coronavirus gun sales store
People wait in line to enter gun seller Tanner's Sports Center in Jamison, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Some gun rights figures seem torn about whether to wholeheartedly welcome the newcomers, many of whom they see as their longtime cultural adversaries.

[Lee] Williams began a recent post, entitled “Now, even anti-gun Californians want a gun,” with a dictionary definition of “hypocrisy.”

[David] Codrea uses a different term. “I see some resentment,” he told VICE News. “I personally am not sympathetic to someone who votes for politicians who infringe on the Second Amendment, then turns around and is deciding their hindquarters are important enough that they want something they’ve been denying to their countrymen.”

It’s also not at all clear that any shift in public opinion, if it’s real, will last beyond the current crisis. certain that the surge will lead to a meaningful shift in public opinion.

“I think that what we’re seeing is an immediate reaction — how much of that will stick will remain to be seen,” Codrea said. “Whether or not they are going to change long term politically, whether they’re going to think deeply enough, and say, ‘My rights have been eroded,’ I don’t know.”

– Joshua Hersh in Gun Lovers Are Claiming a Huge ‘I Told You So’ Moment With the Coronavirus Outbreak

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

117 COMMENTS

  1. A little of both…depends on the situation.
    I have been telling people the last couple years that prices and availability were awesome and to take advantage.
    Some listened…some did not.

    • That was good advice. It’s hard to fully appreciate that when you haven’t personally had to deal with a shortage before.

    • Well, we can welcome them, they can take a pledge, and then we can have a hazing, fraternity style. They can partake in fagging. (look it up – lol). Then after they are fully initiated, they can be fully welcomed.

      Jokes aside, my guess is – a lot of them aren’t buying guns because they support the 2A. They are buying guns because they support themselves. They are not about a system where the infrastructure supports 2A rights, many of them (not all) are likely just about supporting a system where they have an upper hand, and that is what they are looking for. They were looking for an upper hand when they espoused gun control. And they were looking for an upper hand when they made their gun purchase. It’s more about them, than a system of rights and responsibilities equal to all.

  2. I am glad they are with us now, it just might save the republic from the spread of socialism. Better late than never

  3. Absolutely we need to be welcoming them….. Each and every one of them.

    These people represent one more voice on our side.

    These people represent financial growth for the industry. One gun turns into two, turns into 3, then 4.

    Every gun shop needs to be including an NRA or State rifle association application in the paperwork. Maybe even put an extra $20 on the sale and then by that customer a one year membership.

    And then the gun shop needs to develop a tremendous email list. A list that can be used to send out monthly notices of sales, sound advice, political action, and messages of inclusion and encouragement.

    all I’m saying is when it rains lemons you got to make some lemonade!

    • Exactly. I read somewhere yesterday that the gun control crowd is freaking out right now because they’re realizing that the control they imagined they had over the younger generation has just evaporated, setting them back at least a decade if not two. Plus, Trump’s judicial appointees are positioned across the country to start making serious corrections to unconstitutional gun laws. Interesting just how quickly the tide can change.

      • That control was always an illusion.

        A couple of years ago the Lefties were annoyed with polling of college kids because they only held some Leftist beliefs. Gun control wasn’t one of them.

        At the time CCW polled better among college aged men and women than it did among any other age group. By a pretty wide margin.

  4. Hoping they get a chance to go get proficient with what they buy…and find out that they enjoy shooting.
    And maybe pass that on to a friend or family member or two.
    Guns are NOT just for killing. That’s usually the last resort.
    Great stress reliever…and you can challenge yourself to get better all the time.
    And you might meet some interesting people along the way.
    Just sayin’….

    • Unfortunately, I don’t think many of the new gun owners will be at the range practicing. They will take their self protection home and place it in a drawer thinking that they have done what is required to protect their homes and families. When this pandemic is over so will their perceived need for self protection and the gun will be forgotten or turned in or sold and they will go back to saying we don’t need guns, see, nothing happened during the pandemic.

