Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.
Various outlets (Saw this at a few other places but this was the first one I linked to) are reporting that Black Friday Friday Of Color saw a tremendous surge in gun sales…so much so that the NCIC ‘instant background check’ system became a good bit less than instant. I was doing a check for a customer Friday and the drone on the end of the phone was completely flustered that her system wasnt responding. In fact, it was so chaotic that the ‘examiner’ deviated from their oh-so-carefully scripted interaction several times with exclamations of frustration.
Now, I’m not really a conspiracy guy, but I am a guy who is open to exploring all possibilities in the interest of being prepared. If transactions from a dealer require a background check, and that system is ‘down’ for some reason (or it is claimed to be down), then you effectively shut down new gun sales for at least the three-day wait. Of course, in states where having something like a carry permit preclude the need for the NCIC check you’ll still be able to purchase your new thundertoy, and, of course, private transactions will still be exactly that.
Additionally, ignoring the conspiracy angle, record-breaking gun purchases, even on a day known for heavy discounts, should still tell you something: the natives are restless. I always view gun sales as a highly cynical form of ‘consumer confidence’ and ‘leading economic indicator’. Right or wrong, when folks are feeling threatened..by their government, by the economy, by their neighbors…they want a gun. Record purchases, to me, mean record levels of uncertainty about the future. I’m sure that I’m reading too much into it, but when folks were relatively pleased with the government, gun bans weren’t whispering in the breeze, and the economy wasnt sucking wind, you didnt see near the amount of weapons stockpiling.
Not that there’s anything wrong with stockpiling, mind you. It’s just that this is a horrible, horrible time to be doing it….it shoulda been done years ago.
