The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
NOTE: The following excerpt is from the BOTW archives of April 8, 2009:
Blighty’s Butterfield
Chris Ayres of London’s Times is puzzled by what seems to him a paradox:
If anything, the recent shootings have inspired more Americans to buy guns, recession or no recession.
In fact, all over the country they are stocking up on as many pistols, rifles, and shotguns as possible before the Obama Administration bans or taxes them.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI carried out more than 4.2 million background checks on behalf of gundealers from November to January (a check is required with every sale), up 31 per cent on the same period in the previous year.
Interestingly, however, violent crime rates have at the same time been falling in Los Angeles, New York and other big American cities. The experts are at loss as to explain why this should be happening.
Hmm, could it be because the prospect of armed victims acts as a deterrent? This doesn’t occur to Ayres, but he does offer a theory of his own:
People are buying so many guns that the criminals are simply running out of bullets. Or as one firing instructor explained to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper: “The ammo is being snapped up as soon as it comes in. People are in a frenzy. It’s kind of like that run on Elmo dolls.”
We think our explanation is more likely–but if Ayres’s is true too, so much the better.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
