Did the Occupy Movement Spur Gun Sales?

1. Yes, the OWS crowd and this administration have been the best thing to ever happen to the firearms industry.

   I find it amusing that the people/groups/agencies who oppose guns the most have the net effect of increasing their numbers exponentially.

   Hmmm, maybe Pelosi and Co. are doing a bit of insider trading on S&W stock…

2. My buddy is buying a 9 and a AR this weekend. Not sure if they are related, but you never know. He doesn’t like what he sees on TV all across the country.

3. My father-in-law just bought his first handgun — a Bersa Thunder I had no more need of. OWS and the media conflation of it were the reasons he gave.

4. Any evidence of society becoming lawless will encourage people to arm themselves. Whether it be the Occupy movement or creeping Marxism, SEIU thuggish behavior, etc. Any thinking person can see that this is the lawless element finally crawling out of the woodwork, encouraged by not only appeasement but support of the left. Once out and displaying violence, anyone can envision it spreading to our neighborhoods, shopping centers, schools, and small town centers. All areas that we use every day. This will spur gun sales.

5. Speaking of Occupy. Go to Facebook and search for “Occupy Broad Ripple with Guns” This is my neighborhood, and my wife and I will be participating. Let me know if yall want video.

6. The public employee union goons, anarchist thugs, and astroturfed degenerates and drug addicts that make up the OWS Mob are bullies. You deal with bullies in the streets the way you deal with bullies in the school yard — you fight back. This is real life and not the schoolyard so when the bullies sallie forth outside of the liberal ghettos like NYC, Chicago, SF and DC those of us who don’t put up with bullies will give them a more adult response.

   So hell yeah, OWS is driving people who never thought they would want/need a gun to go buy them if they can.

7. For most of my life I never really thought widespread civil unrest would be likely. I am afraid I no longer think that way.

   This is the greatest, most generous and kindest civic body to ever form a nation. The good Americans do is enormous.

   Still, there is a cohort of Americans who have been poisoned against their nation and their countrymen. How many, and how vigorous, I do not know. The folks I spoke to at the now defunct Occupy St. Louis do not seem like the burn shit down kind.

   I can think of few things more awful than to have to confront my fellow citizens rioting and threatening the young families, old couples and infirm in my neighborhood – doing it unarmed is one.

   • “The folks I spoke to at the now defunct Occupy St. Louis do not seem like the burn shit down kind.”

     I believe the “burn shit down kind” Occupy mostly New York and Oakland California. These are also mass media centers and the media gives these people a voice. These are very left leaning places and the attention just fuels the fringe groups. I look at the fringe like the idots at football games who paint their whole bodies and go shirtless in sub-zero weather just to get their face on TV.

     The fringe groups have the power to undo any good the “Occupy” crowd has been trying to create. If the organizers (are there any?) are smart, they will disband, take the $500K money they have and create a PAC and seperate themselves because if violence escalates any more, they will be hated more than the NRA.

     The Democrates love this and help fuel the fire because they want to keep enforcing the message of class warfare and that people are angry. The Occupy movement I believe will be a big focus of their 2012 campaign.

     That said, if there is one person like Mr. Fricke, then there are many more and this will all backfire on the movement and the Democrates.

     From a personal point of view, I hate that the whole movement is being painted by some really bad Apples but they get what they sew.

     • I think this blog entry reeks of stereotyping. Most of these ‘occupy’ folks are equidistant from center on the political spectrum as most of you. I.E. they’re law abiding but just very different. The few bad apples always ruin the bunch. Just like how I saw morons at the public range (garbage dump) setting fire to stuff to bump fire their AR15’s at. Do you think they’re also hoarding dehydrated goods in their basement between their tobacco fueled unsafe range sessions?

       • The blog entry is recording the reaction of a citizen, followed by a question. That’s not stereotyping. It’s a discussion.

         I agree that most of the “occupidos” are largely harmless, save for how the coddling they receive is making a mockery of the rule of law. However, the riot that happened in the Pacific Northwest is justifiably worrisome.

         • However, you can fill up an entire blog with a blotter sheet of felonies from the Occupy $CITY movement, and the only crimes committed at Tea Party events are crimes against fashion.

           “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

         • I should have been more specific / articulate: This blog entry’s responses.

