Richmond Times Dispatch:
Sales record: Virginia gun sales set a new high for
Black Friday as the number of firearms sold statewide continues to soar
and is just days away from setting an annual record.
Gun transactions in Virginia totaled 3,902 on Black Friday, a 1.2
percent increase over the previous record of 3,856 transactions on the
same day in 2012, according to the latest Virginia State Police figures
of mandatory criminal-background checks of gun buyers.
What is causing this rush to buy a gun? Is there something happening I don’t know about?
Everyone needs to help break Virginia’s record. Go out and buy a gun. Make sure you get a trigger lock while you are at it., especially if you have children in the home.
Meanwhile, we are 9 days away from the first anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Could any type of gun control have prevented that hideous mass murder? Doubtful. However, when we read of the events surrounding the shooter and his family, it all seems so preventable. What was his mother thinking? Why wasn’t this young man institutionalized? Oh, I forgot. We don’t do that any more. Why are our laws always based on someone having done something? (We can’t do anything about it unless he does something.) This kind of logic is flawed and erroneous. We will always have mass murders if we have to wait until the crazies “do something.”
I call someone like Adam Lanza a crazy because anyone who does what he did is crazy. No one guns down a classroom of little children. The gun folks need to get over themselves as far as background checks. Maybe those checks ought to extend to questions about “do you live with anyone crazy who might get access to the gun you are about to buy?”
It’s time for the mental health community to get over itself about lo the poor crazy who is getting ready to go postal bat sh!t and commit mass murder. We need to be able to confine people who would do society harm without having to jump through impossible hoops. The Creigh Deeds tragedy certainly validates the need for more sensible rules and regulations governing putting people in protective custody.
We are choking to death on gun rights, political correctness, and privacy laws. Something has to give. It’s simply a public safety issue.
“What is causing this rush to buy a gun? Is there something happening I don’t know about?”
Did you miss the fact that the entire Democrat Statewide ticket ran on a platform that included gun-control, and Bloomberg dumped a boatload of money into T-Mac’s campaign? I surely didn’t, and it looks like a bunch of pro-2nd Ammendment folks out there didn’t miss it either. Nope…we reckon that NY Mike will want something in exchange for the $1.2 million smackers he donated to T-Mac’s campaign, and considering gun control legislation is his #1 goal outside of NYC…I am sure you can see where I am going with this line of reasoning.
Actually I missed it.
I don’t see background checks as gun control so that’s probably why I missed it. I know Ralph Northam isn’t a big gun control person. That issue is pretty much why he almost switched parties a couple of years ago.
Then you probably missed this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/support-for-gun-control-helped-a-candidate-win-in-virginia/2013/12/01/42ec3704-5943-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html?hpid=z3
http://gunssavelives.net/blog/congressional-study-gun-ownership-drastically-up-since-94-murder-rate-cut-in-half/#
You asked for a reason why gun sales are up, and I provided one. I base this on the “chatter” I saw on the various Pro-RTKABA sites, and what went on with ammunition purchases, post-Nov2012.
I think we agree on the whole mental-health aspect, and only perhaps disagree to the efficacy of expanding background checks vs. better mental health reporting requirements for the instacheck system.
I will point out that while many own guns, not all are ardent pro-2nd ammendment types. Just because a cat has her kittens in an oven, doesn’t change the kittens into biscuits. I’ve hear lots of people begin a pro-gun-control argument with “I own guns…but…”
Steve, I would agree that not all gun owners are pro gun advocates as a hobby or avocation. My parents spring to mind. There was never a day that the NRA magazine wasn’t in the house. My parents liked reading about guns, dogs, etc. My mother was very familiar with guns and knew a great deal about them. She liked them as possessions. She also liked horses, bird dogs, and knew a lot about them also.
Where would she have stood today? I am not sure. She wasn’t political about her interests. In later years she got interested in gem stones. I have always been interested. I probably take turquoise a lot more seriously than most people. To collectors, turquoise isn’t just a blue stone. To people who own a couple of pieces of turquoise, its just a blue stone. Many of them don’t realize that they have a piece of dyed howlite on their hands either. Sometimes its just a matter of knowing your source.
I am one of those gun owners who is not heavily into defending my 2nd amendment rights. I tend more to defend reproductive rights. I see that as far more pressing, especially over your way.
“I tend more to defend reproductive rights. I see that as far more pressing, especially over your way.”
You have your “go to the mat” issue, and I have mine. I figure as long as “we the people” have our right to keep and bear arms, every single other right is ultimately secure from tyrannical government. I do believe this is why George Mason put it in there, right after “free speech, freedom of religon”. Perhaps the pro-choicers out there might want to start buying guns, if they are worried about ultimately defending their rights…Naw….never happen.
Most of us have them. Not everyone is a good person.
You think I am kidding?
Most of us have them. Not everyone is a good person.
You think I am kidding?
It doesn’t take too many times of being thrown to the ground and kicked to send what shall we say…a wake up call? That was a little touch in DC. I have permanent damage in both wrists from a “hit” about 20 year ago. I decided I was getting too old to be a target for the rough stuff.
“You think I am kidding?”
I think you are over-estimating gun-ownership on the left. Their is a direct correlation between the “progressiveness” of a state/urban area, and the restrictions placed on gun ownership. Read some of John Lott’s extensive research (summarized in his book, More Guns: Less Crime). I’ve actually looked at the raw data.
I think you place too much emphasis on left and right. There are plenty of moderates who are pro-choice. You speak of the pro-choice community as though it was all flaming, glow-in-the-dark liberal. I can assure you it is not. In fact, you might be surprised to know who all is part of that movement. Many are Republicans and not just libertarian Republicans. Lot’s of people just keep their opinions to themselves, for whatever reason. I am obviously not one of those people.
Not saying exclusively one or the other, but the data I’ve seen would tend to support the fact that the further right you move, the higher the tendency to be both pro-life, and a gun-owner…or was it my imagination when the media made such a big deal over all those guns at the tea party rallies? Or maybe it is early-onset dementia that has me noticing that candidates for office on the left have a tendency to run on a platform that includes pro-choice and gun-control, and those on the right tend to run on pro-life and pro-gun platforms? Now, I will admit, those on the left who run in more rural areas will more likely be less-inclined to run on a gun-control agenda, but the closer you get to the urban areas, the more likely these two issues will appear on a left-wing candidates “to do list”.
Steve, I don’t disagree with the generalization. I am simply saying that most pro choice people I know are gun owners. Plenty of people own guns who aren’t rabidly A2. Most of my friends believe that own ownership is not an absolute right.
I would also be one of those who believe that it really isn’t necessary to take an AK-47 to a political rally. I am much more tolerant of discrete smaller weapons worn on the person than I am of show-boating one’s weapons.