Video Shows Man's Easy Facebook Gun Purchase In South Carolina

A gun-owning man went viral after posting a video that showed how easy it is to obtain an AR-15 in South Carolina.

Coley Brown of Columbia, South Carolina, took to Facebook to share his gun purchasing experience online, saying: "I want to show you, in the state of South Carolina, how easy it is to buy an AR-15." Brown joined a closed Facebook group, dubbed "S.C. HUNTING stuff for Show-off or Discussion," to find the AR-15 he purchased in 18 hours. The group featured multiple images of guns, including a hunting rifle and a Glock pistol.

"In 18 hours, I found it [the AR-15] on the Internet on Facebook," Brown said in the video. "I went and bought it, paid cash, didn't get a receipt, nobody checked my driver's license, nothing. I don't even know the guy's name anymore."

"So whether I'm 16 years old or 49, it doesn't matter and its perfectly legal in South Carolina," he added.

The video shows Brown scrolling through the group, getting in contact with a local gun seller and negotiating a purchase price. He also made arrangements for a time and place to meet with the seller for the following to complete their deal.

"I got my deal," Brown said in the video. The seller wouldn't allow the buyer to record the transaction, but what the viewer does see is Brown's new AR-15.

"Gave him the money [and] he gave me an AR, added the sights, couple boxes of ammo, two 30-round clips and the 10 round clips in there [the gun]," Brown said.

The two-minute long video garnered more than 33,000 views, but many of viewers appeared to be critical of South Carolina's easy, breezy gun purchasing process. Several Facebook users, therefore, spoke out against the state's gun-buying laws in the post's comments section.

"I have 10 guns...rifles, handguns etc. I'm all for being able to own a gun," one user wrote. "But I’m definitely not for just anyone being able to buy an assault rifle out of the trunk of someone's car. I know the people do the killing and not the gun but that is just way too easy for a nut job or criminal to buy an assault rifle."

A second commenter expressed their shock, writing: "Wow! To hear about it is one thing, but to see it is another. Scary."

Brown's video depicts a legal transaction. Rifle and shotgun laws in South Carolina don't require individuals to have a permit to purchase, a permit to carry, a license to own or have the weapon registered. Sumter County Sheriff's spokesman Ken Bell even told WLTX, a South Carolina station, that "there's no law in South Carolina that prohibits individuals from buying or selling weapons between each other."