Pat Dollard | Young Americans

A Barry Merry History Lesson:

A Barry Merry History Lesson: Volume Two, The AG:

Schooling The Dolts:

It’s a madhouse outside the gun shops, too

Tamara Dietrich - (Daily Press)

black man gets elected president and half the country dives for the panic room, buying up guns and squirreling away supplies like fatalists awaiting the End of Days.

That’s an exaggeration, of course.

Barack Obama is biracial, not black.

And it’s not half the country diving, but a goodly portion of us, judging by soaring gun sales post-Election Day that have even hit Hampton Roads.

“Stock up on guns, ammunition, and canned goods,” a reader named “Church Slave” suggests in our online Topix system. “And maybe a candy bar or two.”

I’m no stranger to the idea of laying in supplies for lean times; I have Mormons in the family.

What is new is the drumbeat of imminent doom running through feedback posts as readers digest the idea of Barack Obama in the White House.

“Hee hee heeeee …” chortles “HG Robinson” in the very first post to reporter Peter Dujardin’s story last week on the local run on weaponry.

“Clearly President Obama is looking to ban handguns and close loopholes in the law first chance he can. … You gun nuts better stock up now.”

First, Obama hasn’t said he wants to ban handguns. And second, my own theory is that HG is a so-called gun nut, himself or herself, just priming the pump.

I have similar suspicions about a poster who signs off as “Tyrone” (really? Not Denzel or Tyrell or Sambo?) and taunts that he will “break into your house and rape you” and “Nobody should have guns but us thugs!”

Sure enough, some dupe bites.

“Bring it on Tyrone,” growls a “mr white,” “and you will be one DEAD African!!!!!”

Intelligent discourse, it’s not — it’s the pointless baiting and biting you get when a dog chases its own tail.

I’m not clear if this jittery segment of the electorate expects a race war or just the plain old-fashioned kind.

And if they say it’s just the plain old-fashioned kind, do we believe them?

“People are concerned that they might not have the right to buy them later,” York County gun shop manager Bill Winfree said in Friday’s paper. “It’s an unknown, but they don’t want to get caught without it.”

His customers’ rationale is Obama’s position on guns, which Winfree defines as “he doesn’t want us to own any.”

Pardon my French, but au contraire. Obama has said he supports the Second Amendment (which specifies a “well-regulated” militia, by the way) as well as “common sense” gun laws. He says he doesn’t approve of taking shotguns, rifles or handguns from law-abiding citizens.

He likely will, however, oppose military-style assault weapons and concealed weapons. I don’t happen to agree with his position on concealed weapons, but I’m not about to rush out and buy a Bushmaster because of it.

No, it smells like something else is fueling the buying frenzy that happy gun shop owners say is bigger than Y2K. Bigger than 9/11 . Bigger than Christmas.

And it smells a lot like oh-my-god-there’s-a-black-man-in-the-White-House.

Simplistic? Pot calling the kettle.

A reader named “CAT” posits the same — perhaps subconscious — motive:

“You folks fear that with a black (muslim, terrorist, socialist, whatever) guy in the White House, somehow, crime will increase and, more specifically, black criminals will become more emboldened.”

So the wagons circle on slander and innuendo, and gun shops across the country report record sales. One shop owner in Georgia, the AP says, even put up an “Obama sale” sign — then took it down after complaints that it looked more like incitement than enticement.

For, don’t forget — Obama isn’t just a “black guy.” He’s a secret Muslim. An Arab. A pal of terrorists.

So readers brim with helpful advice to buy “one gun a month … in Virginia, it’s the law!” FYIs on a “decent sale on ammo” and mail-in rebates for gun purchases. Boasts about an elephant gun and threats to shoot whatever part of burglars “the Rottis don’t eat.”

“Oh yeah … buy the guns and ammo now boys,” one reader chortles, “… the resistance is coming!”

Resistance? Did I miss the memo?

“The election came,” Scottsdale gun shop owner Manny Chee said in one news report, “and now it’s just a madhouse in here.”

Amen, brother. Out here, too.

Tamara Dietrich can be reached at tdietrich@dailypress.com or 247-7892.

Me: What’s that old saying about “He who laughs first … laughs last?”

Illinois State Rifle Assoc. Exec. Director On Barry’s Gun Hate History