
US sales of guns and ammunition soar amid coronavirus panic buying - sorokod
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/us-sales-guns-ammunition-soar-amid-coronavirus-panic-buying
======
skrowl
A lot of media trying to push this as hillbillies/rednecks wanting to defend
their hoard of toilet paper are short-sighted.

Panic & fear cause people to make unpredictable poor decisions, and you never
know if that could affect you and your family. In the USA, you have a right to
defend yourself and these people are just choosing to do that. Please don't
demonize them for just wanting to protect themselves and their families.

Be safe and watch out for each other.

~~~
gus_massa
Having a gun in your home also increase the probability that one of your kids
can find it and kill another of your kids by accident. It is a tradeoff.

~~~
chrisco255
Respect for firearms is an extremely important skill to teach a child. Having
grown up hunting, this was taught to me at a very young age. But more kids die
from drowning in pools than from accidental firearm discharges, and it's also
important to teach your child water safety and swimming skills.

~~~
gus_massa
I agree. Swimming pools are more dangerous than the people realize. Never left
the children unattended nearby a swimming pool.

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fre3k
Personally I've been wanting to do a bulk ammo buy for a while, and realized
there was going to be a run so I dumped 1000 bucks into some ammo for all the
calibers I own.

I'm also in the process of building an AR-10, and have slowly been
accumulating parts. Decided to pull the trigger on some of the more expensive
parts this week because I caught some good deals.

It's not all panic buying.

~~~
time0ut
I was going to put an order in cause I've got a couple shoots coming up.
Everything was in stock Friday. I went to buy today and everything but some of
the more obscure cartridges are sold out. It is pretty crazy.

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phs318u
As a non-American, I’m imagining this scene playing out with armed people.

[https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/03/07/coronavi...](https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/03/07/coronavirus-
toilet-paper-fight/)

Far from making fun of Americans, I am scared for them. This crisis has
already proven how irrational people can be, and rapidly we revert to basic
tribalism, giving in to base instincts. Adding (even more) guns to this mix is
a bad sign. But in an environment where trust in authority has been
systematically destroyed, it is, a sadly understandable response.

Stay safe, and remember that most of the people you might be defending
yourselves from are probably just as desperate (if not more so) than you.

~~~
throwaway17767
you're afraid people will murder each other in times of strife?

if you really think this will devolve into violence, then you aught to
understand what the firearms are being bought for. it's not to go mad max on
somebody.

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HarryHirsch
Trust in the system is at an all-time low. At Amherst College, the
administration decided shortly before Spring Break that students should not
return after the break in order not to bring back coronavirus to campus and
spread it there. There would be accommodations when necessary.

There was a sit-in to protest against the very sensible decision. One would
think that at the second-best college in the nation the administration would
be aware that some students may have difficulties coming up with emergency
funds for travel, that there may be travel bans or that some students might
not wish to return to unstable living conditions at home. But the students did
not trust the system to work for them.

Some stage sit-ins, others buy firearms.

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sorokod
In a stressed society with low friction access to fierams, buying an assault
rifle is just working your way towards Nash equilibrium.

Terrifying.

~~~
mindcrime
Do you mean an _actual_ assault rifle, or just a "scary black gun" that is
functionally equivalent to any other modern semi-automatic hunting rifle (and
shoots lower powered rounds than many common hunting rifles)?

If it's the former, there's nothing low-friction about it. You have to fill
out more forms, pay more money, get more background checks, etc. etc., yadda
yadda, and you can't buy any such weapon manufactured after 1986.

[https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/its-still-legal-to-
own-a-...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/its-still-legal-to-own-a-
machine-gun-its-also-extremely-difficult-and-especially-expensive)

~~~
sorokod
I meant an actual Nash equilibrium.

My experience of firearms is limited to three years in the (not US) military
so I'll deffer to you on comparative merits of semi automatic vs hunting
rifles available to civilians on the US market.

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dekalbcountyman
Post your loadouts HN

Primary : MK18 BLOCK 3 URGI
([https://i.redd.it/tgnpp2xi82q11.png](https://i.redd.it/tgnpp2xi82q11.png))
Secondary: Roland Special

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debian3
During that time in Canada we buy toilet paper...

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uyuioi
The USA is absurd.

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allovernow
Between the economy, the oil price war, the politicization of politics, and
most pressingly the virus, 2019ncov is proving to be the potential trigger for
wide scale geopolitical change and possibly insecurity. States are going to go
into quarantine one by one with little to no coordination. Governments and law
agencies will be commandeering emergency powers. We are sitting on a major
pressure point and it's impossible to predict the outcome, but there is a high
likelihood of political instability and/or violence, even within America.

If the economy doesn't recover soon, people are going to grow increasingly
hungry and desperate without radical federal measures. It is prudent to be
prepared to defend yourself now because this is shaping up to be the kind of
scenario where you really cannot rely on first responders to protect you.

Edit: I meant "polarization of politics" but autocorrect may be hinting at
something profound...

~~~
HarryHirsch
_politicization of politics_

That's a good one, it reveals an unexpected, deep truth.

