Your point that you can't (legally) buy guns on the Net was so painfully obvious I didn't feel any need to belabor it. I moved on to the salient fact that you can still buy guns illegally online.

One area where I was remiss was in not commenting on the ease of buying ammo (though in another comment I talked to Jody about that). I was appalled by the easy access at Gander Mountain, and some of the ammo offered gives the lie to "sports hunting". Who exactly needs military-grade shotgun shells? Are the pellets made of depleted uranium? And how many rifles are manufactured in America to use NATO-standard 5.62 and 7.62 rounds? And are deer really so dangerous that you need to spend $7,000 on a sniper scope so can stand off safely a couple of miles?

Need I mention the high-capacity magazines? Read a report just now on nytimes.com about a site called woot.com that advertises a 100-round drum magazine this way: “Just the ticket, should things really heat up and the lead needs to fly. Of course, this means less time spent reloading, and more time for shooting as fast as you can pull the trigger.” Perfect for the sportsman who needs to bring down an entire herd of deer.

I think it's way too late to close the gun control barn door. When you can get everything except the gun itself online with no restrictions, there's effectively no gun control.

When you were a kid, did you learn how to make a "zip gun"? I did, and all the kids I knew did. As long as you can get ammo, you can find a way to fire it. With a piece of pipe, a rubber band, and a nail, you can make a "gun" that will work at least once. And for most homicidal purposes, that's all you need.

'Course, if your aim is mass murder, an AR15 is much more efficient.