Fearful of a Coronavirus Backlash, Some Asian-Americans Are Stocking Up on Guns [View all]
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...
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