As some of you may know I work at a large retail store with the the name that rhymes with Ball-Fart, because I work at such a hideous place of retailness we were open yesterday all during the crisis. We were one of the only stores open in the area.
I have to say that we did not get too much work done all day, most of us were huddled around TV’s in the store, or doing busy work while keeping our ears glued to the CNN coverage that was playing over the stores intercoms.
I was hanging hunting clothes, folding them and putting them away, at times I had to put my head down and just pray over the hideousness of all of this.
But it got worse.
I work in sporting goods and automotive departments. At about 3’oclock I thought it was kind of odd that I was selling so much ammuntion. Boxes of it. TONS of it.
The associate that worked before me remarked the same thing.
Most of the ammo was for personal protection weapons. 9MM, .45, .357, that kind of thing. By 5pm all of the hydra-shok and hollowpoint ammuntion was sold out in the store.
I remarked to a guy who was buying some of the last ammo I had that I had sold more ammo today than I had sold in last years hunting season all told and he gave me a sort of preadatory grin and said “Well why do you think?”
I almost threw up on him.
I had kept my mind off of the horrible connection that people were buying ammo to protect themselves from what they saw on TV because I hoped and prayed that people were not being that stupid.
I have a question, “WHAT THE FUCK IS A .357 GOING TO DO FOR YOU AGAINST A FUCKING BOEING 757!” “WHAT THE FUCK!”
I asked the guy. and some of the others that came in to buy ammo that same question (in a slightly less harsh tone) and they all said “You never know.”
I thought that maybe it was just a local waco thing, but I called around to stores in different parts of the country. THEY ARE ALL LOW!
This is fucking sick.
Other people tried to buy guns. But nothing was going through the FBI NICS check.
Then as 8 or 9 o’clock rolled around I noticed gas cans going out of the store in droves. People were pushing CARTS of them to the checkouts. By 9:30 all of my stock in gas cans was gone. When I finally went home at 10 we only had hunting ammo, like shotgun shells and rifle shells left, and little of those.
Can someone explain the rationale behind this?!?!
I just can’t understand this, I really wish I could help those people that are trapped somehow. I will donate blood later today, but I donet feel that that is enough.
I am horrified how people are acting, buying ammo, going crazy on gas, not caring about the people who are trapped or dead.
I am trying to make sure people I know are alright, but we don’t know yet. I have two cousins that are NYC firefighters, one I believe is on Rescue 1. I don’t know anything and I am scared.
Are all the NYC and DC dopers accounted for ?
I know I don’t post a lot but you guys mean a lot to me.
My heart goes out to all of you, because I know we are all hurting as a country.
I’m sorry this thread is so disjointed, but I am very upset now. I want some answers, I want to help, I want everyone to be ok, but I know they won’t.
Does anyone have any of the answers I seek?
Or maybe just a hug?
They are free on my end.
People are scared. They’re scared that we’ll be at war, that our economy and society will collapse, and so, to make themselves feel safer they buy ammo, and canned goods, and stock up on gas, so that they can do SOMETHING to protect themselves and their families if civilization ends.
I’m of the half that wants to eliminate the threat from to this country.
If there’s no threat, the other half would’nt HAVE to stand in line at the Red Cross.
As far as buying ammunition, thats only the smart thing to do. After all, when the SHTF, ammunitions a good thing to have around. Sure, it wont stop a 747, but it’ll stop looters amd other criminals. Possession of it will make you better prepared than the average liberal weenie who believes that" the government will protect me and my family".
As far as NICS being down, all that means is that anyone who tried to buy a firearm at that time would be able to do it WITHOUT a background check.
Stock up, there’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s the smart thing to do. We live in a dangerous world.
It all depends on your particular phobia. By and large any departure from dull routine will prompt the “cold dead hands” crowd to go out and stockpile guns and ammo in gleeful anticipation of the rapid approach of end Western Civilization, as we know it. Just why guys in Wisconsin, where Aqua Pura is, should link hijacked airliners crashing into the WTC and the Pentagon with a need to have not less than 500 round of pistol ammunition close at hand is beyond me. Perhaps Wisconsin has no local police, state police or National Guard and it is necessary for the patriotic citizenry to line the shore of Lake Michigan to repel invasion by God-knows-who. “They” might just be after the cheese. They can have my cheese when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
I don’t know about any looters and other criminals, but I have had an impulse these last few days to go out and pistol-whip a couple of gas station managers.
By the same token, we can expect a move by the law and order types to further restrict privacy rights in the interest of national secutity and more moves to make cryptology programs ineffective. In these times of national peril we cannot tolerate a citizenry that keeps secrets. In order to protect the national sovereignty from airplane hijackers it will be necessary for your government to know anything about you that your government damn well wants to know any time it damn well want to know it.
If we do this right we can destroy all the things that make this country special in a well-intentioned effort to protect the country. Ah ‘preciate your support, My fellow ‘Mericans.
NPR had a little blurb from one of the owners of a gunshop in Austin, Texas, where I live. He said these freaks are afraid of martial law being declared. We have what is almost certainly an attack from outside the nation, and the same attitude that provoked our worst act of home-grown terrorism is being fueled by the worst act of terrorism we’ve ever experienced. The crazy fucks just feed off of each other.
What a bunch of winners we have on this thread.
