Oct 15 (Reuters) – Andreyah Garland, a 44-year-old single mother of three daughters, bought a shotgun in May for protection in the quaint middle-class town of Fishkill, New York. She joined a new and fast-growing local gun club to learn how to shoot.
She has since applied for a pistol permit and constantly hunts for increasingly scarce ammunition – making three trips weekly to a local Walmart. “They’re always out,” she said.
Like legions of other first-time buyers who are contributing to record sales for the U.S. gun industry this year, Garland’s decision to take up arms is driven in part by disturbing news about the coronavirus pandemic, social unrest over police killings of Black people and a potentially contested election that many fear could spark violence.
“With everything going on around us,” she said, “you see a need.”
Don’t kid yourself….the need has always been there.
When Y2K fizzled into a nothingburger there was speculation that yard sales that spring would be a treasure trove of NIB generators, storage food, etc. Personally, I never saw it (at least not until years later) but it seems likely.
I wonder if in a year or two we’ll see a surge of pumpguns and 9mm pistols on the market as people get rid of that thing they bought in 2020, never used, and ‘just want it out of the house’. Buying opportunities may be coming.
Personally, I’m at the stage where an unfortunate rifle squad that lost their gear in a boating accident could completely re-arm themselves from me.
Unfortunately I am of the belief that (as the Democrat voters say about voting for Marxists) this time it will be different.
There will be no fire sales of unused weaponry, it’s about two weeks from when we may know for sure
I hope this is nothing more than a scare like the one that occurred when Obama took the Whitehouse in 2008, but my gut says different. Something is most certainly different in 2020 with the forces of Marxism on the march as well. It may be that mythical “Perfect Storm” finally coming after all!!!
While you cant believe the polls (Trump was double digit behind last time) as they are just more media manipulation, i dont think for a second that national elections are honest. I think thats what flabbergasted the Dims last time when the Donalcd pulled off the victory. They had only rigged what they thought they needed and came up short. They underestimated how much the nation hates the commie cunts. That wont happen again. The BS you see (no id needed, mail in, etc) is only what makes it into the public eye. Rem last time when the election machine software was found to be written by a strong Dim supporter. Did that change? Why isnt it in the ‘news’?
I dont expect a clear winner election night as both sides position themselves to go to the courts. Just please get this hottie Supreme confirmed so we can keep them in check at least until i die.
If she is trying for a common pistol or rifle caliber, good luck. Wal Mart stopped selling pistol ammo, except 22LR, and not much is there.
I believe the article referenced that she bought a shotgun.
Yeah; I heard that Wimp-World stopped selling ammo. Of course, this is a store that regards American flags as “seasonal items.” What can you expect.
It’s a virtual guarantee that neither side is going to accept the results of the election. Mail-in voting saw to that. This was by design.
All I can say is; “Stand by for heavy rolls as the ship comes about…”
“My gut” tells me the same thing. Don’t get pigeonholed thinking about guns and ammo. Think big picture. Think “months” at minimum…
I remember the lead up to Y2K and those memories make me smile. In the lead up to that none event, the media outdid itself in doom, gloom, end of the world stories. While I wasn’t silly enough to forgo taking precautions, I never really bought into the whole TEOTWAWKI vibe. Just like today, I don’t buy into the whole “If Biden wins, the Marxists will destroy America!” or “A win by Trump will turn America into a Fascist dictatorship!” rhetoric.
IMHO, the media has too much invested in stories like the election, Portland riots etc., not to embellish their reports. They need to pull in watchers/listeners/readers because they need to increase their ad revenue. The downside is when you see a news story about a horrific event (fire, flood, riot, etc.) again and again during a news cycle, that reporting affects your cognitive bias by turning it into a personal threat.
Yes, things could get “interesting” after the election. The trick is to figure out how interesting those times will be and what the effect will be on you and your situation then act accordingly.
“I remember the lead up to Y2K and those memories make me smile.”