           Kevin does have a valid point. I guess I see no reason to be any more prepared than I always have been, though it may be a bit relaxed.
           Well damn, there I go being influenced by others again.

       • +1 I tune out whenever the phrase “potential for violence” turns up.

     • Most political mobs are made up of people who had no idea that they would be engaging in violence. They are there as filler for the people who control the mob. The “masses” provide cover to hide in and martyrs to the cause. The mob is equally guilty whether inclined ot violence or not.

8. I think arming yourself is a wise and prudent thing to do. The Occupy $CITY hippies have more in common with the yobs of this summer’s riots in England than they do with the people dying for democracy in Iran. Arm yourself before the mob shows up on your doorstep, not afterwards.

9. Hey, I’m all for gunnin’ up, but it seems a stretch that OWS is driving gun sales in a significant way.

   Mr. John Fricke is so worried about a bunch of out-of-work hipsters, hippies, stoners, and over-educated liberal arts college grads that he feels he now needs a gun? Ok, to each their own. Seems to me that if that was all you needed for motivation you probably should have armed yourself years ago.

   For myself I have a gun for the more dangerous elements in our society…you know, crooks, theives, murderers, crazies, etc.

   If I have a confrontation with a bunch of OWS’ers I plan on pulling a bar of Ivory soap and brandishing that. Maybe I will offer to give them a haircut and a shave. That outta send ’em running faster than tear gas or a Glock. (come to think of it, I am getting a little scruffy and I could use a haircut/shave/shower too…maybe I shouldnt talk, Nahhh. That wouldnt be any fun)

   Maybe I will threaten to call their parents and inform them that their 20-something ManChild is hanging around in a city park instead of attending those college classes that Mum and Dad are paying for – Or looking for a job.

   (ohh Boo hoo, you spent four years at college getting an Art – Psychology – English – Phy Ed degree and now you are complaining you cant find a job. Maybe you should have studied something more saleable in today’s job market. dummy.)

   • I think the OWS might have been a catalyst for concerns that had been in the background for this guy. I have neighbors who are committed social liberals, but recognize the gathering storm and are tooled up.

     God forbid, but I’ll walk a patrol with anyone who knows right from wrong.

   • The political liberals in the crowd don’t bother me. It’s the folks behind the OWS movement who are looking for another lever to use to move society where they want it to go that bother me. Obama is toast from a political standpoint, the fact that OWS popped up is a testament to his failure as a progressive (in the eyes of the progressives) so they need something else. Whether it’s the sad Puss-n-Boots eyes peeking out from behind those “I AM THE 99%” pics on the internet to convince people of the plight of their fellow man person, the opportunity to join a genuine drum circle or the threat of violence, they are pragmatic enough to throw OWS on the wall and see what sticks.

     The 2010 elections opened a vein on the progressive agenda, the 2012 elections promise to open an artery. Scott Walker hit center-mass in Wisconsin on the public-sector unions, they barely dodged the bullet in Ohio and the entire public sector union edifice is creaking in California and other states under retiree benefit requirements. The private sector is pretty much lost to unions. Four more years of the “success” they’ve had so far with Obama and unions will be half their number or less, and with a lot less money to fund Democratic campaigns. This is a use-it or lose-it moment for them, there will always be idiots to parrot progressive stuff but having seen what that really means the last few years, the bulk of the electorate is sidling to the other side of the room.

     The longer-term threat of mob violence is unlikely to occur, but if the idea is to create enough chaos that the public demands the government step in, that’s a step in the OWS direction however it happens. I’m not worried about facing mobs of hipsters moving from town to town where I live in East Texas, rampaging in search of decent coffee and valuable vintage clothing the looters and breakers might have hiding in their closets. I’m a little more worried about martial law and suspension of rights to restore public order. You know the legislation for PATRIOT II is already written and just waiting for the crisis in which it is “needed”.

     As it is, the violence has been minimal and localized, and the 0.001% that purports to represent the 99% hasn’t even been able to pull 1% of Manhattan into their lame parade. Whoever lit this firecracker has to be disappointed, and thank goodness.

10. Protect yourself from the government.
    Protect yourself from those that seek its demise.

    Oh cruel irony.

11. I don’t think you should arm yourself because of OWS, but I think you should have already been armed. Call me paronoid but I believe in being armed before there is a credible threat. Let’s just consider how well waiting until the fox was already in the henhouse had worked out in the past..

