I've got a conservative brother-in-law who has been a federal government employee for 25+ years, here in Alabama, and recently was asking me about buying his first gun, actually for his wife. He had researched it and thought the S&W EZ380 would be good for her, which I agreed with fully. I am pretty sure his wife is pushing for it, as he travels out of town to Washington DC very often.
That said, my BIL was under all sorts of mistaken impressions about gun laws here in Alabama. He thought he had to have a pistol permit to BUY a gun. Then he thought he had to wait 30 days after he bought it before he could take it home. I basically told him, no, no and NO to all that crap - that here in the great state of Alabama at least, he could purchase a firearm and take it home that same day, if he passed the background check, and no permit to purchase was required - only for concealed carry. This is a guy has had a top secret clearance for 25 years, so I am pretty sure he will pass any background checks. And I went on to say that even in anti-gun California, there was no 30 day waiting period, other than for buying multiple handguns out on the left coast.
So, to me this was a lesson to me that even politically conservative folks who have never purchased a firearm or been around them much can be VERY misinformed by what they hear on TV and see on the news. This also shows me why my mother in law gave me all the firearms when my father in law passed away, instead of to her own son....
She kept a .38 revolver for her nightstand, and gave me the rest.
