Anton went on a gun-tastic adventure yesterday.

I spent almost the entire day (10-5) on a cross-LA journey to buy a firearm or two.

It ended up being fairly BATSHIT, given it seems SO WAS ALL OF CALIFORNIA.

This thread is about my observations about what's going on right now.

1. So, the journey took me between 4 different gun stores and sporting goods store.

You might ask, why so many?

That's because pretty much everything (that isn't a bolt action, target gun or big stupid revolver) is SOLD OUT.

EVERYWHERE.

2. Do you know how mental it is to walk into multiple gun stores on a single day and see mostly empty cases?

It feels like you've shown up sans pants, late, to a zombie apocalypse.

That same look is on everyone else's face as they walk in too, realizing they too have no pants.

3. So why was it such a pain? Well because in Cali you need a Firearm Safety Certificate to buy a gun.

The problem is that with so much biz happening, and limits on store occupancy v. C19, NO ONE will administer the test to you cause it eats up 30 mins of a sales person's time.

4. So I bounced between several stores that wouldn't even let me in without one.

Then a dude in line told me to go to a sporting good store, as they've always done them. Went to one.

They wouldn't do it without a gun purchase... But they had no guns to sell...

what

5. And in the time it took for him to tell me this, for me to confirm that there were no guns on the shelf, briefly talk to the manager....

7 other people showed up at this same store to ask the same question.

I am not kidding.

6. So exasperated, I just type in, again, 'gun store' to google maps in the hopes I've missed a place to check.

I had.

Call them up, turns out they're do the cert test. Free if you buy a gun, 35 bucks if you don't. Hell yes. So I roll over.

7. So before I describe this (awesome) place, I want to provide some context.

The prior shops I'd been to were... mostly what you'd expect from a gun shop.

Old whites w. 'Murican flags on the wall that grouse 'dern't vert dermacrat' any time you comment on the law/regulation.

8. (which, as an aside, was pretty hilarious to me, given we were talking about antique guns at one point, and this dude was conflating the distinct federal laws about Curios & Relics and pre-1899 antiques. If you're gonna complain about the law, maybe actually... know it?)

9. Anyway, so I'm at 'tilt' for that bullshit. And then I walk into this other store.

And I am the only white dude in it.

Store is run entirely by BIPOC folk, and every other customer in there is as well. Most of the customers are young. Almost everyone is taking the CFSC test.

10. Whole vibe is different.

Tshirt on display next to me says BLACK AND ARMED.

Fuck.

Yes.

The dude's who run the shop end up being not only cool, but fucking -hilarious-.

Felt like I was in a Cohen Bros. film.

Dude's had me in stitches the whole time.

11. Anywho, do the test. Pick something up for myself (or rather, buy it, get paperwork, I can actually pick it up in 15 days, which is fine by me. 15 days of excited anticipation as far as I'm concerned).

But given all the paperwork, I had time to talk to owner a bunch...

12. Turns out, all these sold out stores... it's almost 90% NEW business.

People who have never purchased a firearm before.

This carried through every shop I went to.

Chatted about the empty cases.

Saw all the new buyers having stuff explained to them.

13. I don't think people understand what's going on right now.

This isn't 'gun nuts' mass stocking up (those folk are just who's buying all the damn ammo out online).

This is Americans of all political alignments, races, etc. arming themselves for the first time.

LOTS of them.

14. Domestic gun companies are at above standard production capacity right now, fully spun up, getting things out as fast as they can. Even using like shitty cardboard boxes so they don't have to wait for the printers... And everything is still instantly sold out or back ordered.

15. If you do the napkin math on the 65k gun stores in the country, historic sales patterns, estimate what through-put would have to be to sell things out, combine it with anecdotes about 80-90% of biz being first time gun buyers, you get some truly batshit numbers out.

16. I would wager serious money that somewhere between 5 and 10% of the adult of the US that didn't own a firearm in January, now owns a firearm. It might even be higher.

That's fucking unprecedented.

It blows out of the water the post 9/11, and Obama-being-elected reactions.

17. And the reason is because this one isn't uniformly partisan (racist) like those were.

This is driven by the country as a whole reacting to a lack of faith in government writ large, and an exploding paranoia about their fellow citizens.

Can't think of another time like it.

18. So yeah.

Yesterday felt like a day that a week long for me.

This is not just a flash in a pan thing.

This is month 6 of the most intense, sustained period of civilian up-armament in the US since what?

The Great Depression?

Buckle the fuck up.