Skip to content

Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2021

Is Brie cheese made with unpasteurized milk illegal in the US, while a machine gun with six rotating barrels is legal?

Dean Miller, Lead Stories
no

A social media post that attempts to make a point by comparing food and fire arms regulations leaves out important context.

Both Brie and machine guns are regulated.

Since 1986 federal law has forbidden importation of French Brie made with unpasteurized milk. But, a U.S. resident of any age can make any cheese they want, including Brie, with raw milk. Plus, most U.S. groceries stock domestic Brie made with pasteurized milk.

Meanwhile, automatic weapons can only be owned or made by U.S. adults who pass strict requirements for a Federal Firearms License, which can take months.

According to the most recent federal statistics, in 2019 there were 52,193 individuals (out of the 2019 U.S. population of 328.2 million) with the Federal Firearms License required to legally own a fully automatic firearm.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.