News from the Pandemic: Homo sapiens, the Dangerous Species

No one doubts the danger posed by the coronavirus as it spreads around the world. But perhaps the greatest danger posed by this virus is that it provides opportunities for a truly dangerous species—us—to create havoc.

Last week, the week when Americans started to really take notice of the virus, many people started buying up guns and ammunition. According to this article in Time magazine, it is happening not just in rural gun-nut areas but in urban areas as well.

(Time magazine photo)

The people who are buying the guns will not openly say that they plan to use these guns to loot or shoot their neighbors. It is, in fact, unlikely that any of the buyers are thinking about doing this. They think that they are stocking up on weaponry to defend themselves in the event that other people come to loot them.

But this situation could quickly change. One way it could change is for a rumor to get started that government troops are on their way to exert force on people who are building up stores of guns and ammo. These very people would then get their guns ready to use against the government. Mentally, they are already on a hair-trigger response.

The other way it could change is for the pandemic to go on long enough that basic commodities become unavailable, or that water and electricity services are interrupted. Then some people might start trying to take things that their neighbors have stocked up. The moment that this begins, the gun-nuts might decide that, if looting has started, they might as well join in.

In both cases, building up stockpiles of weapons becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Gun nuts already spread rumors about dangers posed by the federal government—usually, but not only, when that government has a Democratic administration. They have already invaded and taken over federal property. And they have already stocked up their supplies and weapons, to be ready for a crisis. Some of them have told me so. They are ready to rumble, and this pandemic may be all it takes to trigger their pent-up violence.

One gun shop owner said that it looked like something out of a Twilight Zone episode. He was probably referring to “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” in which invading space aliens got humans to destroy themselves simply by implanting fears.