Hindsight from The New Gun Week January 1, 2000
The Next Thousand Years
by Joseph P. Tartaro,
Executive Editor
The date on this issue of Gun Week says "Jan. 1, 2000," but it's not Y2K yet.
In fact, this issue-the first dated in the new year-was mailed before Christmas, and the next issue also will be mailed before Jan. 1.
So at this point, it is impossible to tell whether the Y2K bug has caused any serious disruptions, or not.
Certainly government agencies are antsy, and so are many Americans. Most of us have received mailed assurances from banks, utilities and other every day resources that they are Y2K complaint and don't anticipate any problems. But these assurances are often accompanied by reminders that consumer should keep hard copies of financial records-just in case.
Concerns about possible terrorist acts connected to the millennium were heightened just before Christmas when a man was arrested just north of Seattle for trying to bring explosive materials into the US from Canada. A day or two after that arrest, it was discovered that a lathe stash of explosives had been stolen in Arizona.
The media, who have been hyping the prospects of Y2K disasters and social upheaval for many months, did all they could to milk the arrest of the suspected bomber, linking him to Osama ben Ladin, the man the CIA claims was responsible for two earlier US embassy bombings.
Government Ready
The news reports as this is written on Dec. 19 assure us that the FBI, CIA and other government agencies are all on the alert for Y2K trouble. Associated Press even filed a story that suggested that most Mormons were prepared for any eventuality, because the Mormon church has recommended stockpiling family and community supplies long before Y2K became the media bogeyman.Less than two weeks before the millennium, I suspect that any Americans who were going to take special precautions have already done so. Reports from across the country suggest that a lot of firearms and ammunition were sold during the past 10 or 12 months by people who were not taking any chances. So too were all kinds of items, from extra water and MREs to emergency heating equipment and generators.
But I suspect that most Americans made only the slightest extra preparation for surviving emergencies. Just as most people make minor preparations at the first warning of natural disasters-usually hurricanes and blizzards-that's probably how most Americans have prepared for Y2K, if at all. Fresh batteries, a transistor radio, some extra cans of soup, boxes of crackers and some tins of tuna fish, canned meat or cheese are probably the most that anyone laid away for survival.
I understand that some banks plan to be open on Jan. 1, not because they anticipate the collapse of their institutions, but because they want to reassure their customers. People who work in banks usually have a busy time at the end of a quarter or a year, so this won't be as extraordinary as some might suspect. Banks being staffed and open on a holiday may be a bit unusual, but it may help reassure folks and defuse any panic.
On the other hand, the folks in the media, whose "the-sky-is-falling" mentality makes them secretly hope that they could be the ones who could one-up Orson Well's fictional War of the Worlds broadcast, are also getting ready. CNN has announced that it will do 100 hours of Y2K telecasting. WorldNetDaily has linked up with the Talk Radio Network to begin their non-stop Y2K coverage at 8 p.m. on Dec. 31.
Long Advance Warning
My own view is that we are not going to have to wait until the ball drops in New York City's Time Square to know whether the "00" year has caused major disruptions around the world. When the crowds go wild in the eastern US, the millennium will have dawned 14 hours earlier in Japan, seven hours earlier in Moscow, five hours earlier in London, and a half-hour earlier in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.The world news media will have been reporting any Year 2000 surprises hours before midnight strikes in the eastern US; so it is unlikely that anyone anywhere in the US will be caught totally by surprise.
People have been promoting and encouraging extraordinary New Year celebrations for the beginning of a new century. Hotels, restaurants and casinos hiked prices and urged people to beat the rush. There were also many reports that the celebrations would be so vast that champagne and other sparkling wines were going to be in short supply.
But again, as this is written in the final days of December, if you want to go out to celebrate the new year, you probably won't have too much trouble making reservations at most places. And if you decide to stay home with friends and family, your local liquor store probably has as much champagne as your supermarket has soft drinks.
I've always doubted that Y2K would usher in problems of extraordinary preparations, and I get the feeling that most Americans feel the same way. I hope we're not the ones who are wrong.
Changing the Familiar
All of the foregoing doesn't mean that the new year will not bring changes. In fact, some have already taken place-including right here in Gun Week.With this issue, you will notice a different type face being used for all of the body text in this newspaper. If it appears to be larger than the type you have been reading here for the past half-dozen years, that's the general idea.
The new type face is called Century Schoolbook and replaces the old body text type called Times New Roman PS. Actually, the new type is the same size, and has the same leading between lines, as the old text face. However, it is physically larger and more open, which should make it easier to read (hopefully, even by our proofreaders).
You may also notice that with this issue we will be dropping classified advertising-called "The Trading Post" for many years-from the pages of Gun Week. The classified advertising section has been replaced with a larger Shooters Illustrated Guide section, which will also feature more new product editorial photos and announcements.
Classified advertising in Gun Week has been undergoing significant change over the last 34 years. The number of classified ad pages has declined steadily over the years, primarily because of changes in federal firearms laws, but in more recent years because of publications that are primarily "shopper" guides, and also because of the Internet. Restrictions in mail order sales played a key part, but an even bigger influence was the decline in the number of FFLs in the past four or five years.
As we enter the year 2000, we can expect other things to influence the future of gun community and the firearms industry. Legislative threats, lawsuits and the overriding power of insurance companies may force changes on all of us.
That doesn't mean that we have to fear the new millennium. Guns have been around in one form or another for almost a thousand years. We should all do our best to assure that they are around for the next thousand years as well.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com