this the American Experience?

I live in Australia and I recently moved state.
Australia has six states and one territory, with slightly different laws applying to the road rules and so on.

I was a pistol shooter in my old state, the process of obtaining my handgun license took almost two years, you have to be accepted by the club, be a member for at least six months and pass a gun safety course, practical course and written test.

Then you can buy certain calibre guns, after waiting up to 28 days and only through a dealer.

You have to keep it at home in a safe with 3 mm thick walls, with an alarm you have to be able to respond to 24 hours a day or monitored with a camera to a hard drive in another location.

Then you can only take the gun back to the range to take part in an official competition.

Of which you have to compete in a minimum number a year or the police come looking for you!

You can’t take it into the woods to shoot at stuff.

Anyway l am in a new state and enquiring about getting a handgun license, (they aren’t transferable).

Even more difficult AND you have to be fingerprinted as well.

I personally draw the line at this….

Do any American states have such strict requirements?

Which state is the strictest?

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

Interesting - I did not realise Australia like America has no cohesive, national gun laws either; though I knew they vary between the American States.

.....

A friend told me of an odd experience when visiting the USA (from England) with another friend, to attend an outdoor-pursuits symposium. This was probably in an area that sees few foreign tourists, most of whom are likely to go to the "honey pots" like Florida, New York and the Grand Canyon.

They befriended a local attendee who invited them back to his family's farm, where they were proudly shown the household arsenal. "Twenty a lot? Oh no!" their host said, "Some have far more guns than this!"

Next day, he recounted, he visited the local shop to buy replacements for the ammunition they'd been invited to expend on the farm's private range; and while he was at it, a couple of cans of beer.

The cashier had to refuse the beer because he could not prove his age. He'd left his passport at his hosts' and the shop assistant could not understand how the British driving-licence he did have with him, shows the holder's date of birth. (It is discreetly disguised in what looks just like a pure serial number, but the car-hire office staff would be familiar with foreign licences. of course.)

The ammunition? No problem, and him not only a stranger in town, but a foreign one where they probably see few foreigners!