    • +1

12. Heck yes. Ammo, too.

    It will be interesting to see if the occupy movement makes it into smaller towns where firearms ownership is more prevalent. If I were an agitator I would keep it in the cities and suburbs where the population is defenseless and the leadership is soft. OWS has proven as difficult to control as it is to define, so, once these kids get a taste for blood they might stray into the less “safe” areas.

    I think the fear ordinary folks have is well founded, especially after the riots in England. The difference is that OWS seems to have union backing and that’s a frightening thought.

    • And support of some state, local and federal people. I think The One expressed his support as he pandered for their vote on TV. Trouble is most think he is part of the problem.

    • It will be interesting to see if the occupy movement makes it into smaller towns where firearms ownership is more prevalent.

      I live in Colville, WA, and am participating in the Occupy movement here. It’s a town of five thousand, with a strong hunting culture. I’d guess about half the town is armed, and that stat applies equally well to us Occupy folks.

      . . . once these kids get a taste for blood they might stray into the less “safe” areas.

      This… this doesn’t strike you as just a bit hyperbolic? “Taste for blood?” Really?

      • I met with several “Occupy St. Louis” folks, and I don’t see them as being anything but a minor hazard to themselves, though I am disappointed to learn that a woman was assaulted in her tent a while back. Hope they throw the book at the perp if he or she is found guilty.

        That said, there are plenty of Occupy $CITY thugs that have gotten away with some serious property crimes and personal assaults. Yes, I think if they end up back on the street they may migrate to other protests and stir up greater levels of shit.

13. Funny thing, most of the people I know who’ve become first time gun owners are sympathetic to OWS, some are vets too who don’t like cops getting away with stuff here that they couldn’t in iraq. But I’m from texas and texas is strange and fake in a lot of ways. Kinda like bush and perry. I do think rough times are ahead but anyone who actually fears OWS should join them, it’s good to keep the idiots and cowards all together, for their safety obviously.

14. If Occupy wants to burn liberal inner cities to the ground, a lot of Republicans will simply shake their heads.

    If Occupy sets up a 501c3, I’ll be the first to send a tax-deductable contribution to the gasoline fund.

    • zing!

15. Many anarchists and leftist radicals are gun owners, and so are some left of center liberals. Leftist governments own plenty of guns. Don’t ever profile too much about a person based on their political values or appearance, and let your guard down. Prior to moving to Portland Oregon, friends described the population as ‘liberals with guns’. That description is partially true.

    Yesterday, I went to downtown Portland for the first time in two months to do some shopping. By coincidence I got off the street-car and walked right into the midst of the Occupy Portland march. The police looked really cool in their futuristic Ninja-Commando gear. I did see a few hot hippie-chicks in their forties marching with the masses. After I returned home, my 56-year old very liberal house mate, who is a hurting real estate agent, emotionally commented about his support of the OWS movement and something else about arming up before they (somebody) take away the 2nd Amendment. He is good in the kitchen yet I would not want to be next to him on a live firing range.

16. OWS is one of the primary reasons I am going to be purchasing a gun in the near future. I think they’re a symptom of a larger socio-economic problem.
    I don’t own one yet, as I took a handgun safety class first, and have been researching on the internet and trying out a few different handguns on the range.
    I want to make sure I get the right handgun for me, and not just “a gun” as I think that would be a panic-driven reaction.

    • First rule of a gunfight – have a gun.

      Mid America Arms will be selling Smith 442 and 642 J-Frame revolvers and M&P 9 & .40 pistols for a damn fine price Dec 2, and 3.

17. Wait until they devalue the dollar and the credit runs out. When the music stops playing there are not going to be many chairs left. Those that are willing and able to protect themselves are going to make it, those that don’t will be fodder

18. Tool up to protect yourselves from the OWS, but it won’t save you in the end. You may save your life or property from these scumbags, but the liberal justice system and media will have you for breakfast. Just see CNN’s headlines now after you shoot a masked OWS rioter breaking into your home.

    “Bitter Tea Party Terrorist Murders Heroic Freedom Seeker”

    • Interestingly, at my town’s first general assembly, there were more than a few people complaining about the corporate/right-wing controlled media portraying OWS in a bad light.We’re all on the same side; I just wish more people would realize that.

