The following snippets came from The Trace, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of guns in the United States.
The gun companies defying a stock market shock
Business closures and lockdowns have dealt withering blows to the economy. But after roughly two straight weeks of stock market declines, the nation’s three publicly traded gun companies have posted dramatic gains.
American Outdoor Brands, the parent company of Smith & Wesson; Vista Outdoor, which owns several ammunition companies; and Sturm, Ruger & Co. all posted dramatic gains through the past week. As of March 17, American Outdoor Brands showed the strongest weekly change in stock price — a more than 40 percent increase — of any company in the Electronic Technology sector, which includes brands like Texas Instruments and Apple.
“There’s so much money to be made in making the population fearful of its individual security.” – Caroline Light, Harvard professor whose field of study includes “America’s love affair with armed self-defense”
And already …
Police say a man in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who armed himself with a shotgun “due to the coronavirus that was going around,” unintentionally killed his 13-year-old cousin, believing it wasn’t loaded.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, a dispute between roommates over coronavirus restrictions led one to shoot and kill the other in self-defense, authorities said.
A man in North Carolina killed his wife and five other family members before turning the gun on himself.
A roving active shooter killed four people, including a police officer, and wounded a civilian and another officer in Missouri.
“They’re guarding their toilet paper, pretty much.” – Marty Patterson, assistant manager of National Armory in Moon, Pennsylvania, on the surge of coronavirus-related gun-buying.
We don’t need a virus to kill us … we’re just going to kill each other.
Instructions by the Numbnuts Community Citizens’ Committee to its card and gun carrying members.
‘The moment, the very moment you hear someone cough or sneeze this will be the procedure.
1. Call out to the perpetrator ‘Step away from that infected area..Now! For on the count of five I will fire!’
2. Count to five. (1-2-3-4-5)
3. Aim your semi-automatic into the infected area and lay down an arc of suppressing fire for a count of ten (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10). For it has be proven that no germ, bacteria or virus has a defence against a bullet.
If the law agencies should arrive display this card with these instructions to them.
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Ahhhh … full instructions on a little card they can carry with them at all times. Aren’t we all lucky. I’m renouncing my citizenship in hopes that they will deport me … anywhere is fine, as long as it isn’t here.
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Actually they have to go around in groups of three
One to read out the instructions
One to do the counting
And the lucky one does the shootin’
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Makes perfect sense … rather like that old “How many Polloks does it take to change a light bulb”!
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And in some really organised communities they have an ‘evangelical’ pastor to bless the gun and call down the Lord’s Wrath on any liberal who sneezes.
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‘Twouldn’t surprise me one bit.
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when I first read your opening sentence I couldn’t tell if The Trace was pro-gun or pro-gun control. So I went to their web site, and I love what they are doing. Thanks for making me aware of it. It is just a crazy world out there; I guess with all the covid-19 stuff, I had not heard about the Missouri shootings. Such a sad time in our country…
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I didn’t realize it until you commented, but my opening line was vague … I guess I wasn’t thinking that The Trace isn’t really mainstream and many may not be familiar with it. They definitely do some good things and it’s a source of valuable information. You’re right … there is no news other than coronavirus these days, yet people are shooting others, people are dying in car accidents, North Korea is lobbing bombs into the ocean, and immigrants are dying at our southern border. But, the U.S. has a one-track mind, I guess. I keep going out in search of the obscure that would have once been front-page headlines, but have now been relegated to below-the fold on page 26.
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And I am grateful to you for keeping me informed!
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😊 I try.
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😞
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Quite so. 😞
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You are way ahead of me today! I was going to forward The Trace to you and mention having read Caroline E. Light’s 2017 book “Stand Your Ground”. Though it is at times difficult to read, if you want to keep abreast of what is happening in America’s gun violence crisis The Trace is the best source to do so. In the midst of a pandemic, Americans are stockpiling toilet paper and guns! MAGA…a roll of toilet paper in one hand and a gun in the other! Thank-you!
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Ah, this one hit my email … I think on Friday, maybe Saturday a.m., and you know that guns in the hands of civilians is one of my pet peeves, so I just had to let loose a little bit. In the words of Peter, Paul and Mary, “When will they ever learn?” I just asked Miss Goose, my resident artist, if she thought she could draw somebody holding a roll of tp in one hand and a gun in the other, and she said she’d see what she could come up with. Thanks for the idea!
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Your last sentence says it all!
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Yeah … sadly.
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Surprised they haven’t gone round trying to shoot the virus yet.
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Oh don’t give them ideas, please! They’re just crazy enough to try it! While it’s in somebody’s body!
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If the gun lovers would like to kill each other off and just leave the place for the sane………there’ll be some room to spread Or leave.. Last one there turn the light out.
Cwtch
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Nah, they won’t kill each other, for they’re afraid of the other guy with a gun, so they kill innocent children in schools and passersby on the streets, shoppers in a Wal-Mart. Fools!
Cwtch
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That is why they have lock downs and martial law. People will kill themselves and each other, long before the virus does. Such a horrible species we are!
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Yup!
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The least noble of any species, in my book, and we’re definitely showing our worst side these days!
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Nature’s way of culling the herd… zombie apocalypse and all. 😉
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Hmmmm. It’s not the gunlovers who are dying, but the gunhaters. Is that how you want the herd culled? I hope not.
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Au contraire, live by the gun die by gun. As per Jill’s post, morons killing each other off over toilet paper, silly arguments, accidental discharge…. hence zombie apocalypse, humanity’s consciousness level too low to sustain life, then nature has built in cleansing mechanisms like coronavirus. We either survive together as a species, or die apart. Nature is not good or bad, but it ALWAYS win.
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I’m with rg on this … culling the herd to leave only the gun nuts??? Whatever happened to ‘survival of the fittest’, the laws of nature? Oh … yeah … humans make their own laws, completely disregarding the laws of nature … until one day, nature fights back … and not with an AR-15, but with a microscopic little creature …
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Just think of it as robust competition for the 2020 Darwin Awards.
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Excellent point!
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It’s really too bad. I once lived with an ex-Marine gundealer whom I met in martial arts class (oh, the stupidity and bravado of youth), and having guns all over the place, including wearing them, got tired and tiring after a while. It completely escalated things. If there was no gun, we were okay martial artists, so maybe a little above the average thug on the street, but when wearing a gun, that was always an option. Yuck. I did not kill anyone with guns and am glad.
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The U.S. is the only nation on earth that has such a ‘gun culture’ and frankly, if there is any one part of the U.S. Constitution I would like to throw out, it’s the 2nd Amendment. You have lived an interesting life, my friend.
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