Business
Marketing The Fear Factor In Wake Of Tragedy
January 11, 2011 
Following the tragic “Safeway Massacare” in Tucson, the airwaves and internet are alive with exchanges of blame game, gun nuts, anti-gun nuts, calls for more laws, more guns to every shopper, and hate mongers vowing to disrupt funerals. And a sobering account from SLATE.
We are a violent nation with people being shot all day everyday. It will never change. In our quest to make sense of the senseless, we thought that perhaps bullet proof vests would offer more “protection” than toting your own piece. ANY elected official in Idaho can pack heat without a permit or training. We encountered many a website marketing vests. Based on their marketing laundry list, it appears we should ALL be wearing such vests.
Many states make it illegal for convicted felons to wear bullet proof vests–apparently it is easier to kill them once they get out of prison. Believe it or not “body armor” has many marketing restrictions, including export rules.
From a marketing website for bullet proof vests–
“But you might be surprised at the wide range of civilian needs for Body Armor…
Residents in high-crime areas who have given serious thought as to the several minutes that will elapse between the sound of glass breaking at 3 a.m., and the arrival of police (regardless of the speed of police response there are unavoidable time lags)”
Check out their list of potential consumers below.
Homeowners who have suffered burglaries, or home invasions
Security guards and armored car personnel
Business or property owners who must provide their own security
Convenience store clerks and owners (in fact one of the most dangerous jobs in America)
Taxi drivers (and bus and limo drivers)
Restaurant or bar owners who must make late-night cash deposits
Business owners who must carry large amounts of cash for payrolls, purchasing, auctions, bank deposits, etc.
Jewelry store owners and couriers who must carry valuable merchandise
Emergency Medical Service personnel (EMS)
ATM repairmen (whether or not the ATM is empty, the criminal doesn’t know…)
Alarm system repairmen who often have to investigate tripped alarms
Crime victims or witnesses who fear retribution from criminals, and their accomplices
Victims of stalking
Attorneys in emotionally charged cases (e.g., divorce, child custody, etc.)
Judges
Process / subpoena servers
Merchant Marine security officers
Private boat and yacht owners – piracy has made a comeback on the high seas
High-profile individuals, such as actors, who are the recipients of death threats
Executive protection personnel / bodyguards
Embassy personnel overseas
Executives traveling abroad (and, sadly, to some US cities!
Missionaries traveling abroad
War correspondents, journalists and photographers in “Hostile Environments”
Citizens with relatives overseas in dangerous countries
Private investigators
Bail bondsmen and bail enforcement agents
Auto repossessors
Concealed Carry License holders
Shooting range personnel and Concealed Carry License instructors
Competitive shooters – or ANYONE who uses a public shooting range…
Hunters
Motorcycle racers, rodeo riders, rodeo clowns (for blunt trauma impact)
Research Scientists, who use animals are the target of radical “animal-rights” groups
Pharmacists (who handle drugs desired by addicts)
and finally, sadly, teachers who have received death threats in some of our nation’s schools
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jan 11, 2011, 2:29 pm
It doesn’t help when you have so many talk shows spouting off. Sara Palin putting cross hairs on Democratic states. All the Rush Limbaugh trash. Glen Beck and his big mouth. How do you make these people responsible for what they say and do just to make a buck.
Jan 11, 2011, 4:49 pm
What about President Obama stating that “we need to make our opponents pay”, or Hillary’s rampage about voicing your distrust of government? There is no shortage of “talkng heads” on both sides of the spectrum talking out of their rear ends! The cross hairs thing is not new. We used it on one of Sen. Warren Magnuson’s
campaigns back in the 60’s. He was on of the biggest liberals to ever step foot in congress. We just need to face the fact that authorities knew about this nut job long before the shooting. The real question here is why wasn’t something done about this maniac before it ever came to a Safeway parking lot? I see this as another failure of government to protect the citizens because there is more fear of violating someone’s rights, than supplying protection to the common citizen.
Jan 11, 2011, 5:42 pm
We need look no futher for guidance than our President who, by admission ‘only used drugs for experiment’, Obama (June 14,2008):
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
At a fundraiser in Philadelphia where he was flanked by PA governor Ed Rendell, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, and Sen. Bob Casey, Barack Obama said, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”
Go Ahead Robert Google it. In fact, find another person named Robert. Verbally tell everybody that will listen. Call yourselves Oral Roberts.
Jan 11, 2011, 7:13 pm
Perhaps Dave Frazier could join FCC or his antithesis Team Dave to CENSOR Speech! Perhaps he thinks HIS speech is OK (some may disagree) while censoring others is… well, just jolly good, thank you. Perhaps he could have censored Obama… (June 14, 2008). Obama: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”
On the other hand, myocardio, in farct; Dave, why not try censoring 300 pounds off your rather somewhat over-rated Hypocritical Rotund Posterior.