  5. Welcome them. Be good witnesses to the fact that normal people have, carry, and use guns every day. I will try and take them out and show them the enjoyment a good day shooting or hunting can be.

  6. I’m happy as hell those same ‘Progressive’ people find that you can’t (in most cases) just walk into a gun store and walk out with one.

    As to whether or not they will remember that lesson on election day, I’m skeptical as hell. They have been so expertly ‘programmed’ by the Leftists that I’ll wager they will still vote Leftist.

    But if it plants a seed of doubt into them, they can likely be converted to our side.

    I hope.

    Then again, I probably picked the wrong day to quit mainlining Heroin…

  7. Remember-in the early days of World War 2,the British government, having left a significant amount of equipment on the beach at Dunkirk;were woefully short of firearms sufficient for the Home Guard and other coastal/Homeland defense personnel. Americans-both Lend Lease and individual donors sent a HUGE amount of personally owned arms and munitions over out of pocket to help …at the end war’s end? Cessation of hostilities/end of imminent threat,the British decided that the presence of arms(once again) remaining available to their subjects dumped them in the ocean.
    I would hope that our own local Statist Tories take heed of their concern that had them arm themselves and draw the conclusion that the post war British didn’t

    • The mountain of firearms the NRA sent the Brits was NEVER EVEN PASSED out or used. Useless Britain didn’t just turnup last week.

  8. The best thing to do is go by the rule of thirds. Of the new gun owners only a third will stay with us. ( The rest will probably still own the guns, but never use them) Of the third that stay with us, only one third will be gun rights activists. And we can always chase them of by being assholes.

    • This makes sense. These new gun owners bought guns because thier priorites changed. Once this blows over, priorites will shift. The time to welcome and guide these folk is now and after. We spread freedom.

  9. We should welcome every one of them. We teach them to be safe, ensure that they get proficient, Teach them that guns are not evil. If they stay, that’s awesome. If they leave, we’ll never get our rights back, so what’s the point in being exclusive.

  10. Their participation in “gun culture’ must absolutely be encouraged. We are strengthened by the added numbers. Additionally, everyone here was once new to firearms and their ownership but was taught and encouraged by a teacher or mentor of some type. Pay it forward.

  11. TTAG –

    Are you aware of this? :

    “SEC. 803. Increase in excise taxes relating to firearms.

    (a) In general.—Section 4181 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:

    “SEC. 4181. Imposition of tax.

    “There is hereby imposed upon the sale by the manufacturer, producer, or importer of the following articles a tax equivalent to the specified percent of the price for which so sold:

    “(1) Articles taxable at 30 percent:

    “(A) Pistols.

    “(B) Revolvers.

    “(C) Firearms (other than pistols and revolvers).

    “(D) Any lower frame or receiver for a firearm, whether for a semiautomatic pistol, rifle, or shotgun that is designed to accommodate interchangeable upper receivers.

    “(2) Articles taxable at 50 percent: Shells and cartridges.”.

    (b) Exemption for United States.—Subsection (b) of section 4182 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:

    “(b) Sales to United States.—No firearms, pistols, revolvers, lower frame or receiver for a firearm, shells, and cartridges purchased with funds appropriated for any department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States shall be subject to any tax imposed on the sale or transfer of such articles.”.

    (c) Effective date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to sales after September 30, 2020.”

    https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5717/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr+5717%22%5D%7D&r=1&s=1

  12. Yeah awesome can’t wait for this virus to pass and all the new gun owners to show up to the range at the same time

  13. I’m glad to see them pull their heads out of their . . . you know. But come on people. The ones we have coming in and buying guns for the first time during this panic are not what I would deem as people with the right attitude to even own a gun. Very holier than thou. Some of them have watched too many Youtube videos and try to act like they know everything. It’s painfully obvious they don’t know anything and to them the gun, bullets and clip-o-zines are all dangerous by the way they look at and handle them. I had a person afraid of the plastic orange trainer gun FFS.
    I just keep telling myself every human has the right to self defense . . . except Hitler . . . and that commie guy . . . and the serial killer dude . . . and that drunk driver that hit that school bus . . . hate panic times

      • Dude, you can only help and educate them if they are willing. And judging from past discussions with liberals and anti-gunners most are not willing to listen… We’ll see….

