The friend I mentioned underwent training and licensing, before buying a gun.
I'm pretty fascinated by the gun thing. I can tell you without even knowing her that her training sucks and won't much help if she needs to use the gun. If you look at police shootings, even in good departments, most of them are fuck-ups. Even though they go through extensive training and are usually required to re-qualify with their weapons every year, cops still screw the pooch if they get in an actual shootout or dangerous situation. They fire wildly, they kill and wound innocent people, they kill fellow officers, and occasionally they kill an actual miscreant, who, more often than not, committed shoplifting. (Okay, I exaggerate a bit.) The fact remains that very little gun training actually prepares people to use a gun in a dangerous situation. (I should insert here that I'm licensed for concealed carry, because I wanted to go through the process for my job, although I only actually carried for one day and never did see anyone I felt free to shoot.) But: here in the states, there's this SHTF fantasy -- the Shit Hits the Fan, when society breaks down and everybody needs a black rifle and 10,000 rounds, minimum. There are entire racks of magazines devoted to the subject, and to what you should have in your bug-out bag, and whether your combat knife should be titanium or steel, and exactly which of 400 options you should whet your knife with.
Getting to the current rush of buyers, I suspect -- no way to prove it -- that 90% of the buyers already have a gun, and, most likely, several guns. It's a way of thinking. It may be nuts, but there it is.
