Say there was a mass shooting in which scores of children were killed.  What would be your immediate reaction?  Go out and buy as many assault weapons as possible, of course!

There is such a demand for assault weapons and bullets right now that almost every store in the U.S. is sold out of them.  This is not entirely surprising given that there is a decent portion of the population that is of a certain mindset that the government is going to come get them.

There are a few other things in play here, though.  First, Obama was just re-elected.  Gun sales skyrocketed the first time he was elected because everyone thought he would take away their guns.  And he totally did if you consider expanding gun rights taking away guns.  Now, with his re-election, gun sales were already climbing before Sandy Hook happened.  And he’s totally going to take away guns this time.  He was just waiting for a massacre like Sandy Hook to happen to give him an excuse to take away our guns.

At least there’s real talk this time about doing SOMETHING about guns to fuel this Black Friday-like mad dash to get guns.  Even though all it is is talk.  So at least it’s somewhat understandable this time around.

What absolutely baffles me, though, is that people are rushing to buy body armor as well.  Is that the way that people actually think the country is headed?  You must wear body armor at all times to avoid being shot?  Or is this more a “the government is going to come get us any moment now” purchase?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, guess what else is being sold in larger quantities than ever.  Bulletproof backpacks for children.  Here, Johnny, take your bulletproof backpack to school.  You can use it to rush the shooter and take him out!  Of course, I don’t think that’s what the purchasers of said backpacks have in mind.  They think the backpacks will protect the kid as he flees the shooter.  Because kids always have their backpacks with them in school and they’re totally not stored in their lockers during the day.  Oh, wait, it’s the opposite of that, isn’t it?