        • “And judging from past discussions with liberals and anti-gunners most are not willing to listen… ”

          I’ve had personal experience with this. Not most, but some for sure, on any political topic.

  14. The vast majority of these folks are hypocrites caught up in the panic frenzy. I call them corona zombies….

    This surge will yield a lot of missing toes, random bullet holes in floors and walls from nd’s and unfired plastic pistols in plastic cases hidden in closets.

    When it’s all said and done these folks will be the first to demonize gun owners and the 2nd when the next media sensationalized mass shooting happens.

    • And there you go, talking just like any other Disarmist, sardonically predicting a coming Apocalypse because of all those ignorant, untrained, unlicensed, untested gun owners being ‘allowed’ to do something ‘new’–such as Open Carry, or Constitutional Carry, or Shall Issue, or all of the other things that are/were GUARANTEED to result in the gutters running knee-deep in gore, shootouts on every street-corner, schools and churches veritable OK Corrals, babies and minorities and puppies gunned down in the crossfire from all of those neophyte, untrained, unlicensed, untested, un-GovernmentPermissionSlipped wild-eyed gun-crazies.

      And then NOTHING HAPPENS. No massacres, no fields of corpses, nary a blood-drenched gutter. Nothing.

      But that won’t stop the predictions of catastrophe, because even ONE incident is enough to inflate dramatically into a CRISIS with which to demand more ‘CommonSenseGunSafetyControlIt’sForTheChildren.’ Why? Because it’s good for the business of ‘proving’ that nobody but a highly-trained, government-vetted, LEO/Military expert is capable of safely having a firearm at all.

      Let’s not BE like them, OK?

      • Give me a break dude…. These progressives types fantasize about roasting conservative and libertarian” gun owners” over an open flame and you think guns are gonna magically unify this country….

        I gotta gun to protect me and mine, not to make friends with soy fed communist wimps.

  15. I’m seeing a lot of new gun owners making uninformed purchases because of panic, buying what’s left on the shelf, etc. Some examples would be wrong size gun, wrong type/caliber, wrong ammo, wrong (or no) holster and other novice mistakes.

    It’s important that we reach out to these new gun owners in a positive way so they don’t get discouraged and correct their mistakes.

    IMO: This is a good opportunity to show our open minded friends who are not pro-2A or on the fence that responsible gun ownership is a positive thing.

  16. Welcome them. Ask where the hell they have been. And help them with education and safety otherwise they will leave

  17. At least half of these purchases will never see the light of day again until their kids find them when they clean out their parent’s home.

  18. If your range is open (or when it opens), invite your friends & neighbors to the range. Individually or a very small group (observing current health practices). Brief them on safety and range etiquette, and have fun with the targets.

  19. I’m not asking where they’ve been. I already know where they have been.

    I see nothing that convinces me that any of these new first time panic buyers have an interest in this at all. There is no indicator that they are ‘with us’.

    What I’m asking is “Have you now seen the light and understand how you’ve been lied to?”

    Now that they have these guns, are they here to stay?

    • “Have you now seen the light and understand how you’ve been lied to?”

      That pretty much covers every facet of leftism.

    • Same thoughts here. I haven’t personally talked to any first-timers, but my general reaction is congratulations and welcome…and where are you and that new firearm going to be when the panic subsides?

      I don’t think there’ll be a big shift in the landscape regarding Second Amendment rights. The people who were fine with infringement before will be again, the second they’ve got theirs. Probably we’ll get a few POTG that we wouldn’t have got otherwise, but not enough to shift the whole field in our favor.

