Coronavirus - USA arms race

Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis has arrived in the US too...

From Los Angeles to Houston, from Philadelphia to Denver in Colorado, gun stores have done more business than ever. Growth in sales was particularly high in California, New York and Washington.

LOS ANGELES - While the rest of the world prepares with disinfectants, alcohol and food supplies, another thing happens in America, unexpected even for those who have lived there for decades: the race to buy weapons. Guns, machine guns, ammunition: the thousands of arms stores across America (dozens and dozens only in Los Angeles) suddenly found themselves with rows of 50-100 people outside their shop doors, and shelves emptied of all ammunition and weapons , giving rise to tweets of all kinds, from the humorous ones of the type "what do they think to do, shoot the virus to destroy it?", to "will have to break through the door of my house with an AK 47 to take away my 90 rolls of paper toilet! " (it is no coincidence that the precious asset has disappeared for more than a week across America and the few stores that have refueled it sell a roll to the family by pulling it out of hidden places under the cash box at the price of 2 dollars per roll). And there is no shortage of genuinely frightened comments about what has always been a fixation on Americans - the right to carry weapons - and what appears to be an instinctive and insane reaction to the pandemic and the first imposition of self-isolation by the American government.

In California, dozens of people lined up - without necessarily respecting the meter - in front of the Martin Redding weapons store in Culver City. "Politicians and anti-weapons have always told us that we don't need guns," said one of the young people standing in line. "But at the moment many people are really afraid and want to decide for themselves."

"It is the distrust of our politicians that leads people to think that they will have to defend themselves against both the National Guard - which apparently will be put on the streets in the next 72 hours - and against the same population, perhaps fearing thefts and raids on their homes. , ”Notes a thirty-year-old young pro Bernie Sanders who looked incredulously at the line of customers waiting to enter.

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From Los Angeles to Houston, from Philadelphia to Denver in Colorado, gun stores have done more business than ever. The growth in sales has been particularly high in the states most affected so far by the coronavirus - California, New York and Washington - but has also grown in less affected areas, where even first buyers fear a crumble of the social order while some owners of weapons fear that the government may use the state of emergency to limit the further purchase of weapons. In Oklahoma, a truck driver heading for Arizona bought $ 2,500 of weapons and ammunition, explaining, "You have to protect yourself from all kinds of things! The world seems to have gone mad. "