More thoughts on mind blowing December gun sales

The FBI reports 2.78 million gun buying background checks in December. And many of those buyers, in the grab-all-you-can panic after Feinstein's gun ban proposal, may have bought multiple guns.

So, it's conceivable that more than 3 million guns were bought last month. The number of buyers documented by background checks would likely have been higher had retail and distributor inventories not been stripped.

Garands being assembled, 1942

To show the extreme levels of gun buying here's a point to ponder: Total WWII wartime production of the M-1 Garand, the American military's primary battle rifle of the era, was just over 4 million.

I've had friends tell me police and firefighters (sometimes in uniform) have been showing up to buy guns at stores and gun shows. Are they buying backups to their department owned weapons? Or are they taking steps to remain armed (or better armed) if they choose to quit their jobs, and turn in their department issued arms. They may also be buying arms to equip their spouses and older children.

To see cops snatching up guns makes me wonder how much New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg rattled the ranks of police departments last summer when he spoke of a national police strike after Aurora. If a guy like Bloomberg was expecting cops to walk off the job over one mass shooting, what kind of strikes, defections or desertions would be expected if things go hot with civil disturbances in cities all over America?