  20. Just more people who will say for the cameras “I’m a gun owner BUT…”

    Something akin to Fudds. Can anyone portmanteau “Fudd” and “hipster”?

  21. In my opinion if this pandemic blows over without civil disorder erupting new gun ownership probably won’t stick.
    If however things go “92 L.A. riots” or post Katrina WOROL I believe minds will be changed about gun ownership.
    I’m waiting to hear all these new gun owners to say in six months ” I’m a gun owner BUUUUUT I don’t think anyone needs
    an A-salt weapon. AR-14″ .
    Do not trust capricious panic purchasers they blow whichever way the political winds take them.

    • What makes you think that? Los Angeles suffered the riots but there hasn’t been a surge in conservative voters electing pro 2nd Amendment candidates.

      After the riots, sensible people would have armed themselves and refused any infringement.

      But Liberalism is a drug with amnesiac qualities.

      • “But Liberalism is a drug with amnesiac qualities.”

        Good one. Sounds like something Winston Churchill would say.

      • Jean-Claude,

        The RK Riots were 28 years ago. Since then, CA has gone from 30 million to 40 million residents, a huge percentage of those 10 million being illegals and young adults who were born after the riots. The chaos was never real to them, and resides only in the history books. That’s assuming they even know what you’re talking about when you mention them.

        I myself remember them well, being a life long Angelino. Those rooftop Koreans, and poor Reginald. I watched that assault footage live.

  22. I commented on this elsewhere, “. . . they should be welcomed into the tent, and be made to feel welcome. Returning to their basic rights should feel like returning to a loving home, not some foul medicine.

    Yes, they should be congratulated for exercising their second amendment right. But in a way that doesn’t leave them with a bitter taste.”

  24. I welcome them, but I’m wary of them standing behind me unsupervised at the range until they get some training. “Don’t worry, it’s unloaded,” they’ll say as they wave around a gun with a closed action. I face uprange while loading mags now to keep an eye on them.

  26. The stories I’ve seen are largely about California. Masses of “woke” Californians who live in lily-white communities are rushing to buy firearms, only to be dismayed when they have to abide by the gun control laws their candidates supported.

    But who are they afraid of? They live among other middle-class white people. There aren’t packs of deplorable Redneck Wal-Mart shoppers planning to storm Calabasas and Silverlake.

    Are they afraid the huge minority underclass the good liberals of California have grown in their social justice petri dish are going to rise up and try to get some economic justice? But to think that is kind of racist. And we all know those good California liberals aren’t racist.

    • You know what I found to be really, really rare when I lived in the ghetto?

      Burglary and robbery. Few have anything worth stealing and those who do generally are criminals with little compunction about using violence.

      In that neighborhood the major occupations were slinging drugs and selling the stolen stuff swiped from some nicer neighborhood or a business from another part of town.

  27. Not convinced this will make a difference. People will try to buy guns. Out of the few that succeed, they won’t be able to practice, meet other gun owners, or get any enjoyment at all.

    By the time they can do one of those things, they will have lost their permission slip from their wife, or been convinced that they just got sucked into a panic.

    The only people who will stay convinced are those who see increased crime. Crime will be underreported, so it will have to hit close to home to notice. Hopefully that’s not very many people.

  28. I’m always friendly to people I meet at the range. I’ve had great conversations with folks including a uniformed state policeman once. We will see very near in the future if these new gun owners are serious about their civil rights. I will be there to help them.

  29. If you treat them badly they will revert quicker. If you treat them well they could end up keeping the gun, which can help in the future when it comes to court cases.

    Don’t let your emotions cloud your brain with nonsense.

  30. I don’t ask people’s politics at the gun range. But I have known supposed gun owner’s who were leftards. Mostly at the gym. Sorry but I AIN’T “welcoming” dumbocrat idiot’s too stupid/retarded to understand their D vote dooms our 2A right’s!

