From Mercury News:
Coronavirus: San Jose orders gun store to close in one of first enforcement against businesses open under shelter order
Willow Glen gun shop stayed open, then ordered closed, with modest fanfare; police say they focused on warnings and education for suspected violations of stay-at-home order
As Bay Area business owners navigated the labyrinthine rules of the sweeping shelter-in-place order implemented Monday, many gun dealers across the region opted to stay open this week, amid a spike in sales apparently driven by fears over the coronavirus pandemic.
But after customers lined up around gun stores in several counties Tuesday — including outside the Bullseye Bishop in San Jose — San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo declared that “gun stores are non-essential.”
“We are having panic buying right now for food,” Liccardo said Wednesday. “The one thing we cannot have is panic buying of guns.”
The panic buying of guns seems to be driven by politicians and bureaucrats announcing that the police will not arrest people for a wide array of crimes and will go so far as to release suspects awaiting trial and even convicted criminals as a reaction fo the Coronavirus.
Naturally, with the police standing down and criminals giving generous immunity, people want to protect themselves.
Being unable to ban guns, these governments are now taking the step of forcing gun stores to close as “non-essential.”
San Jose is the first reported that I’ve seen, but expect this to spread rapidly across the country.
With the Left’s beloved criminals roaming the streets, the most dangerous thing for them is armed citizens willing to protect themselves because they know the police are not coming.
This is why you shouldn’t wait for a crisis to own guns and ammo. They are something you need on hand before the crisis occurs. By then, it will be too late.
I suspect when this blows over, there is going to be a spike in gun sales that dwarfs the Hillary spike and a run on CCW permits that makes post 9/11 look like a hiccup.
The Left went overboard, suspending arrests and releasing criminals. I think a lot of Americans who are not totally dyed-in-the-wool Leftists are going to take the need for preparedness, including guns, as the big lesson of this event.
The powers that be don’t want any more pictures of “roof top Koreans” being circulated. What they don’t understand is that most people that feel the need to defend themselves, their families and their property in a crisis already have the necessary tools. Those that are “panic” buying, are those that up to now thought the PoPo would protect them. They are starting to get the clue bat of reality up side the head. Whether that changes how they vote in future, remains to be seen.
You mean like how the Katrina Jackboot Fest flipped New Orleans red?
Oh wait….
I don’t have any hope left that anything close to a majority of the inhabitants of deep blue shitholes are going to change a single thing about the vermin they put in charge of themselves.
From your lips to God’s ears.
The people “panic”-buying guns now are the ones that have had blinders on for years, if not their whole lives.
Some of them have broken suction, and pulled their heads out.
They won’t be going back to live in the Gun-Free Zone vote plantation when this is over. One tiny silver lining in this whole mess.
Before I rush to judgement, I would be interested in see if there are other “non-essential” shops that were not ordered closed. I can think of a lot of stuff that might stay open, thinking they are essential, but are not really. Hardware stores spring to mind.
IF this is being universally applied, I can live with it. However, odds are San Jose “leadership” is just taking this time to prove they have the bigger….
I would argue that some government bureaucrat has no idea what essential means if they close hardware stores. Lowes and Home Depot sell bleach and cleaning supplies. What happens if my window breaks and can’t get a repair man? I will need plywood to board it up. Hardware stores are just as critical.
This is indeed Heinlein’s “The Crazy Years.”
So, all the people who rushed to the gun stores last week, now won’t be able to pick up their guns after the mandated 10-day waiting period (this is California)? What a coincidence!
Are the law offices and courts open? This looks like a deliberate suppression of civil rights.
It would be interesting to sue the bastards on the grounds that the Constitution trumps their petty local closure orders.
Sorry, but the whole selling point of the 10-day “cooling off” waiting period was that it makes sure someone can’t buy a gun in a fit of rage, or depression, or … wait for it … panic.
Of course, lots of people making a latecoming but thanks-to-a-10-day-wait-by-definition-thoughtful decision is just as unacceptable to the powers that be (or would be), it seems.
It’s been a while since Cali has had organized Vigilance Committees.
I strongly suspect they will be making a comeback in the next few weeks.
If the government officials would have just left the firearms sales alone, instead of shutting them down; then after the panic, people would’ve probably mostly gone back to doing things the way they had before.
But now a higher percentage of those folks are not just going to be average gun owners with 1-2 firearms and a couple of boxes of ammo collecting dust on a shelf. They’re going be hardcore gun owners and shooters with 5+ firearms with 100’s or even 1’000s of rds for each weapon.