HEADS UP! CBS will discuss Y2K/Gun purchase connection

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Coming up on the evening news in 15 minutes!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 23, 1999

Answers

It doesn't sound like it will be a very favorable piece!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 23, 1999.

I am at work and will be here until 11pm EST, so if anyone that has seen the program could post a brief synopsis here, I would much appreciate it.

I would certainly like to get a feel for what the media is putting out; I just work thru the evening and late night news forcasts.

Thanks in advance :)

-- Brent James Bushardt (brentj@webt.com), September 23, 1999.


Basically, gun sales are going through the roof, partially, it is "feared," because of Y2k. The so-called doomsayers and extremists have whipped us all into a frenzy and we are being driven by fear and anxiety. WE are the problem and we're going to be hiding behind our doors come Jan 1, shooting first and asking questions later.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), September 23, 1999.

hmmm...sounds about right :p

-- Cory Hill (coryh@strategic-services.net), September 23, 1999.

Well, Kurt gave a pretty good synopsis. I taped the segment and will type the transcript. I will have to do this a little at a time, so please be patient. :-)

CBS's Jim Stewart: Gun merchants haven't had any trouble selling shotguns this year. In fact, in recent weeks, they've had no trouble selling much of anything. For reasons no once can fully explain, America is headed for a record year in gun sales, beating even the industry's best estimates.

Robert Delfay (President- National Shooting Sports Foundation): I think when the year is over, and we're just entering the busiest part of the year now, when the year is over... 15% or so.

CBS's Jim Stewart: Or an estimated 375,000 additional rifle, pistol and shotgun sales, on top of the 2 1/2 million sales already forecast for this year. And there is growing evidence that what's driving those new sales is fear over what happens 99 days from now when the ball (Times Square) falls and Y2K is upon us.

(More in a minute)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 23, 1999.



I missed something. Shoot first (what, are we supposed to let an assailant get the drop on us - only shooting once we've taken a hit?), ask questions later (that's more responsible than just digging a hole in the back fourty and pretending it never happened). So what's the "problem?" The police are going to be overburdened, and if they thought they'd be able to do their jobs with any effectiveness, they wouldn't be preparing "safe areas" for their FAMILIES, no would they?

Crime is real. It happens less often when potential victims are armed. When you take privately owned firearms away, as in Australia, violent attacks on citizen go up (40% for the Aussie sheeple). The socialist/globalists know this, but they're tying reality in knots trying to justify the seizure of all privately owned firearms. WHY? Why do they want us all to be defenseless?

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 23, 1999.


CBS's Jim Stewart: Researchers at the Pro-Gun Control Violence Policy Center, for example, point to recent gun magazine stories urging readers to buy at least 2 rifles apiece for Y2K. And there's even a special Y2K Edition being offered by one manufacturer.

Josh Sugarmann- (Violence Policy Center): The reality is that fear sells guns and for the gun industry, what could be better than the thought of the end of the world and the collapse of civilization as we know it?

CBS's Jim Stewart: And that's precisely the scenario painted in many of the 223 Y2K books currently on the market. Get ready! warn the books. Computer failures will shut down electric utilities, prison gates will swing open at midnight, terrorist attacks will occur in larger cities, and wild dog packs will roam the streets. And many of these books recommend stockpiling weapons as a precaution.

(Back in a minute with conclusion)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 23, 1999.


Josh Sugarmann (Violence Policy Center): The gun industry is trying to sell guns, I think, to two groups. One is the "scared," and kind of "the scary." And the question is, when New Year's Day rolls around, how will those 2 groups react?

CBS's Jim Stewart: Gun retailers say they're seeing an especially high demand for .223 caliber military style rifles and close-in defense weapons like the shotgun. Ammunition sales have also soared. One Midwest distributor reported selling 9,000 cases or 9 million rounds in just 2 days. Several Y2K authors declined to talk with us about their predictions and gun recommendations, but the industry says it does not agree with the scare tactics.

Robert Deflay (President- National Shooting Sports Foundation): We do not think that's right. And we do not encourage anyone to purchase a firearm in anticipation of Y2K chaos. In part because we don't think it's going to happen, and in part because it would be totally inappropriate.

CBS's Jim Stewart: The real concern to lawmen out of all this, is the fear factor. Their own worst Y2K nightmare is that come New Year's Eve, a whole range of Americans will buy into the hype by these fear mongers, and will literally hide behind their doors, armed to the teeth, ready to shoot first and ask questions later. (End)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 23, 1999.


Quick observation from a Californian...

I was in my local gun shop recently to increase the levels of my own personal supplies and I had a chance to speak to the head sales guy. At least here in California the reasons are easy to focus on.

At the end of this year, in California, all AR-15 style weapons will no longer be legal for sale. All purchases prior to the end of the year are legal. Thus, a run on arms, especially AR-15s. These things are EXPENSIVE!! All SKS style weapons are already banned.

