For example, contrast the UK, which in addition to outright banning most firearms such as handguns, requires a "good reason" to issue a firearms permit - and things like self defense are not considered acceptable reasons [2].
[0] https://injury.findlaw.com/product-liability/gun-laws.html
[1] https://consumer.findlaw.com/consumer-transactions/private-g...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_the_Uni...
2. Next to no checks. I looked at comments challenging my assertion and did a quick bit of research, finding articles such as [1] which suggests there are minimal checks that consume very little time. As far as I can tell, the checks are based on whether you've previously committed crimes which ignores whether you're likely to commit a crime with a gun in the future (such as the 2019 El Paso shooting). More alarmingly, I found suggestions that these checks are optional and performed at the discretion of the seller, although I didn't pursue it further to corroborate the claims.
What about the quote was false?
This is false.
One has to pass a federal background check and some states have additional checks and restrictions as well.