Jan 11, 2011, 8:25 pm
Robert, You must get the Dem talking points memo?
Unsubstantiated hyperbole broadcast nationwide to the masses, 20% of whom are not fit for military service at age 20, is nearly as irresponsible as telling people that “if you vote for me I will give you enough O’bama money to fix all your problems.”
The problem begins with the lying liars and the lies they tell for the short-term gain at the expense of long-term trust. The greater the distrust, the more people are willing to give to feel safe… We’ve been giving money and freedom in hopes of finding the safe harbor of trust in ever greater quantities these past few years. Distrusting thy neighbor has always been a business opportunity, but now the politicians and bureaucrats have discovered it to be a taxing/growth opportunity as well. What did Rham’E say in 2009? “Never waste a good crisis”
Be careful with those talking points, you’re just as much a fool as those that don’t question Rush and Beck.
This killing is sick and sad and all of that stuff. It damages our nation. It would seem it was just one crazy person and it so often is in America. I worry for the day when the professionals get involved like is going on in Mexico and so much of the rest of the world.
Jan 11, 2011, 8:39 pm
G-man, trolling for whack jobs again?
EDITOR NOTE–Dog, they are just jumping in the boat! We didn’t use any bait either…they are talking about knives and guns while I mentioned protective vests.
Jan 11, 2011, 9:14 pm
Team Dave, you are ,indeed a jerk!!! Hiding behind your little anonymous moniker! (Although you do sound like the team dave ‘with a small d’ and what they would say behind closed doors) Come into the sunshine if you have ANY cajones!
I didn’t think so……
Jan 12, 2011, 7:44 am
Cyclops,
YoMommaNoBama,Zippo
Good job I liked reading your posts. Yuk! Yuk!
Jan 12, 2011, 9:11 am
This thread got nasty quickly. I guess notbody can accuse Dave of moderating too strictly.
Jan 12, 2011, 3:19 pm
Cy,
If government failed to protect the citizens from this guy, it is because conservatives have tried to strangle and kill government off, not because of fear of trampling on somebody’s civil rights. There are no public treatment or institutional facilities for the mentally ill anymore.
The guy in Ohio who killed the female deputy last month was released from a mental institution in 2001. He was probably released because he didn’t have any money, and look what happened.
It costs money to determine who is a threat to society (either criminally or sanity-wise) and the conservative society we live in is not willing to pay for that. They feel safe in their gated communities.
Jan 12, 2011, 3:32 pm
During the GW Bush administration nobody on the left called for “2nd ammendment remedies” to be used against him or for the “tree of liberty to be watered” with his blood. We made fun of his ignorance and some still think he should be arrested as a war criminal, legally.
“2nd ammendment remedies” can ONLY be interpreted to mean political assassination. 2nd ammendment remedies, watering the tree of liberty, and seccession are all treason.
Calling Obama a Kenyan, socialist, communist, fascist, Hitler, or a tyrant is wrong. NONE of these things are true. Yet stupid people believe stupid things, and even say them out loud.
Jan 12, 2011, 4:09 pm
I have been observant of how people have been willing to share and help others during this economic downturn. This recession has been very ugly and damaging to people and their economic futures if they tried to save for that retirement day. On balance I think most people have a good heart and feelings toward their fellow man.
On the otherhand, in 1986 then President Reagan, cut funding to state mental facilities and put these people out into the community for community based treatment. No funding meant these people did not take their meds and soon spiraled downward and ended up in our county jails. It’s a problem with not very good options for mentally unstable people.
The only solution I can come up with we all need to be very aware of our surroundings and people around us. You never know when things can go bad and it happens in an instant.
Jan 12, 2011, 6:20 pm
Rod in SE Boise: Dripping vitriol and vicious remarks calling and comparing Bush to Hitler (among some of the nicer remarks) were common place in the Twilight Propaganda Peoples RepubliK.
Looks like you choose to ignore Obamas’s War? In fact, little mention is now made by the Left regarding casualities in Iraq & Afganistan, unlike several years ago when there were fewer casualties.
Yer Hussein ‘Bama buddy even went so far as to state (in a “Political” rally): “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. Seems as though YOU, nor PA governor Ed Rendell, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, and Sen. Bob Casey had litle concern about inflammatory language.
“2nd ammendment remedies, watering the tree of liberty, and seccession are all treason.” Says who? Stalin or Chairman Mao?
Oh, it’s different if a Leftist makes an outrageous comment. Is that your NewSpeak Double Standard?
