{"id":73728,"date":"2020-03-31T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=73728"},"modified":"2020-03-30T08:35:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T13:35:16","slug":"a-conservative-is-a-liberal-thats-been-mugged-by-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=73728","title":{"rendered":"A Conservative Is A Liberal That’s Been Mugged (By Reality)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few years ago, when The Walking Dead <\/em>was dominating the cable schedule, I noted – maybe here, but probably on Facebook – that the message was hard to miss, for everyone but<\/em>, I suspect, the show’s creators; crisis breeds conservatism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one has to focus on finding toilet paper and eggs, and is silently eyeing the property and violent crime rates in the neighborhood, hectoring people about pronouns and carbon footprints, at least for the moderately sane, slides down the priority list <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And gun control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gun shops on the outskirts of Blue America report a surge of new purchases more brisk than the Obama years – and heavily comprising first-time, often left-of center, gun owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I caught this piece, in BearingArms.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pull quote:<\/p>\n\n\n\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>

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>

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

\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><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whoops. Did I say Bearing Arms? <\/em>I meant The New Yorker<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a new gun owner? Perhaps coming from the left? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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