-Anthacite says getting prepared is “pure animal panic”.
-Trucido actually listens to NPR, and calls Patriots “crazy fucks” and “freaks”.
-Spavined Gelding puts down Patriots in general. By the way, is’nt a “gelding” a horse that has it’s nuts cut off? A perfectly appropriate name for him.
Now, I’m not trying to put you guys down. I’m trying to shock you guys into your senses. I believe you guys are worth saving.
All of us are obligated to look after ourselves in times of trouble. Firearms are our best bet.
Besides that, according to the Supreme Court, the police are under NO obligation to protect us.
Careful, bub. I’m one of those ‘cold, dead hands’ types, and I’m sure as hell not running around panic-buying.
It’s really simple, if everyone in here would use the fucking ear-spacer God gave them: In a crisis, no one wants to feel helpless. They want to something, anything, to feel like they’ve got some control over their destiny. That’s why (among other reasons) so many seemingly useless, non-sensical emergency plans were put into motion on Tuesday. Most of us want to help rescue, or give blood, or do our ‘civic duty’, or do whatever it is that we’ve been trained to do. Others want gather the family close. I know one guy who spent a big chunk of the day trying to find out how often the local water supply was checked for toxins, then spent the rest of the day trying to convince some one to go do so, even though we’re far from being in any kind of risk. When that didn’t work, he went to get bottled water for his faminly and friends. All in an attempt to gain control over his own survival. Why did he pick water supplies? He’s a geologist, and he understands the subject, he can grasp that threat, and deal with it. Our ammunition buyers are reacting, in the same generally thoughtless manner as our highly educated geologist, to a threat they understand, and can control. It’s their way of saying “I’m doing something, not just waiting for the end”.
Cut them some slack and understanding, use your God-given brains instead of knee-jerking. GENE, that goes double for you, bub.
Gelding? Castrated male horse? No kidding? Gee, I wish I’d known that before.
The guys buying up ammo in anticipation of a jet liner falling on their heads are patriots? Just looking out for the womenfolk and the young ones? Again, new information. Hell, for some reason I figured the bulk of them were mal-adjusted middle aged men who had never recovered from the sense of power they got when Daddy let them shoot the big gun when they were eight.
Come on, it’s a simplistic and juvenile response to a realization that the world is a big place and that lots of stuff doesn’t make sense. You can go for the obvious non-responsive retort or you can wrap your self in the flag, or you can look under the bed for the boogieman. Any of those make you just a safe from the unknown as buying Sam Walton’s ammunition. Makes Sam’s kids richer, though.
That is, except for you GENE STONER.
Seriously, I don’t think making comments about peoples online names is appropriate in this kind of thread, needless to say that you did not give any useful kind of response.
I have this sneaking suspicion that you are a prepubecent troll out for kicks.
As for that, come back when you grow some sense.
Thank you.
~Aqua
I’m at the pit?? Good. Hey Gene, why don’t you become your namesake and use those ammo you bought on yourself, ok? Hope you know, I fight flaming with nuclear.
STONER boy, you really make an easy target for this kind of shit. Please remove your foot from where your knee-jerk reaction has squarely placed it and read Tranquilis’ post. Hell, read it 4 or 5 times.
That also goes for the rest of you. Deal with things your own way. Don’t ridicule other for taking actions that they feel will protect them, especially when it’s not effecting you at all. So the fuck what if people are buying ammo. Why are you worried about it?
Still haven’t heard anything from the cousins.
Attempts to reach either of them in NY have failed, one’s phone service is disconnected for technical difficulties, and another just rings and rings and rings…
You react out of fear rather than patience and logic. You allow your imagination to run rampant and overrule your senses. I know not from where you post. You could be sitting in the middle of So. Central L.A. and may feel somewhat justified in your viewpoint but I, for one, live in a sleepy little town and if the nation were ever to revert to martial law, it would be a long time before I ever needed to use my 30-30 Winchester.
Why would the nation declare martial law after a few isolated terrorist attacks? Because of loonies like you running around with your guns a blazin’, either reacting out of fear, or maximizing on the chaos to loot and steal. Keep your shit together, fool.
I train karate and sword three nights a week with some friends. Every 3-4 months, we go out to the range in stead of training and practice with pistols. We haven’t been in quite a while, and last night I suggested a road trip. The teacher looked at me and said, “You nuts? That place’ll be PACKED tonight.”
Just to complete the warm-tingly feeling, bear in mind that for every panic buyer, there’s a certain number of people who don’t NEED to panic-buy because they already have a dozen boxes of ammo in the closet…
Oh, and as for defending against a jumbo jet? That has to have been a one-shot deal. With increased security, nobody’s going to invest the money necessary to train a pilot only to have him & his buddies nabbed at the gate. The next time we hear from whoever’s behind this, it will be something completely different and it is entirely possibly that an armed populace will be the only people set to defend themselves from it.
Oh, I doubt it. Not that I’m a liberal wiennie, because I’m not. I’m rather conservative, actually. But your statement seems to be just another piece of knee-jerk “cold dead hands” nonsense.
Much of our armed populace is probably untrained in strategy, tactics or other skills necessary to cope with a foreign invader or domestic terrorism event. Don’t kid yourself that an armed populace is anything more than simply armed, which might not do much good without brains and a plan.