Fearful of a Coronavirus Backlash, Some Asian-Americans Are Stocking Up on Guns

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://www.thetrace.org/2020/03/coronavirus-gun-sales-washington-california-asian-americans/

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to multiply, many Americans are emptying store shelves of hand sanitizer, bleach, and canned goods. But there’s an acute fear among Asian-Americans that the virus’s origins in China will spark a violent xenophobic backlash. Along the West Coast, where the worst outbreaks of coronavirus in the United States have occurred, those fears seem to be spurring a surge in gun sales.

“People are panicking because they don’t feel secure,” said David Liu, who is Chinese-American and owns Arcadia Firearm and Safety, just east of Los Angeles. “They worry about a riot or maybe that people will start to target the Chinese.”...

...As The Los Angeles Times has reported, since the first novel coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, Asian-Americans have experienced intensifying venom, including bullying, racist comments, and harassment. And, on February 24, a man of East Asian descent was assaulted in central London. One of the assailants reportedly said, “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country.”

“The main thing I’m hearing is that they don’t want to get jumped because of their race,” said Cole Gaughran, the internet sales manager at Wade’s Eastside Guns in Bellevue, Washington. Gaughran said his store has seen a sixfold increase in sales in the same two weeks. His new customers, most of them first-time gun owners, were almost entirely of Asian descent, he said. Bellevue is just a 15 minute drive from Kirkland, where 11 people have died from the virus...

I urge these new gun owners to obtain competent instruction, practice regularly, and securely store their firearms
as necessary.

As for violent racists, I'd say this to them:

If you play stupid games, you might just win some prizes you really don't want...

[dewsgirl]

1. I can't really say I blame them and pray they follow all safety

measures.

[sarisataka]

2. I would say these fears among Asian Americans

Are not unfounded. During the LA riots their businesses and communities were targeted; the police essentially abandoned them. Had they not joined together to provide themselves armed security things would have been worse.

They know the neighbor today may violently turn on them tomorrow for something they are not at fault.

[jpak]

3. Only stupid gun nuts would blame Chinese

So, yeah they should be worried.

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. Thank you for demonstrating that xenophobia leads to blaming those not responsible:

Disinterested readers will note that my interlocutor did not present any examples
of "stupid gun nuts" "blam(ing) Chinese"...


https://www.npr.org/2020/03/02/811363404/when-xenophobia-spreads-like-a-virus

When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus

...A common theme across our responses: Public transit has been really hostile. Roger Chiang, who works in San Francisco, recalled a white woman glaring at him on the train to work, covering her nose and mouth. When he told her in a joking tone that he didn't have the coronavirus, she replied that she "wasn't racist — she just didn't want to get sick."

Allison Park from Brooklyn told us that when visiting D.C., she saw a man making faces at her on the Metro train. She tried to move away from him, but he wouldn't stop. After a while, she said, he confronted her outright, saying: "Get out of here. Go back to China. I don't want none of your swine flu here."...

...Even a single cough or sneeze can trigger harassment. Amy Jiravisitcul from Boston said a man on a bus muttered about "diseased Chinese people" when she sneezed into her sleeve. When she confronted him, he told her: "Cover your fucking mouth." When South San Franciscan Diane Tran sneezed into her elbow in a hallway in a hospital, where she was getting a flu shot, she said a middle-aged white woman yelled a racist slur at her.

Children have been targeted, too — by other children and adults alike. Devin Cabanilla, from Seattle, told us that a Costco food sample vendor told his Korean wife and mixed-race son to "get away" from the samples, questioning whether they had come from China. Company executives later apologized to his family, but he's still shaken. "It just reminds me that when people look at us, they don't see us as American," he said...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/us/coronavirus-racist-attacks-against-asian-americans/index.html

What's spreading faster than coronavirus in the US? Racist assaults and ignorant attacks against Asians

(CNN)In New York City, a man assaults a woman wearing a face mask, calling her a "diseased b****."

On a Los Angeles subway, a man proclaims Chinese people are filthy and says "every disease has ever came from China."

Rampant ignorance and misinformation about the novel coronavirus, experts say, has led to racist and xenophobic attacks against fellow Americans or anyone in the US who looks East Asian.
"With news of the coronavirus, we've seen an uptick in fear of people who look like this," said Rosalind Chou, a sociology professor at Georgia State University. "Real people are affected."...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/uk/coronavirus-racist-attack-police-intl-scli-gbr/index.html

London police seek four men after 'racist' coronavirus attack on East Asian student

London (CNN)

Police have released images of four men they wish to speak to in connection with a "racially aggravated assault" where suspects targeted a Singapore man of Chinese ethnicity in central London.

Jonathan Mok wrote on Facebook that he was attacked by a group of people on Oxford Street on February 24, noting that one of his assailants referenced the coronavirus outbreak during the attack.

London's Metropolitan Police said the 23-year-old was punched, kicked and sustained facial injuries in the attack, which comes at a time of increasing xenophobia against people of East Asian appearance in the UK and around the world. Police told CNN on Thursday that no arrests have yet been made.

"This attack left the victim shaken and hurt. There's no room on our streets for this kind of violent behaviour and we are committed to finding the perpetrators," Detective Sergeant Emma Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday.

[47of74]

6. I do not blame them one bit for arming up

Nor do I blame or judge anyone else on our side who feels the need to be armed during this time.

And violent racists who do win prizes they don't really want after playing stupid games need to realize they brought it on themselves.

I stopped judging liberals who feel the need to arm themselves back in November of 2016.