      • As a Tea Party type, I hear some of what OWS is saying. I thought TARP was a bad idea, part of capitalism is feedbacks from the market and the market said pretty clearly in 2008 that all those loans made from 2003 on where a bad idea. The government stepped in to privatize gains and make the losses public. That sucks. We’d have a lot more confidence in a market that allowed losers to lose, instead of having a government that picked winners and papered over the scorecard with T-bills hot off the presses.

        Where I differ from OWS is the solution. If The Banks got a subsidy for their losses and we agree that it was wrong, subsidizing The People is not the right idea. The government doesn’t need to intervene, it needs to stop keeping the same morons from defying gravity and make some craters. Fannie & Freddie are into the US taxpayer for $160 billion or more and they’re not done, yet we’re paying these quasi-governmental employees millions of dollars a year to man a steadily-sinking ship? Crazy. The problem is unintended consequences of regulation, did you know that banks were actually ENCOURAGED to own mortgage-backed securities as capital reserves under the Basel II accords? You could hold government securities as capital and loan out $10 for every $1 of T-bills that pulled in a whopping 2% interest, or you could hold the same value in mortgage-backed securities, loan out the same 10-for-1, and make 4% from repackaged subprime crap. In theory, of course, and the regulators treated it as of equal capital value. Oops.

        The problem is crony capitalism, not capitalism. The fix is on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, not on Wall Street. The government has to get a lot smaller, and a lot more constitutional before things will right themselves, and I believe they WILL right themselves when Uncle Sam takes his thumb off the scales.

19. I have not seen the OWS as any real threat in most of the situations and locales in the USA. OWS has been somewhat of a problem on the Left Coasts, but you really do not hear much about them in the Mid-West. I think people who are buying guns due to the OWS movement are over reacting.

20. I’ll keep it really simple. Nice thing about being in the 1%…..I can afford to practice shooting A LOT…and I do;). Bring it. I’m ready.

    • Easy DrDave – those are our countrymen. Let’s hope reason prevails.

      • Yep – the key word being “reason”, which I think is sorely lacking on both sides, OWS & Tea Party.

        • When the Tea Party gathers, they get permits, clean up their trash etc. They peaceably disperse.

          When it comes time to enact change, the Tea Party works within the lawful limits of elections. When they lose, they hunker down and begin working on the next election.

          This is in sharp contrast to the petulant, lawless actions of the OWS crowd.

          It is objectively silly to compare the two and say both groups are acting unreasonably.

21. Sir,

    This post is drivel and very disappointing. Where’s the “intelligentsia” part of the so-called “armed intelligentsia?” Unless you do the hard work of seeing both sides without name- calling rants and walk the walk as an open- minded intellectual, your slogan is nothing more than a t- shirt design.Further, for the record, who needs an excuse to buy a gun? Scale it back and go partake of some quality range time, will you?

    • word

    • Thank you for sharing this advice with us, LeftShooter, seeing that you are not using it.

      It is not right-wing assholes and tea-baggers who are being raped, fondled, killed or contracting tuberculosis and scabies. It’s your fellow lefties. Perhaps you ought to consider that before giving writers here a ration of shit for drawing reasonable conclusions from the steady stream of outrages from the occupy crowd.

      For the record, there have been plenty of effort made by authors on this blog to give “occupants” a fair shake on the main topic. I’ll almost guarantee that I have spent more time trying to understand the occupants in my city that any five occupants have tried to understand their fellow citizens with whom they may not agree.

      • All you need to know about the pathetic occupants is that they think they deserve your money and should be handed anything they want without every doing a damn thing to earn it.

      • Remember, to the left you’re only “intelligent” if you agree with them. Notice, he immediately jumped in with ad hominems, a cornerstone of the leftist with nothing of substance to say. The left is intolerance and narrow-mindedness personified, which is why they try so hard to say they fight against such things: it’s projection, plain and simple, just like your average gun-grabber.

22. This is anything but drivel if you listen to what many of these people (and certainly their leaders) are saying. Or for that matter, if you look at what they’re actually doing.

