SAN JOSE — 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.”
Yes, this kind of “legal” action is still going in this country. “How dare the little people have guns when we can provide with security? We know what’s better for you?”
As for panic, do you really think there will be two guys fistacuffing each other for a box of 7.62 Russian Tula Ammunition? There is panic and then there is Walmart viral Video panic in the toilet aisle.
“I’ve seen people fighting over toilet paper. I’m worried what they will do out of desperation,” he said. “When people start looting stores and they don’t have access to food, they could come into the homes of those they feel are vulnerable. I’d rather be prepared.”
Which is why we have been preaching for a long time that should have forego the latest and best-est gadgets and utilize that money on guns, ammo and training.
I hope that lessons take on this new generation. I did not realize that the L.A. riots happened almost 28 years ago which is when a lot of people realized how desperately alone they were or they could be if a major social dislocation were to happen.
I leave you with this from Charlton Heston:
He recalled the Los Angeles riots in 1992, which helped many Hollywood folks change their views on gun ownership. As smoke from burning buildings smudged the skyline and the TV news showed vivid images of laughing looters smashing windows and carting off boom boxes and booze, Heston got a few phone calls from firmly anti-gun friends. One conversation went this way:
“Umm, Chuck, you have quite a few … ah, guns, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Shotguns and … like that?”
“Indeed.”
“Could you lend me one for a day or so? I tried to buy one, but they have this waiting period … ”
“Yeah, I know; I remember you voted for that. Do you know how to use a shotgun?”
“No, I thought maybe you could teach me. This is getting a little scary.”
“I noticed. I could teach you, but not in an hour. You might shoot yourself instead of the bad guys. The Marines are coming up from Pendleton; that’ll end it. When it does, go buy yourself a good shotgun and take some lessons. It doesn’t get so scary then.”
Heston said his friend writer-director John Milius had more calls. His answer was more forthright: “Sorry. They’re all being used.”
Hard to panic buy something when there’s a 10-day waiting period between purchase and pickup.
Fox News (“Special Report”) had a segment on this last night. Pretty well done. It showed plenty of black and female buyers, and a number of them mentioned the “I want to be prepared” theme.
It also had the obligatory big city left-wing sheriff claiming that guns aren’t useful. “They won’t put food on your table”. No, but they help keep it there.
I forgot to mention: a bit later in that program, in their daily “panel discussion”, Charlie Hurt of the Washington Times commented that this rush to buy guns is a “good sign” because it indicates that people are relying on their own efforts rather than expecting the government to do everything for them.
The WT is a conservative publication (unlike the far-left Post), but this was still a rare event. The panelists are usually big-city folks, and even if conservative politically tend not to advocate the right to bear arms. Some of them vocally hated it, Charles Krauthammer comes to mind.
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