    • Remember that time when Democrats weren’t so anti gun? There was a time when being a Democrat and owning a gun wasn’t unique.

      Most people I know lean left and own guns. They do not respect the corporate Liberal Republicans. Young people are not fans of the current Republican party. Those I know, that lean to the right, do not identify as Republicans.

      The Republican party is dying.

      • Are they ok with corporate Liberal Democrats?

        The Republican party may eventually go the Whig party, but enough people will still vote along Republican lines and ideas. If I have to give the Democrats any credit, it’s the ability to survive through institutional corruption, good old boy/girl/gender neutral network, and general public apathy.

        Gun owning Democrats still exist. But they are like the pro-life Democrat. Marginalized by the majority of the party with no say in leadership positions.

  32. If they put down the Leftard kool aid and educate themselves in the the founding documents, then perhaps there maybe hope.

  33. Once this settles down, they will forget and believe the MSM. Watch for stories of new gun owners shooting off their toes and killing people. Nothing about a good guy saving lives.

    I never tell anyone I have firearms. Except the folks at the range, the FFL’s, the delivery folks…who can figure it out.

  34. Sadly, many of these anti gunners(or their dominate spouse) drank the kool aid and believed Bloomberg’s media control about mass murderers and the frequency of those acts. Many of these people will be won to our side by the media showcasing takeover home robberies by desperate people that want your stuff.

    I, for one do not want to see this, but it will have to happen(with the good guy winning, of course) to win over these sheeple that believe the BS. Many of the people that bought guns will either lock them up, sell them second hand(unused), or just turn them in to the police, after they think this pandemic is over. They will just kick themselves for ever buying one in the first place.

    How easy they forget…….

  35. A non-gun owning co-worker recently was asking some of us gun owners what he should buy. After much discussion a pump action shotgun was the consensus. Several offers were made among the group to loan the co-worker a shotgun and take him out to learn its safe use.

    So there’s that.

  36. I welcome the fence-sitters. As for the once and future anti-gun slimeballs who have suddenly come to Jesus, I’ve been fighting them all my life and despise them still. They never cared about my safety, so why should I gave a rat’s hat about theirs?

  37. Neither. No one I am friends with is stupid enough to have waited until now to own firearms. Good for these people that they see a need for a firearm, even if it is only due to a sudden realization that they cannot protect themselves – but I don’t trust these people or really even care about them. They have demonstrated ignorance and poor judgment their entire lives and will continue to do so. This is self-preservation, pure and simple. While that is understandable, I doubt any of these folk would use this newly acquired firearm to defend someone besides themselves or to defend their country. When they stop voting for Marxists, then I will welcome them into the fold.

  38. Just because someone lays down a credit card to purchase a firearm does not mean I will be asking them over for Sunday Dinner.
    In this home firearms are not disgused with strangers or are they displayed for strangers to see, etc. When it comes to firearms unless you really know how to play you are not coming on stage in this grand ol opry home or anywhere else so to speak.
    The worst kind of jackass to communicate with is the pompous jackass whose firearm experience consists of “I’ve been hunt’n deer all my life.” Really? I thought deer hunt’n was seasonal?
    You have to weed out who you choose to talk guns with in person. I.E. If I so much as see any knucklehead bring alcohol around firearms that ends it. If a newbe can shut up and listen up we are willing to assist otherwise on your way out don’t let the door hit you in the butt. Trust but verify.

  39. Unlike many of the alt right gun community I tell new gun owners the truth. That they are no safer with a gun then they were before they owned one. Only now they bring danger to their own families and their communities. I tell them that owning a gun is a worthless endeavor promoted by far right radical nationalists who would have you fear the government rather than abide by the rules of civility and common sense. Finally I ask them to check out the campaign of Joe Biden. A man who as president will make it a priority to ban all guns and bring peace to this nation.

    • Priceless! If one didn’t know that that was pure, unalloyed sarcasm, a veritable parody upon the reality of what the Left truly believes, one might mistake you for some sort of gibbering loon.

