Gun sales are through the roof in the run-up to tomorrow's election. NBC News reports that it's largely to first-time buyers. Which is to say, people who do not already own firearms: liberals, women and suburban seniors disturbed by constant right-wing threats, fantasies and promises of another civil war.
"People who don't normally think about firearms are being forced to contemplate something outside their universe," said Dan Eldridge, owner of Maxon Shooter's Supplies and Indoor Range in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Illinois.
The number of first-time buyers has skyrocketed this year, according to industry analysts, trade groups and the CEO of major gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson Brands, Mark Peter Smith. In a Sept. 3 conference call with investors, Smith estimated that firearms neophytes accounted for about 40 percent of sales this year, an estimate he called conservative and "double the national average" in past years.
More guns, more deaths. One freakonomic consequence of this, I suspect, will be a lot more murdered domestic abusers.