Not to argue with you or demean your memory, but I had a different perspective. In 1998-1999 I was doing Y2K remediation (software engineer) and my colleagues and I saw firsthand many of the issues that arose during that time. Virtually none of those ever made it into public view since we were constrained by nondisclosure agreements to not speak publicly about them, but we did talk among ourselves about our experiences. For example, the company I worked at during that time ignored my recommendation to do a rollover test during a non-working weekend and did it on a weekday. They lost their entire print server network for almost 24 hours and no business (and hence no revenue) could be conducted until a the offending hardware was isolated and a Y2K-compliant replacement could be located, flown in from across the country, and installed. Not an end-of-the world thing like some predicted but rather a single failure that, if multiplied across hundreds of businesses (it was a very common model of router), could have had a cascade impact. That’s what had us all scared – not a catastrophic event but rather a “death by a thousand cuts” scenario. I’ve read that the biggest buyers of gold and survival food in 1999 were programmers. Can’t prove it, but it certainly would not surprise me…
ML7 I’ve heard the stories from friends who were in IT back then and, I know there were some serious issues. Hell, I remember the punch in the gut feeling in August of 1999 when our IT manager told me there was a good chance the computer-controlled intrusion alarm system would fail at midnight on Y2K. That, in a multi-billion dollar defence contractor facility, was enough to make a guy eat a bottle of Rolaids, But, thanks to the hard work of people like you, working behind the scenes, Y2K turned out to be a none event.
That brings me to the present.
While MSM and social media are propagating fear about the election, COVID-19, BLM and any other scary topic they can find, there are those working in the background to make sure things don’t go to hell.
Now I’m not saying bury your head in the sand. A risk mitigation strategy is always a handy thing if something should happen. But, your first task should be to filter out all the BS from MSM and social media and compare what you’re seeing to what’s going on in your vicinity then plan accordingly. Remember, news, by its definition, is the reporting of things that are not normal.
@ Mike –
Very well stated – thank you!! Your experiences show that you were one of those who had “been there, done that, got the T-shirt” and can translate that experience into today’s environment of mis-information and dis-information masking the efforts of those working behind the scenes to help keep things from devolving into uncontrolled demolition.
Your advice to view the world through the lens of what is actually going on around you, and not just relying on what the media spoon feeds you is very wise and sound. Use of that filter, coupled with a prudent fallback plan for mitigating unpleasant surprises, is very prudent and sensible. Kudos to you, sir!
try to remember General Gordon’s last words at the battle of Khartoum:
“I say Reggie, the beggars seem to be coming over the walls.”
The 1918 flu pandemic didn’t end until 1920 and then it takes a while to recognize that the horribleness is truly over and a little longer to adjust to the new normal. So, maybe we’ll see a lot NIB used guns on the market in 2022.
But, I have a feeling that there’s going to be a whole bunch of people that choose to stash a couple guns and a few boxes of ammo away just in case.
A stressed brain/mind is dim-witted, predictable, and easy to manipulate. No reason for the media and politicians to want us that way, is there? I would recommend two chill pills and a few days without tv/internet activity for the whole country. We’re being played like a fiddle.
I keep saying that the problem isn’t the election – it’s the dollar. The global reserve status is on it’s last breath, and when it goes – all of those dollars in foreign lands will come running home as fast as they can.
Ready for milk at $275 a gallon?
Hyperinflation here we come. The only difference is which path the country will take to resolve it, and THAT is dependent on the election.
Hyperinflation scares me more than a lot of other scenarios.
Me too. I lived in Moscow though their hyperinflation in the 90s. Best education I ever had. Otherwise ‘good people’ started doing very bad things. Couldn’t trust anyone. It was a very sad, paranoid situation to live in.
I really doubt there will be much of a “nearly NIB” sell-off. Too many have a new found awareness of just how fragile things are; the people who couldn’t find an “always available” commodity like toilet paper in April and who have seen lots of bare shelf space and higher prices on what is there ever since are not likely to forget that.
Y2K. Heh. I spent my New Year’s eve until sunrise babysitting several critical systems, and my phone started ringing at 0003. None of our stuff had problems, but there were quite a few small ancillary systems that puked at midnight. We had planned for that and added code to compensate for incomplete or incorrect time match on incoming data. That didn’t help everywhere – when the outside system cratered there was no incoming data, so we faked it with a correct time hack and a “no data submitted” default message. I do remember our field techs commenting about ATMs being repeatedly picked clean the last few days of the year.
During Hurricane season, returned gensets or used ones come on the market at the end of the year. I don’t know why people don’t hang onto them, it’s not like hurricane season won’t be back next year… weapon, it’d be nice to pickup some on sale after then unpleasantness subsides (perhaps wishful thinking) a friend who deals in weapons is actively buying selling, even ammo. One thing the media has done is help other family members get more on board with being more prepared. I get asked about storing x and I’m like; finally you understand – does this mean you’ll stop complaining about me buying extra (insert thing currently hard to get here.)