This is from Democrat Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania:

Right now in America, it is easier to get an AR-15 than a test kit for COVID-19.

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) March 13, 2020

Did I miss something?

There is a shortage of COVID-19 test kids for a variety of reasons.  The CDC tried to come up with its own test, which was a disaster of false positives.

There are critical shortages of the reagents for the tests, one of the suppliers is in Germany and is prioritizing shipments to European countries (more Buy American, anybody?).

New tests have to be verified and approved by the FDA, which in all fairness they are trying to do speed up the process for.

There are a number of bottlenecks in the process, including the limited number of suppliers, suppliers being overseas, the need for FDA approval and verification of the test, etc.

Lastly, it’s just hard to adequately prepared for something like this.  Unless you have a warehouse containing 150 million tests for US use only, when you have a pandemic explode in six weeks, and the demand rapidly exceeds supply, shortages will happen.

Now compare that to the AR-15.

The design has been around since 1956 and has been commercially available since 1963.

During the Obama years and leaving up to the expected election of Hillary Clinton, fears of a ban drove sales, which caused a temporary shortage of AR-15 and prices rose.

The market responded with every machine shop that was run by a gun nut getting an FFL and starting a black rifle company.  The list is so long I’ve lost track. It’s a lot easier to get an FFL than it is to become an FDA approved manufacturer of medical tests.

Also, the ATF doesn’t have to test and approve your black rifle for sale.  (If you wanted to do something different, like create the pistol brace, you can ask for clarification before you sell, but there is no ATF equivalent to an FDA approval process).

When Trump was elected, the demand dropped and the market responded with a glut of cheap AR-15s.   So many low-cost ARs hit the market that manufacturers like Colt and Bushmaster dropped out of the civilian AR-15 game because they couldn’t compete on price.

Welcome to the cycle of supply and demand and the effect of regulatory bottlenecks.

As for the ease of individual purchase.

The 4473 NICS was launched in 1998.  You have to pass that to buy an AR-15, assuming you can afford one.

As far as I’m aware, you don’t have to be a law-abiding US citizen and go through a background check to get a viral swab.

There are restrictions on who can get COVID-19 tests because the shortage has caused prioritization to three classes of high-risk individuals.

1. 1. Hospitalized patients who have signs and symptoms compatible with COVID-19 in order to inform decisions related to infection control.

   2. Other symptomatic individuals such as, older adults (age ≥ 65 years) and individuals with chronic medical conditions and/or an immunocompromised state that may put them at higher risk for poor outcomes (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, receiving immunosuppressive medications, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease).

   3. Any persons including healthcare personnel, who within 14 days of symptom onset had close contact with a suspect or laboratory-confirmedCOVID-19 patient, or who have a history of travel from affected geographic areas within 14 days of their symptom onset.

Lastly, you still have a Constitutional right to an AR-15.

In a nutshell, there is absolutely no legal, regulatory, or marker reason that it should be harder to get an AR-15 than a COVID-19 test, except in the deranged mind of a Democrat who insists on Tweeting nonsensical garbage to demonstrate just how much he hates guns.