I’m not a member of this culture, but I believe they may well be right about this. That culture believes that tyranny may descend on us, even here in the freedom-loving United States of America, and that privately held guns are the key to fending it off. Most of those stocking up on guns and ammo belong to a culture, and like every other culture, it has its beliefs, suppositions and fears.

Suggested reading Kyle Rittenhouse could still tear America apart But looking back, I don’t think my explanation was complete. There was a general murmur of agreement, and I was glad to have brought something useful to the party. “It’s their neighbours if the food runs out.” “It’s not the virus they’re worried about,” I offered. Do they think they’re going to shoot a virus?” As I neared the front of the line I heard her say to the room: “I don’t get it. She had been ringing up and disappointing people, non-stop for weeks. In most cases that meant she had to disappoint customers and tell them it would be days or weeks before they will be able to collect their weapons. There was one woman behind the counter, who had the unenviable task of running background checks for every firearm purchased. It is, in some sense, the opposite of Twitter, where no one is armed and people are routinely terrible to each other. In such an environment heightened tensions are quickly noted, and de-escalation is an ever-present priority. So too, I would guess, were the clientele - it is legal in Oregon to have a concealed handgun given the proper, easily obtained permit. I suspect the notable courtesy was at least partly the natural result of the level of armament. It’s a surprisingly courteous, agreeable, and highly technical culture: no one knows more than gun enthusiasts about the hazards that come with firearms, and such people take a very dim view of those who treat guns casually. In the gun shop, no one was troubled by novices, or even liberals. When a crate of ammo was occasionally delivered to the shop, it was target ammo, not ideal for self-defence, and it was rationed to one box per family, per week. Ammunition manufacturers couldn’t keep up. In the major calibers there wasn’t any, a pattern that everyone in the shop knew was repeated all over town, and indeed across the entire country. But it was the state of the ammo that was most striking. The wall behind the counter that would normally display perhaps 100 different models of handgun had maybe 20 - guns no one really wanted but would eventually be reluctantly purchased by some Johnny-come-lately. The gun shop was visibly strange in those early pandemic days. And some of it is intuitive - the result of a somewhat vague reassessment of the level of need.

Some of it is people arming themselves for the first time. Some of that is irrational, as the guns they bought in previous panics are likely to last a good long time. But I felt welcome, or at least as welcome as one can in an environment where there is a run on guns and ammo.Īnd there was indeed a run, as there always is when the population is on edge.

I imagine they sized me up and read me as a liberal. That day at the gun shop, most of the people I stood in line with were conservatives who felt like they could use a bit more firepower. Suggested reading Why anarchy has come to America

Liberas are orwellian