    There’s a lot of validity to what this guy is thinking. Remember last week’s Oakland riot? One mob was dispersed by the simple act of a shop owner racking the slide on his shotgun. Even to a hopped-up Marxist moonbat, that’s a distinctive sound that apparently triggers universal survival instincts.
    And don’t forget the SEIU mobs that have marched on CEO homes…

    The Left is realizing the opportunities they’ve dreamed of since the late 60’s are slipping from their grasp. And they’re reacting like cornered animals.

    I wish things were different, but then again I never figured on counting myself among the tin-foil-hat crowd.

23. I have seen peaceful high school parties turn to violent mobs because (moment of silence please:( some one stepped on someone else’s Jordan’s. They burned and LA (you’re thinking Rodney King but I am talking about the Lakers winning the
    championship). Mobs do not need a huge reason to turn violent. They just do. Remember…”when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

24. When I first visited this website I was impressed by features like IGOTD and the variety of many of the daily postings. I also saw the TTAG store, with its opening tag saying “Here, you’ll find a variety of things that will let you show the world that you’re a member of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia.” I thought it was cheeky, but fun and I was hopeful that I had found a space on the Internet devoted to more thoughtful discussion about firearms.

    Given my initial impression, I was surprised and disappointed to see broad-brush polemical comments like “… the hoodlums, thugs, gangs, Marxists, and general lowlifes that exists on the far left of our political spectrum” and, “If Occupy spreads beyond that and seeks to do direct damage to traditional Americans in our communities…”

    What’s a “traditional” American and where are “our communities?” It seems to me the answer to that would be a broad profile and cover a lot of real estate. As for being concerned about any group becoming unruly poster copsoldier got it right by essentially saying “anybody at any time” can become an unruly mob. And, I expect we all know that we’d either “scoot or shoot” depending upon the tactical situation.

    LeftShooter is my handle because I shoot left-handed. For the record, I am an Independent voter who has voted Independent, Republican and Democrat over the last 40 years or so (including many years in NH, where citizens are subjected to more politics than most people can stand). I think some of you kind of proved my point by assuming I am “a lefty.” I also think that it wouldn’t take much digging into anyone’s personal situation to determine that each of us has at one time or another benefitted from policies identified as Republican policies as well those identified as Democratic policies.

    As for poster Silver who dragged out the Latin phrase “ad hominem.” Since TTAG had already represented itself as “Armed Intelligentsia,” I was only calling out what I saw as an obvious discrepancy, and not trying to divert the argument as an actual ad hominem would do.

    Last, I would urge all to acknowledge that we are a diverse nation with complicated problems to which there are no simple answers. Thoughtful discourse must reign. As a wise man once said: “only simpletons have simple answers.”

    • LeftShooter –

      Robert posted the thoughts of a person in response to the occupants in his neighborhood. Then he asked a question “Did the Occupy Movement Spur Gun Sales?”

      Robert’s commentary was thus: “Mr. Fricke may not be alone in this sentiment. If so, it’s time once again to nominate the Great-Uniter-Turned-Class-Warrior Barack Obama as our Gun Salesman of the Year.”

      Note the conditional phraseology. “May not, If So”…these are still questions. One can infer that this is how Robert thinks, but I also took it as a topic of discussion.

      Save the bluster about broad brushes and your sad, forlorn musings on the lack of diversity of thought. If the thoughts here are insufficiently diverse to your taste, be the friggin diversity. Offer a counter factual. Draw a different conclusion based on a reasonable inference from facts as presented, or enter new facts.

      Rather than boo-hoo about how we dullards are being insufficiently sophisticated, politely and cogently make an argument rather than cast aspersions.

      Or is that too simple an answer…

25. There was a time when I would go to great lengths to listen and try to comprehend the liberal/progressive mindset. I made the mistake that far too many Americans have made. That mistake is believing, even for a picosecond, that there is any validity at all to even the smallest, most basic premise of the liberal argument. I am utterly convinced that there is no point arguing. None. I believe with every ounce of me, and every experience I’ve had in 43 years on this Earth, that if liberalism is “tolerated” it will (and largely has) destroy every good and correct thing it touches. The dancing around is over. The gig is up. Yes, they are my fellow Americans; at least with regard to living in my country. Beyond that…we have nothing to talk about. I know what they want; what they would take from me if allowed. One glance at an Occupier is all it should take. Tolerance? Seriously? Go sell that crazy somewhere else!

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