      Well done!

    • Yes, Kimber! And Unicorns! Don’t forget the Unicorns. And lollipop forests. Yes, love those!!

      MALARKEY 2020!

    • Kimber your ignorance is unsurpassed. The British learned a long time ago any attempt to disarm Americans will be met with blood in the streets . We do not want that, but will not back down from it.

  40. I think most of these “first time buyers” are buying because they think they need to protect themselves from the rest of us – you know, “all them rednecks that voted for Trump”. They read “we have all the guns” enough times online and finally realized that when the SHTF, their “I’m With Her” t-shirt isn’t actually bulletproof. This isn’t “conversion” buying. It’s selfish panic buying.

    • +1

      Selfish panic buying indeed. And when the current panic is over, they’ll be back to selfish panic banning.

  41. If they still own the guns in 12 months I’ll welcome them . Till then they are hypocrites who own that which they demonize.

  42. I’m happy as hell to welcome them aboard!

    As with most things, it is rarely too late to make a good decision. The more of them that realize that “satan’s little black demon” isn’t what Bloomberg and his ilk say it is, the better off we all are.

    After all, Bloomberg doesn’t believe it, thats why he surrounds himself with them. He just doesn’t like the idea that you might be able to do likewise.

  45. I don’t have to ask where the newbies have been, we know that answer. I’m not going to embrace them either. I really only give a shit about them shooting their eye out because that will gungrabber told you so headline.

    These Left Wing gun newbies will have no inclination to support the 2A than any granny with and old revolver in the nightstand. They will add there scary, suicidal, murderous, child seeking new gun into their rice bowl. They NOW have “their gun” so it’s still the primary objective to restrict other people. Absolutely no different than people with personal bodyguards and home security patrols: they buy protection but want to deny you the ability to defend yourself and family.

    They will never support natural, God given or 2A Rights. They will still push for Bans on scary looking firearms, universal background checks, RED Flag Laws and all manner of restrictions. This newbie gun buying is only to fill “their need” and screw your broarder 2A issues. Call it as it is not how you wish it would be. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

  46. I offer training. Keep in mind these are people who strongly fear everyone else with a gun.
    They’re used to projecting the worst character and irresponsibility onto gun owners that they’d expect from themselves under the circumstances to which they’d ‘sink’ to purchasing a firearm. Like some newbie CCW carriers there’s serious attitude adjustment that’s needed which safety training and practice provides. An honest Liberal leaning friend with a law degree that was against owning a gun himself put it fairly. He didn’t want to own a gun because he couldn’t trust himself to avoid over reaction and use it responsibly.

  47. “I think that what we’re seeing is an immediate reaction — how much of that will stick will remain to be seen,” Codrea said. “Whether or not they are going to change long term politically, whether they’re going to think deeply enough, and say, ‘My rights have been eroded,’ I don’t know.”

    Well, I’ll tell you what, David. I predict that many if not most of them will revert into buyer’s remorse as soon as they perceive that the threat is over, and sell them back to the dealers. Then, they will continue to vote for progressives.

    I hope I’m wrong and just being cynical, but I don’t think so.

  48. We need to Gate Keep.
    Now, I’m not saying we need to slam the doors of gun ownership behind and give anyone and everyone who approaches the finger, but gatekeeping is just as important to the longevity of something as being open to new people.
    We need to welcoming, but firm. Were you on the fence about firearms, but this whole kung flu thing has got you thinking seriously about who’s in charge of your safety? Then I welcome you. But if you start spouting of about “Nobody needs a-“, or “I support the 2A, but-“, we will immediately show you the door, and let you know we do not have your back, nor are you welcome in our circles.