Furthermore, while waiting my turn, I listened as a young guy was trying to cut a deal with the shop... cash price: $899.00. He wanted an extra, high capacity magazine thrown in. His reason was stated without hesitation and quite openly, "Well, Y2k is coming." These things are moving right now.

Lots of reasons for the increase in sales and Y2k is certainly at least one of them. If I had $900 I might have purchased one right along with him.

Mike

===========================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 23, 1999.


I never owned a firearm until I bought a rifle last summer because of my concerns about lawlessness, and the need to shoot deer for food, if necessary, come next year. I made a rational decision based on risk assessment. I will have other firearms, not many, but a few more, by years' end. What gets me about this CBS piece is 1) the condescending nature of the comments by Robert Deflay (President- National Shooting Sports Foundation): "We do not think that's right. And we do not encourage anyone to purchase a firearm in anticipation of Y2K chaos. In part because we don't think it's going to happen, and in part because it would be totally inappropriate," and 2) the comments and condescenion by the CBS reporter. Mr. Deflay is not going to say, "Yes, I think Americans should arm themselves, if they feel threatened," because he doesn't want to appear extremist on national television. The correspondent is not going to accept the risk assessment and reaction of Americans who have decided to arm themselves because, as a reporter for a network news program, he probably lives in an urban area, like, um, New York City, and so has built his adult life and career upon certain assumptions, such as, the system has, does and will always work; there are no threats to his wellbeing that the police can't handle; firearms cause more problems than they prevent. I threaten no one and I won't be hiding behind my door come New Year's Day. If I'm wrong, I have the option of selling some firearms next year, probably at a profit greater than if I had invested in the (soon-to-be-in-free-fall?) market. If Jim Stewart (the CBS correspondent) is wrong, he may find himself at the victim end of a violence-leveraged situation. Who would be the greater loser?

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), September 23, 1999.


This reminds me of a scene from my favorite TEOWAWKI novel. In it, an ultra-liberal professor (the government will know what to do) and his family and friends reluctantly decide that they need some guns. So they go to a gunstore several days after a crisis begins and find ONE gun-a rusty old damascus barreled 16 ga shotgun chained to the counter. Price? $20,000

This may take some getting used to. I have daydreamed about this (and warned others about such a major event for years). Now I'm apparently going to live it. Uh-oh...

-- chairborne commando (what-me-worry@armageddon.com), September 23, 1999.


Thanks, Gayla, for the continued coverage for those not able to see the thing.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), September 23, 1999.

I have owned guns all my life. I was raised in a household in rural East Texas where hunting was one of the major occupations of any spare time to be had. My dad was a Korean war vet and a serious gun nut, and passed those inclinations right along to me. Up until about five or six years ago I had never owned any type of military weapon, assault rifle, or whatever you choose to call them. I did have an extensive collection of nice bolt action deer rifles and quite a few long barrelled shotguns, and a few single action revolvers,(western)

Enter bill clinton, Schumer, Sarah Brady and the rest of the socialist gun nazis. The nonstop attacks on the second amendment finally made me wake up to the fact that at some point in the not too distant future we were going to have to defend the right to keep and bear arms the old fashioned way. With hot lead.

Out the door went all those fancy hunting rifles, Browning shotguns, Ruger Blackhawks. In came AR-15's, Ak-47's ,M-14's, mini- 14's, riot guns, and combat style handguns. Literally hundreds of dollars worth of spare magazines, and hundreds more in surplus ammunition and reloading supplies.

Y2k may have sold quite a few guns, but nowhere near as many as Bill Clinton has.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), September 23, 1999.


Thank God we have them, now we pray we never need them.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), September 24, 1999.

What happens when all the criminals have nuclear war heads? Reducio Ad Absurdum.

Hmmm... I guess I'm a reactionary. I'd like to go back to a time when there was a sence of community and trust. Far enough back to the Dow. (Or maybe forward?)Untill then I'll get a rifle and an aluminum bat.

BTW, I suppose I'm "liberal" (I believe that everyone has something to contribute to society, not just WASPs)in my attitudes but I distrust the government. What does that make me?

The Freak

-- typhonblue (typhonblue@hotmail.com), September 24, 1999.



TyphonBlue, you said:

BTW, I suppose I'm "liberal" (I believe that everyone has something to contribute to society, not just WASPs)in my attitudes but I distrust the government. What does that make me?

It makes you a CONSERVATIVE. Scary, isn't it?

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), September 24, 1999.


While it may be "sexy" for the media to link Y2K and gun sale increases, IMHO the increase is more likely due to a fear of losing our 2nd ammendment rights.

"Grab 'em while you can..."

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), September 24, 1999.


If anybody is interested, the story can be read at http://www.cbs.com/flat/section_3420.html (not sure about making hotlinks). They also have video for those with multimedia.

-- Snickers (whereami@here.com), September 24, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