An avid gun owner proved just how easy it is to obtain an AR-15 rifle in his home state of South Carolina.

According to Columbia resident Coley Brown, 49, he was able to purchase the weapon - the same that was used by gunman Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 students at teachers in last week's Florida school shooting - in just 18 hours and without any kind of background checks.

A video filmed by Brown and posted on his Facebook page on February 16 shows him scrolling through a Facebook group of gun enthusiasts where people sell their guns without explicitly saying that's what they're doing. Instead, the alleged sellers instruct anyone interested to message them privately.

According to Columbia, South Carolina, resident Coley Brown, 49, he was able to purchase an AR-15 through Facebook - no questions asked

After messaging a couple of the gun owners, Brown gets a reply from a man who lives in Loris.

The two men have a brief chat in which the unnamed gun owner shares details of his AR-15 with Brown.

‘He’s asking a little but too much money for it but he’s hurting for cash so I'll bid him up a little bit,' Brown says, without specifying the amount the man wants.

The two then make plans to meet up the next day to complete the transaction.

'That’s the plan: get some cash, go to Loris after he gets off work, see if we can make a deal,' says Brown.

The next day, Brown appears pulling up to a church where he is to meet the man and says he will film the encounter if the man allows it.

By the next frame, the AR-15 is sitting in Brown's car.

A video filmed by Brown shows him scrolling through a Facebook group of gun enthusiasts where people sell their guns without explicitly saying that's what they're doing

After messaging a couple of the gun owners, Brown gets a reply from a man who lives in Loris and the two plan to meet the next day for the transaction

‘There he goes, here’s what we got - gave him the money, he gave me the AR, he added the sights, couple boxes of ammo, 230-round clips and the 10-round clips in there.

'Looks like a costume stock too,' says Brown.

Then, back in Columbia, Brown is seen shooting his new gun.

‘So there you have it. In 18 hours, I found it on the internet on Facebook. I went and bought it, paid cash, didn’t get a receipt, nobody checked my driver’s licence. Nothing. Don’t even know the guy’s name anymore.

'Gave him the money, he gave me the AR, he added the sights, couple boxes of ammo, 230-round clips and the 10-round clips in there,' says Brown

Brown adds: In 18 hours, I found it on the internet on Facebook. I went and bought it, paid cash, didn’t get a receipt, nobody checked my driver’s licence. Nothing. Don’t even know the guy’s name anymore

'So whether I'm 16 years old or 49, it doesn’t matter. It is perfectly legal in South Carolina So if you like that freedom, wonderful, if you don’t like that freedom, your state legislators can change it.'

South Carolina gun laws allow a resident of any state to 'purchase rifles and shotguns in this state if the resident conforms to applicable provisions of statutes and regulations of this state, the United States, and of the state in which the person resides.'

No permit is necessary to buy a firearm.

Facebook, on its part, does not allow the purchase, sale or trade of firearms.