  49. None of the above… I’m treating them with the same indifference that I did before their supposed “great come to Jesus moment”.. I will reserve any judgement toward their decision until the dust has cleared and the perceived threat has passed… How many of them will still feel the need and see the light when things have returned to normal? As for the anti-gun people of California and New York, based on comments made by Newsom and the Dictatorial statements and actions of Cuomo they have a lot more to worry about than whether or not to buy a gun…

  50. You know, some of you are just being stupid. Gun owners are a minority. Some of the new gun owners voted with us, but didn’t feel the need to own one until now. They’re glad for instant background checks: they might approve of masses of people purchasing firearms, but aren’t fine with convicted felons buying the tools of their trade that they’re going to apply to violence and the threat of violence to steal what isn’t theirs. While this may seem like common sense to ask where were they, they- not just you and I- are the reason there aren’t two-week waiting periods, and why Virginia, even in the hands of a governor who is an anti-gun Democrat put there by Bloomburg money, have an exception in their one-gun-a-month rule going into effect in July: those of us who aren’t jailbirds and have proven it by getting our carry permits are exempt from one-gun-a-month. They’re the reason you have a right to own and carry your firearm, to go to the range, to shoot. They’ve been with us all along, and they’re the reason the anti-gunners can’t just repeal the Second Amendment. They’re the reason Heller overturned DC’s NO-GUNS, never, not-for-anyone policy. They’re your friends, you just haven’t noticed. They’re the people you’ve been telling yes, you exercise your 2nd Amendment (2A) rights, and they’ve nodded along and then gone back to watching your football game in your living room while handing you another beer. If not in your living room, in your friends’ living rooms. And some of them are Democrats, angry at the stupidity of the party that protects your guns but locks kids in cages just because they’re fleeing crime and poverty and violence in South America and came her so they don’t die. Yes, you have political differences with me. I almost always vote Democrat, but I’m a PRO-GUN Democrat. You probably see me at a gun range, or someone just like me. We’re the guys without the TRUMP bumper stickers, and perhaps COEXIST bumper stickers on our cars and trucks. You don’t vote like I do, but I DO VOTE FOR GUN RIGHTS. And, I’m burning powder next to you at the range. We aren’t single policy voters, that’s all. We, too, resent Bloomburg with his armed bodyguards trying to take away my gun rights.

  51. The good news is there are almost a million people who now realize the Lame Stream Media and some Democrats have been lying to them and a gun is not easier to get than a library book or cough syrup. I guess the other good news is about half that many at best will join the NRA, USCCA, PDN, NAGR, US Law Shield and invest in themselves to learn more about the lifestyle and become proficient in gun use and the legalities there of. The bad news is about half will probably go back to heir old ways once the current crisis is over or will put the gun in a lock box in their closet and pretty much forget they own it. And a few will sell them cheaply and become staunch anti-gunners again.
    We will have a few new brethren, an few more fence sitters and a few who will return to the fold of oblivion. The brethren are the ones we need to get up to speed.
    Each of us should try to get one more fence sitter or newbie to got to the range with us each month. But honestly that hasn’t changed from before this current crisis.

  52. We should try to be as welcoming as possible.

    The goal here isn’t just “guns”. It’s to get people to realize the error in an overall thought process that amounts to “all power to the state” (though that may take some time).

    You can see that in the way the NFL was placed in a damned if they do, damned if they don’t position by the “kneelers”. A clever, massive and long term, manipulation that placed the NFL between a rock and a hard place, fans on the one hand and the legal system on the other. Either way the NFL loses AND bends it’s knee to the State.

    The only way to defeat that kind of thing is to reveal the manipulation. Unfortunately, no one has done so. On a smaller scale, we routinely fail to do that too. Instead we mostly revert to sloganeering and virtue signaling to each other.

  53. How welcoming I will be is dependent on how they vote now. If they vote for the same leftist folks (Biden, Coumo, etc. insert name) and policies they have always voted for then no, no welcome. Well ok, I would welcome them to the nearest soylent green facility because that is what they are long term voting for. So these folks will need to show a true change and understanding.

