{"id":46425,"date":"2020-03-30T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=46425"},"modified":"2020-03-30T09:25:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:25:21","slug":"46425","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=46425","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all that long ago these types were having conniptions about people who were using the wrong ‘gender pronoun’.
\nA real<\/em> crisis apparently brings things into a clearer perspective, and from the \u00fcberproggie New Yorker<\/em> magazine, no less.<\/p>\n

\n

Choose Your Weapon<\/a><\/p>\n

As shoppers stock up for a potential Armageddon, an Oregon gun store has sold out of ARs and .308 rifles, many of which went to first-time liberal buyers.<\/p>\n

There was no complimentary hand sanitizer for the concerned customers of Gorge Guns, in Hood River, Oregon, on a recent Friday. Erika Bales, the shop\u2019s twenty-nine-year-old owner, wasn\u2019t worried about the virus. \u201cI figure, just let nature take its course,\u201d she said. Her customers were less nonchalant. Bales, who had a neat manicure and a number of tattoos, said that, days earlier, people had begun realizing that \u201ceveryone\u2019s buying things and everything\u2019s gonna be gone.\u201d The resulting rush was, for her, unprecedented. She was out of ARs and .308 rifles. A few shotguns remained, and she told shoppers that they could saw them off, to a legal length. \u201cObama didn\u2019t even bring in these numbers,\u201d Bales said.<\/p>\n

At noon, a woman in her sixties came in. She wore plastic gloves and had a scarf wrapped around her face, and she traced a wide arc around the only other non-employee in the store. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this since the beginning of March,\u201d she said, referring to her protective gear. \u201cI don\u2019t feel sick at all. I\u2019m self-quarantining.\u201d She left her house only for essential activities. This was one. \u201cI\u2019m buying a gun,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on, \u201cMy son was a little upset about it.\u201d (He preferred his bow and arrow.) \u201cI\u2019m old and I live alone, and we don\u2019t know if there\u2019s going to be civil unrest. The world is not the same.\u201d She added, \u201cIt didn\u2019t have to be this way.\u201d Unlike many of the shop\u2019s regulars, she was no fan of Trump: \u201cHe\u2019s a divider all the way. First he said, \u2018Five people have died, big deal.\u2019 Now he\u2019s saying, \u2018I always knew it\u2019d be dangerous.\u2019\u00a0\u201d Talk turned to Portland. \u201cIt\u2019s a ghost town,\u201d a young woman said. Her name was Rosemary, and she was helping Bales out, since the restaurant where she waited tables had closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to go in cities anymore, anyway,\u201d the customer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these rumors about them putting this country in full lockdown are inaccurate,\u201d Rosemary said. \u201cIt\u2019s a scare tactic. It\u2019s not like all of a sudden we\u2019re gonna wake up one day and everyone is sick and the whole world is ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d the customer said. \u201cThe exponential growth is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, we\u2019re definitely repopulating, if nobody is at work,\u201d Rosemary said cheerily. \u201cWe won\u2019t have a shortage of humans, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bales helped her customer choose a weapon. (\u201cPick three,\u201d the customer told her.) As Bales rummaged around, the customer said, \u201cI\u2019m going to have a soldier train me. A friend of my son\u2019s.\u201d Bales returned with the first option. \u201cA .22 Mag,\u201d she said. \u201cHolds thirty rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The customer peered at the gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a Kel-Tec PMR-30,\u201d Bales said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the color of it,\u201d the customer said. \u201cIt\u2019s not black.\u201d She picked it up. \u201cIt feels good. And it\u2019s got a safety. I\u2019m going to take this one. You\u2019ve got ammo for it, right?\u201d Bales nodded and noted a few of the gun\u2019s features. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re accurate, it\u2019ll do damage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just going to be for close range,\u201d the customer said. \u201cIn my house. If it happens.\u201d (Asked what \u201cit\u201d was, she said, \u201cIn two months, if the cities are starving, they\u2019re gonna come out. And I understand that.\u201d) Bales piled boxes of ammunition on the counter. \u201cI\u2019ll take them all,\u201d the customer said. She ducked outside to get her wallet from the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s a liberal,\u201d Bales said, once the door closed. \u201cThere\u2019s so many coming in. First-time-gun-owner liberals. I\u2019ve probably seen ten this week. It\u2019s so funny, because I hope it just turns them on to liking the Second Amendment. I mean, the Constitution was created for a reason. To protect us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The customer returned. The bill was nearly seven hundred dollars, including electronic ear protection and sixteen boxes of bullets. She could come back and pick up the gun once her digital background check cleared. The customer asked, \u201cIf I don\u2019t get approved, what happens?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou already got approved,\u201d Bales said, glancing at a computer, with some surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cO.K.! Can I take it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Some people go through fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new gun owner asked if there was a shooting range nearby. She asked if she needed a concealed-carry permit. She asked how to carry the gun out. \u201cI can\u2019t believe this!\u201d she said, stepping into the world with her brand-new gun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not all that long ago these types were having conniptions about people who were using the wrong ‘gender pronoun’. A real crisis apparently brings things into a clearer perspective, and from the \u00fcberproggie New Yorker magazine, no less. Choose Your Weapon As shoppers stock up for a potential Armageddon, an Oregon gun store has sold … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-unintended-consequences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46425"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46428,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46425\/revisions\/46428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}