A couple Sundays ago, I saw that Runnings was limiting ammo purchases to five boxes of shells per customer. I only noticed because Runnings was stocking bullets by the checkout aisles with the candy and other impulse purchases.
First, impulse is a really bad reason to buy ammunition.
Second… five boxes? 100 rounds for $85? That’s a lot of sandwiches and toilet paper you’re giving up for comfort shells that will sit on your shelf gathering dust right through next year, when we finally get the shots we need, from scientists.
Third, just whom do you think you’re going to shoot in the coming weeks? Frito banditos raiding your snack cache? Covid-19 carriers lurching up the street to hawk killer loogies on your lawn? Pish tosh: coronavirus is driving crime rates down across the country; it’s even putting the pinch on the Italian Mafia. In general, the only trouble that’s up is domestic disturbances and violence… and do we really want more guns mixed into those situations?
The last thing you need during the current public health emergency is a gun. As is the case in almost every situation, science and good sense will do far more to help you avoid sickness and deal with the economic downturn than will firearms and ammunition.
But let’s indulge the folks who are obsessing over the Second Amendment even as the nation and the world try to fry the much bigger fish of a tiny virus that cannot be stopped by bullets. Gun lobbyists have gotten the White House to deem gun shops part of the essential businesses that should not be shut down by state and local coronavirus protection orders. Gun advocates make the not unreasonable point that “Just because we’re in a pandemic, American rights do not go away.”
Before you go to court, however, to keep your favorite gun shop open, consider that gun stores are not covered by the Second Amendment. The Constitution guarantees your right to keep and bear arms. It does not guarantee your right to buy them from a beautifully arranged retail arsenal any day and any hour. It does not guarantee your right to crowd in with dozens of other gun enthusiasts in the midst of a pandemic that we’re trying to contain by reducing human contact.
Closing a store does not take guns out of anyone’s hands. It just means you need to be good stewards of what you have. And instead of lining up shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of virus vectors and and putting yourself, your enighbors, and your gun store’s employees at risk, you should talk to your dealer about setting up curbside pickup, or even at home delivery in a nice sanitized box.
Gun stores are not essential. If we reach the point where we can’t survive if we can’t get to the Runnings gun counter… well, we’ll have reached the point where store closures and city ordinances and executive orders won’t matter anyway, and we’ll all be shooting (or knifing, or duking) it out for whatever scraps are left of a collapsing society.
Estate sales will have plenty of low bidders. Thanks Covid-19!
If we head towards anarchy we have the right to defend. Record number of guns sold in March not one mass shooting..
Cory how do you plan to keep guns away from felons? This has been illegal for years and they still seem to be able to acquire them.
Just a point – you are likely talking about “ammunition” or “cartridges” not bullets. Bullets are part of finished ammunition. You can buy them separately, if you want, but they aren’t the same. :-)
Sam2 – If anarchy ensues – NO ONE will be a criminal. In addition – there will be no rights – as the constitution will be out the window. There will be no law. So pick one, anarchy or felons?? And as Cory notes – crime is way down. So, can we assume you are truly betting on anarchy? What? In the age of Trump? Is that what you feel he hath wrought?
Oh, and BTW – there were 29 mass shootings in March, and so far in April, 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2020
If ammosexuals were really so tough they wouldn’t panic at the mention of a tiny virus and feel the need to load up on shells.
Self-defense is a sham n this case. Crime is down. There’s no empirical reason to feel more in danger. Folks stockpiling ammunition seem more likely to use that ammunition to threaten others instead of calmly working with their neighbors, from a distance, to make sure everyone’s basic needs are met.
Guns are a radical statement of misguided rugged individualism and thus undermine the social fabric.
Mr. Stunes is correct. But if Runnings is selling 30-30 cartridges there right next to the licorice to entice the few Marlin lever-action owners to stock up at a bargain price, what we really need to worry about is a bunch of latter-day Josh Randalls sporting Mare’s legs in a more effective in overcoming social distances 44-40 caliber.
grudznick agrees with Mr. H. Stop being insaner than most, people.
A bullet, no matter the fancy names ascribed to it, was originally designed to kill people. In today’s pandemic people aren’t rushing out to buy new deer or squirrel guns. They claim they want them to kill other humans, even if they dress up their murderous thoughts in terms of self defense. imho.
According to reports, those who suffer from the virus go into hallucinations with their fever. So now, overburdened first responder’s will have that to consider when they go to take the old paranoids to the hospital. I’d leave’um and come back in August.
Some, like this dead dope, think the virus is still a hoax. Should be able to purchase her gun(s) at a discount, after you wait until the virus has cleared from them. Just wait, there will be bargains on these things, like two for one sales.
Karen Sehlke wrote in part:
Wake up!!! This is what the beginning of socialism looks like!
…
They are leading with fear causing you to panic like sheep.
… You don’t need hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and Lysol. You need common sense, a sense of direction, faith, a will to fight, and of course guns!
Now wash your hands and live the life they don’t want you to have!
Source: Texas Woman Who Claimed COVID-19 Was ‘Media Driven’ Hoax Dies From Virus | Michael Stone”
Well, there you have it. By all means, buy them babies up by the ton, overwhelm yourselves with them. Guard your telly! Be like Karen!!
In response to Jerry’s “Wake up!!!”, an unrelated wake up call: https://web.archive.org/web/20030213221636/http://www.hexagonsun.com/
Keep your Mare’s legs close tonight, boys.