  54. I welcome them, but I’m not fawning over them. If they ask for advice, I give the best I’ve got. If they ask for help, I do what I can for them. But I don’t go out of my way to bring them into the fold — it’s not my job, and it’s not my business.

    Gun ownership doesn’t define who I am. It’s who I am that has led me to be a gun owner. As I see it, everyone has to go down that road themselves. I can’t make the light bulbs go on — everyone needs to realize their own epiphanies.

    So, yeah, I’m happy there are a lot of new gun owners, and I hope they stick with it. I’m doubly happy the Disarament Cartel is having a shit-fit. But I’m not really much of an evangelist, mostly I mind my own business and ask others to do the same. If I’m called on for help, I’ll answer. But that’s about as far as I go with all this.

  55. No question. I am welcoming them. Unless someone else has already said it… “You catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar.”

  56. They are wishy washy. They will betray you first opportunity. They are only pretending to be your friends. They are fake. They prey on the gullible under the pretense of friendship. They are entitled and privileged. They succumbed to pressure and obeyed government to be antigun for better treatment as one of the loyalists. Then when it suited them they entitled themselves to gunownership while still clinging to their past loyalist mentalities. They were anti gun out of fear and are now gun owners out of fear. No allies is better than weak allies. I’m more worried about being betrayed by newcomers than having to fight against them or without them. The fear is that if it took them this long to come around they don’t really get it and would not fight very hard. As such leaving the battle in their handles is a blunder, as they will quickly retreat from any threat due to fear. I am more worried about our own mistakes then what the enemy can do, and the biggest mistake is putting trust into former enemies who now want an alliance out of convenience. They want an alliance when it is convenient and they will attack and betray when it is convenient. Find better friends.

  57. I think this actually changes little. Once the crisis is over, these same folks will say that they overreacted, it was totally unnecessary, and it is proof no one needs or should have one. I do predict that for a few months, there will be some really good bargains on second hand firearms that are being dumped.

  58. Having sat through my state’s gun law debates and getting chastised for being a the gray haired old man (and where is everyone else?), I’m thrilled with the idea of all these new people who are interested in firearms. As firearm owners it’s our opportunity to show them not only how to shoot safely but convert them from people who bought the gun because they were scared to people who support the right to have a gun. People who will know when the other side lies to them. It can happen! These days I’m really exciting to see groups of women at the range where there used to be an occasional couple with him showing her how to shoot a gun. The more responsible firearm owners, the better!

  59. These same American Citizens who would rid us of our 2nd Amendment now know the importance of the Right to bear arms! With the savages in California (Socialist Communist State) ravaging through the streets, violent protests and the their demands to defund the police the democratic Californians citizens now fear the lawlessness that will eventually spread through their counties with minimal to no police presence. Hopefully citizens in other states will follow suit and attempt to purchasing firearms for their safety. I will not hold grudges against them but welcome them with open arms and share my safety, handling, etc knowledge. But I will also caution to them that the process of obtaining a firearm legally will not be easy as the media so often claims it to be but as long as they have a clean record and are sound of mind they can obtain their firearm license. Also, when things settle down god willing, they must continue to exercise their 2nd amendment rights and fight and vote for it and don’t revert to their past opposition towards the 2nd Amendment! If we ever were to lose it I don’t doubt this will be the beginning of a revolution which I’m very confident we will win. I just hope that if and when a 2nd revolution starts it’ll happen in my lifetime. I will fight and die for our American rights and way of life. God bless us all, God bless America and god bless President TRUMP! Trump 2020 baby!

    • Hopefully citizens in other states will follow suit and attempt to purchasing firearms for their safety.

      Buying ALL the guns on the planet will not make a damn bit of difference as long as you keep electing the same politicians who are doing this to you… “Hopefully” citizens everywhere will grasp the true problem and get get those assholes out of office replacing them with strict Constitutionalists… The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…. There is a LOT of crazy in those deep blue states/cities… Wake up or give up.

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