US sales of guns and ammunition soar amid coronavirus panic buying

Between the economy, the oil price war, the politicization of politics, and most pressingly the virus, 2019ncov is proving to be the potential trigger for wide scale geopolitical change and possibly insecurity. States are going to go into quarantine one by one with little to no coordination. Governments and law agencies will be commandeering emergency powers. We are sitting on a major pressure point and it's impossible to predict the outcome, but there is a high likelihood of political instability and/or violence, even within America.

If the economy doesn't recover soon, people are going to grow increasingly hungry and desperate without radical federal measures. It is prudent to be prepared to defend yourself now because this is shaping up to be the kind of scenario where you really cannot rely on first responders to protect you.

Edit: I meant "polarization of politics" but autocorrect may be hinting at something profound...

Exactly. There's no "panic" about it, it's just people being reasonable and taking prudent precautions.

Having a gun in your home also increase the probability that one of your kids can find it and kill another of your kids by accident. It is a tradeoff.

As a non-American, I’m imagining this scene playing out with armed people.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/03/07/coronavi...

Far from making fun of Americans, I am scared for them. This crisis has already proven how irrational people can be, and rapidly we revert to basic tribalism, giving in to base instincts. Adding (even more) guns to this mix is a bad sign. But in an environment where trust in authority has been systematically destroyed, it is, a sadly understandable response.

Stay safe, and remember that most of the people you might be defending yourselves from are probably just as desperate (if not more so) than you.

Trust in the system is at an all-time low. At Amherst College, the administration decided shortly before Spring Break that students should not return after the break in order not to bring back coronavirus to campus and spread it there. There would be accommodations when necessary.

There was a sit-in to protest against the very sensible decision. One would think that at the second-best college in the nation the administration would be aware that some students may have difficulties coming up with emergency funds for travel, that there may be travel bans or that some students might not wish to return to unstable living conditions at home. But the students did not trust the system to work for them.

Some stage sit-ins, others buy firearms.