Forget Communist Killing, the only thing missing is U.
Jan 12, 2011, 6:28 pm
I am deeply offended by rhetoric like this
“It doesn’t help when you have so many talk shows spouting off. Sara Palin putting cross hairs on Democratic states. All the Rush Limbaugh trash. Glen Beck and his big mouth. How do you make these people responsible for what they say and do just to make a buck.”
We spent 2001-2009 watching every possible bizarre accusation from the barely possible to the out and out lie about the Bush administration. We had marches, loony tunes hate, and about every other possible attack one could see in the media from OlberWho to Chris (tingles) Mathews firing the grill of partisan rhetoric and not a word do we get from the loony left.
There has not been a single bit of evidence revealed, not a link to any political movement, relationship with Conservative, etc…Yet we get loony posts like the one I quoted.
At least the left has not been so overtly silly as to try to blame Bush…but as the polls demonstrate that the current partisan attacks are failing, I expect a panicked flight to that old canard.
Jan 12, 2011, 6:34 pm
“It costs money to determine who is a threat to society (either criminally or sanity-wise) and the conservative society we live in is not willing to pay for that. They feel safe in their gated communities.”
Rod, just as a matter of History, are you aware WHY so many crazy folk are wandering about free? It is not about money but law. a few decades ago the far left went to court and advocated for the mentally ill. They pointed out, correctly, that some of them are no threat to themselves or society. Courts forced state and local governments to release the insane and ever since we have had the ‘homeless’ problem and the seriously mental ill wandering amongst us.
Jan 12, 2011, 6:37 pm
“During the GW Bush administration nobody on the left called for “2nd ammendment remedies” to be used against him or for the “tree of liberty to be watered” with his blood. We made fun of his ignorance and some still think he should be arrested as a war criminal, legally.”
Such short memories
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0853096/
Jan 12, 2011, 6:56 pm
The Democrats used a US map with targets on certain states in the last election, using phrases like “behind enemy lines.” This is a common device and hardly a threat to anyone. Liberals need to get over their obsession with Bush, Cheney and Palin. It’s tedious and unhealthy.
Jan 12, 2011, 8:07 pm
Rod in SE Boise: Dripping vitriol and vicious remarks calling and comparing Bush to Hitler (among some of the nicer remarks) were common place in the Twilight Propaganda Peoples Republik.
Looks like you choose to ignore Obama’s War?
In fact, little mention is now made by the Left regarding causalities in Iraq & Afghanistan, unlike several years ago when there were fewer casualties.
Yer Hussein ‘Bama buddy even went so far as to state (in a “Political” rally): “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Seems as neither though YOU, nor PA governor Ed Rendell, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, and Sen. Bob Casey had little concern about inflammatory language.
“2nd amendment remedies, watering the tree of liberty, and succession are all treason.” Says who? Stalin or Chairman Mao?
Oh, it’s different if a Leftist makes an outrageous comment. Is that your NewSpeak Double Standard?
Freaky Communist Killers, the only thing missing is U.
Jan 12, 2011, 9:34 pm
The smart people always help the leadership to become a dictatorship with religious like faith in a “Dear Leader” type narcissist. Then, after the power is secure, the smart people are the first to be purged. Not so smart I guess.
PS: The wacko was not a conservative media zombie after all… just a wacko.
PPS: Does anyone trust James Carville or Karl Rove with five bucks? Then why do we let them tell us what’s good for the entire nation?
Jan 12, 2011, 9:35 pm
It’s absolutely sad that in an advanced country such as ours we cant find the decency to adequately fund our mental health system. We were ranked 49th in the nation not too long ago in regards to funding mental health treatment facilities and schools as well. It’s not against the law to be mentally ill, but it is a shame that we turn them out into the street and wait for them to do something that warrants law enforcement action and they end up in the system. I know I don’t have all the answers but I might venture to say we need to put people first before wasting money on stupid things like studies on how fast ketchup flows.
Jan 12, 2011, 10:22 pm
Not sure what everyone is talking about but I did want to point out that the Congresswoman was shot in the head and wouldn’t have been helped by a vest.
Jan 13, 2011, 1:50 pm
YoMammaNoBama (a racist phrase if I ever heard one) and Skorzeny must be the same person. They posted the same words, identical. ??
ALL of the political violence in this country, dating back to the Oklahoma City bombing, has been perpetrated by the republican right and it’s supporters. That also includes doctors office bombings, murder of doctors, bombing the olympics in Atlanta, murdering a security guard at the Holocaust Museum, killing two members of a church congregation, plotting to kill a cop and set off a bomb at the funeral to kill many more. It’s disgusting.
EDITOR NOTE–And with this comment we close comments.