Black Friday winner: gun sales

[Dr Mordrid]

USA Today....

Guns are a big seller on Black Friday

WASHINGTON – In addition to the sleek flat-screen televisions, smartphones, computers and cut-rate designer clothing, Black Friday's shopping legions seized on another hot item for 2011: guns.

Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests for prospective buyers last Friday, smashing the single-day, all-time high by 32%, according to bureau records.

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.

The actual number of firearms sold last Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer. And the FBI does not track actual gun sales.

Some gun industry analysts attributed the unusual surge to a convergence of factors, including an increasing number of first-time buyers seeking firearms for protection and women who are being drawn to sport shooting and hunting.

Larry Keane, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said 25% of the purchases typically involve first-time buyers, many of them women.

"I think there also is a burgeoning awakening of the American public that they do have a constitutional right to own guns," Keane said.

Yet Keane said last Friday's number appeared to defy complete explanation. "It's really pretty amazing," he said.
>

[Evildead666]

They're gearing up for the after Xmas sales, and next years Black Friday

[Brian Ellis]

Seems there were more than one born every minute!

[Dr Mordrid]

Nope, da fool is the idiot who breaks in or tries to assault/mug/rape a well armed & trained citizen.

[Brian Ellis]

OK, of the 130,000 applicants, how many will kill or seriously injure an innocent person (or themselves)? My guess would be in the hundreds. How many will use a firearm to commit some other crime (or allow their gun to be used for same)?

These persons may have a constitutional right (very debatable wording in 2nd Amendment) but do they have the moral right?

[Dr Mordrid]

FYI ccw permit holders have one of the lowest crime rates of any demographic group, lower even than police officers, and accidental death by firearm is one of the lowest of causes running <1% of the total.

As for the 2nd Amendments interpretation, that fight's over. The US Supreme Court held in both 2010 (McDonald v. Chicago) and 2008 (DC v. Heller) that gun rights exist, that self defense is integral to the right, and it severely constrained municipalities ability to restrict their ownership - giving regulation to the States.

As for the States - all but Hawaii and Illinois either issue concealed weapons permits or have an unregulated carry policy. Here in Michigan if you carry with the weapon exposed no permit is required. Been like that since 1947.

Moral right? Is it moral to not protect your family if they are threatened? Yourself? Your neighbor?

I'd feel like an ass if I didn't. And I have done it.

[VJ]

Yes, but if somebody gets insured or killed by an accident, I assume it is not classified as a crime... And if they don't properly lock it away and it gets stolen/used by someone else, the owner technically also did not commit the crime.

I guess that gun craziness just is odd for the majority of us Europeans...

[Fat Tone]

If the murc server had de-duplication abilities it would save a lot of space on threads like this.

The US gun culture will always (I hope) be alien to most Europeans, and you will never change their minds.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yes, but if somebody gets insured or killed by an accident, I assume it is not classified as a crime... And if they don't properly lock it away and it gets stolen/used by someone else, the owner technically also did not commit the crime.

Not properly securing a weapon and it causing a death, usually that of a minor, is often charged as negligent homicide, manslaughter or whatever the prosecutor deems proper. To that end, guns come with action locks and gun safes can be purchased in most department, sports and hardware stores.

If ths gun is stolen and used then the criminal assumes responsibility.

[cjolley]

How do you go about protecting your family with a gun that's locked in a safe?

[VJ]

You throw the safe at the burglar...

But seriously: "properly secured" seems like a possible term that causes confusion. A gun cabinet with a window for instance: the window is probably easily smashed...? Is that then properly secured?

[cjolley]

Well to be fair, I think we are talking about gun safes, or trigger locks, not display cabinets.
Or, alternatively, like my gun whose trigger mechanism is not co-located with the gun it's self.
But then, I don't pretend I own it for protection.

My dogs and ax handle OTOH...

[VJ]

Probably my warped view, courtesy of Hollywood... guns in a locked display cabinet, with an easily smashed window...

[UtwigMU]

I'm not American but I know that quick release fingerprint or code panel safes for handguns exist.

I'm with Fat Tone on this one. There are many different peoples and countries in the World with different habits and culture and the sooner we refrain from wanting to change them or impose what we think is "right" on them the better. This goes for all countries, not just America. Let Americans have their guns and hidden boobs, let Middle East have their Islam, let us Euros have our socialism.


A point I'd like to add. The way we perceive value or danger of things is value/danger multiplied with likeliness. For instance winning lottery is very high value but very unlikely, so people take part in it. But if some topic is talked about/advertised a lot, then perception of likelihood of happening increases. For instance many people die every day slipping in their bath tubs but since media don't talk about it, almost no one is afraid of taking a bath and politicians are not talking about forbidding bathing. On the other hand, probability of being killed by legally owned weapon or terrorist attack is about on the order of magnitude of being killed by lightning or eaten by a shark and probably less than slipping in a bath tub or dieing in a plane. But since media keep raving about one or the other, people perceive it as more likely and more dangerous. Hence calls for gun laws or calls for reducing human rights in the name of protecting against terrorists fall on fertile ground.

[Dr Mordrid]

The gun(s) not being carried are in a 6 foot high gun safe that's bolted down. Department store item here.

Carrying a firearm in these parts is like mounting your cell phone case - you get up, slip the inside waistband (IWB) holster into your pants, clip it to the belt and carry it all day. With the female family members it depends on skirt or pants - skirt often gets a thigh holster and pants get either a female fitted IWB, bra or fanny pack holster. They're sold in many sports and womens stores.

The nightstand guns are in a biometric mini-safe bolted inside a headboard cabinet and there is a biometric shotgun clamp & Mossberg Tactical 500 12g Magnum in the closet, and these are all fitted with tactical light/laser combo units. All Walmart/Sears/K-Mart/sporting goods stuff, sold most everywhere - even the tactical lights. Cripes, even kids toy Airsoft guns (shoot soft 6mm plastic pellets) come with tactical lasers.

Funny how a lot of people exit-stage-anywhere when those lasers light up.