{"id":75776,"date":"2022-01-03T11:35:45","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=75776"},"modified":"2022-01-03T11:35:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:35:45","slug":"75776","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=75776","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

When Rich People Are Under Threat, What Do They Reach For?<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll grant the point that voting in Beverly Hills was a\u00a0red spot in the middle of blue<\/a>, but 44% of the folks would still forcibly take guns away from ordinary people.<\/p>\n

So what does it look like when\u00a0rich people come under threat<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\n

In Beverly Hills, even the purchase of a firearm comes with certain\u2026<\/span>expectations. The city\u2019s only gun store, Beverly Hills Guns, is a \u201cconcierge\u00a0<\/span>service\u201d by appointment only, for a largely affluent clientele. And business is\u00a0<\/span>booming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since opening in July 2020, the store has seen upscale residents from\u00a0<\/span>Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly in a panic following several\u00a0<\/span>high-profile smash-and-grab and violent home invasion robberies. The\u00a0<\/span>apparent siege has brought in a daily stream of anxious business owners and\u00a0<\/span>prominent actors, real estate moguls and film execs, says owner Russell\u00a0<\/span>Stuart. Most are arming themselves for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning I sold six shotguns in about an hour to people that say, \u2018I\u00a0<\/span>want a home defense shotgun,\u2019\u201d says Stuart, whose store is discreetly\u00a0<\/span>located in a Beverly Hills office building, with no sign on the doors, down the\u00a0<\/span>hall from a diamond dealer. \u201cEveryone has a general sense of constant fear,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>which is very sad. We\u2019re used to this being like Mayberry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That fear has the wealthiest of local gentry contemplating every more\u00a0<\/span>elaborate security measures: armored luxury cars, safe rooms and bullet-<\/span>proof glass in their homes. One client asked about creating the \u201cTony Stark-<\/span>level\u201d security of a half-dozen automated drones to hover over his house,\u00a0<\/span>says Stuart, whose gun store is part of his larger security company, Force\u00a0<\/span>Protective Agency. \u201cIf you want the Gucci package, it\u2019s going to cost money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The security business is experiencing a rebound after a couple of diminished\u00a0<\/span>years because of the pandemic. Some firms had their on-site security guards\u00a0<\/span>sent home for health and social distancing reasons. Not anymore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Beverly Hills, the craving for additional security dates to the riot that\u00a0<\/span>followed an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020, with\u00a0<\/span>unprecedented looting along Rodeo Drive that left broken boutique windows\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>beneath beloved luxury brands: Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Michael Kors, MCM,\u00a0<\/span>Ermenegildo Zegna. Last March, a $500,000 Richard Mille watch was stolen\u00a0<\/span>at gunpoint from a diner at the Il Pastaio restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The Dec. 1 home-<\/span>invasion robbery and shooting death of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, 81,\u00a0<\/span>in her Trousdale Estates home, only accelerated the arms race among the\u00a0<\/span>affluent.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m shocked.\u00a0 You mean they want BLM to destroy your city but not their own?\u00a0 In other news, they are demanding the police\u00a0do something about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore announced in November he would be setting up a task force to combat home-invasion robberies, which have targeted celebrities and upscale restaurants, according to the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/a>. Moore indicated the department had not seen violent holdups \u201clike this in decades,\u201d The Times reported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wonder where this task force will concentrate their efforts?\u00a0 Anyway, the rich folks know the police can\u2019t be there all of the time.\u00a0 They want shotguns.\u00a0 They want Gucci protection.\u00a0 They want up-armored cars.\u00a0 They want drones.<\/p>\n

If you demand the same thing, 44% of them will tell you to pound sand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Rich People Are Under Threat, What Do They Reach For? We\u2019ll grant the point that voting in Beverly Hills was a\u00a0red spot in the middle of blue, but 44% of the folks would still forcibly take guns away from ordinary people. So what does it look like when\u00a0rich people come under threat? In Beverly … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75776","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=75776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75777,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75776\/revisions\/75777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}