Any excuse to arm up, I guess:
As healthcare workers lined up outside of hospitals in personal protective equipment preparing to risk their lives for COVID-19 patients, Americans across the country lined up in front of gun shops.
The New York Times reported that 2 million guns were sold in the U.S. in the month of March alone—the second-busiest for gun sales after December 2012, the month of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and just following Barack Obama’s re-election. Another alarming statistic to arise out of this pandemic: March 2020—when shelter-in-place orders and school closures rolled out across the nation—was the first March America didn’t have a school shooting since 2002.
“I’m not sure I understand it,” says Tom Kubiniec, CEO of SecureIt, a defense contractor that designs and builds weapon storage systems, including armories for the U.S. military. “If you’re somebody who takes defense and safety seriously, you would have had a firearm locked and secured properly, ammunition stored safely, and you’d already be ready.”
This idea of being “ready” is born out of anticipation of civil unrest—which has lately been incited by President Trump himself. The president went on a Twitter rampage on April 17 tweeting, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!,” encouraging citizens to protest stay-at-home orders. Then he took it a step further, tweeting: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
The tweet refers to the historic gun safety legislation Virginia recently passed, which includes requiring background checks on all gun sales, mandating reporting of lost and stolen firearms, and reinstating Virginia’s one-handgun-a-month policy.
“We know that the gun lobby works to sell guns in times of tragedy and natural disasters, and [the COVID-19 pandemic] is no different,” Moms Demand Action Founder Shannon Watts tells Marie Claire. “During President Barack Obama’s second term, they talked about needing guns to ward off hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, terrorists, gangs, and criminals. In 2016, they talked about needing guns in case there was a breakdown in societal order [after Donald Trump’s election]. After Hurricane Harvey, they passed laws to help loosen gun [restrictions] in Texas.
It’s almost like they’re rooting for societal collapse from the sidelines.”
Oh, they definitely are.
I have to wonder if this time it might happen. Between COVID and the possibility of Trump losing the election everything is in place for some kind of violent backlash.
On the other hand, a lot of this is about buying toys and costumes. So who knows?