When Rich People Are Under Threat, What Do They Reach For?
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 10 months ago
We’ll grant the point that voting in Beverly Hills was a red spot in the middle of blue, but 44% of the folks would still forcibly take guns away from ordinary people.
So what does it look like when rich people come under threat?
In Beverly Hills, even the purchase of a firearm comes with certain…expectations. The city’s only gun store, Beverly Hills Guns, is a “concierge service” by appointment only, for a largely affluent clientele. And business is booming.
Since opening in July 2020, the store has seen upscale residents from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly in a panic following several high-profile smash-and-grab and violent home invasion robberies. The apparent siege has brought in a daily stream of anxious business owners and prominent actors, real estate moguls and film execs, says owner Russell Stuart. Most are arming themselves for the first time.
“This morning I sold six shotguns in about an hour to people that say, ‘I want a home defense shotgun,’” says Stuart, whose store is discreetly located in a Beverly Hills office building, with no sign on the doors, down the hall from a diamond dealer. “Everyone has a general sense of constant fear, which is very sad. We’re used to this being like Mayberry.”
That fear has the wealthiest of local gentry contemplating every more elaborate security measures: armored luxury cars, safe rooms and bullet-proof glass in their homes. One client asked about creating the “Tony Stark-level” security of a half-dozen automated drones to hover over his house, says Stuart, whose gun store is part of his larger security company, Force Protective Agency. “If you want the Gucci package, it’s going to cost money.”
The security business is experiencing a rebound after a couple of diminished years because of the pandemic. Some firms had their on-site security guards sent home for health and social distancing reasons. Not anymore. In Beverly Hills, the craving for additional security dates to the riot that followed an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020, with unprecedented looting along Rodeo Drive that left broken boutique windows beneath beloved luxury brands: Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Michael Kors, MCM, Ermenegildo Zegna. Last March, a $500,000 Richard Mille watch was stolen at gunpoint from a diner at the Il Pastaio restaurant. The Dec. 1 home-invasion robbery and shooting death of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, 81, in her Trousdale Estates home, only accelerated the arms race among the affluent.
I’m shocked. You mean they want BLM to destroy your city but not their own? In other news, they are demanding the police do something about it.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore announced in November he would be setting up a task force to combat home-invasion robberies, which have targeted celebrities and upscale restaurants, according to the Los Angeles Times. Moore indicated the department had not seen violent holdups “like this in decades,” The Times reported.
I wonder where this task force will concentrate their efforts? Anyway, the rich folks know the police can’t be there all of the time. They want shotguns. They want Gucci protection. They want up-armored cars. They want drones.
If you demand the same thing, 44% of them will tell you to pound sand.
On January 3, 2022 at 12:15 am, Dan said:
The gun grabbing left aren’t “Anti-Gun”. They are anti YOU owning a gun.
On January 3, 2022 at 5:15 am, Joe Blow said:
One thing I have seen over and over again in this life (professionally and personally), is the rich are unbelievably arrogant:
‘I’m a multi-millionaire! I get whatever I want!’ I heard a property developer thunder at the paving sub-contractor. Except, you still can’t pour concrete in the rain. No matter your checkbook. It infuriated him to no end that the guy could just stand there and shrug (he wasn’t paving in the rain).
Stop taking their money. Its what gives them power. Your greed. Control your greed, and you control their money. Refuse to take their jobs, don’t serve their meals, cut their lawns. Fuck em. And make sure you let em know you feel that way, too.
On January 3, 2022 at 6:24 am, Mike Austin said:
The joggers who work in large groups are not going to stop their rampaging simply because a few rich folks have guns. Rich folks are targets because they have nice things and lots of money. And how many “security guards” are going to risk their lives for any of the Beautiful People? What is happening in California resembles that happened along the Roman frontier in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
With the police now sidelined, the rich in Beverly Hills are going full defensive mode. No war has ever been won on the defense.
On January 3, 2022 at 7:54 am, WiscoDave said:
Been going on cyclically for decades. John Milius was contacted several times asking to borrow some of his guns during the Rodney King riots. His reply was “they are all being used.”
Remember, this is at the time he was being blacklisted in Hollywood for his conservative views…
“Wisdom always comes after the event.”
On January 3, 2022 at 8:37 am, Bradlley A Graham said:
The anointed few having to scratch for shit with us chickens.
The irony is so delicious.
On January 3, 2022 at 9:06 am, ragman said:
A wall should be built at the Kali border to keep the idiots in. They vote for the likes of newsom, garcetti and the communist da of San Fran and then expect to be bailed out when their pets attack them for their baubles. Or just for the hell of it. They own this and they should have to deal with the consequences.
On January 3, 2022 at 9:11 am, Michael R Becker said:
Block the exits. Burn them out.
The folks who are the point of this story are THE problem. They think they are immune because they’re “connected.” It’s past time to burn the connection. I look forward to seeing video of blood in the gutters of Beverly Hills.
On January 3, 2022 at 9:23 am, Fred said:
Rich folks are targets, yes, because they have money, but in the case of “otherwise peaceful” BLM, commies use class warfare (the sin of envy) to drive their armies to do their bidding.
“…an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020, with unprecedented looting along Rodeo Drive…”
That’s funny right there. This bit of commiespeak shows that the “elite” of Beverly Hills are no more than any other useful idiot in the wider global enslavement plan. Whether consciously or not, they now sense that. But, they are way too stupid to do anything about it. No, they will hold on to their sense of entitlement as long as they can. Rats in a maze.
On January 3, 2022 at 9:35 am, Bill Buppert said:
Herschel hints at a foundational point. The domestic communists in the USSA are only opposed to the mass unregistered private ownership of weapons and not that of the government and its connected cultural nomenklatura.
On January 3, 2022 at 11:12 am, James Solbakken said:
About 5 years ago I was discussing “Gun Control” with a Marxist professor at California State East Bay (formerly Cal State Hayward). I brought up the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and how it said “The King’s Subjects who are Protestante shall have the right to keep & bear arm,” for the purpose of pointing out to him that the reason for specifying “Protestantes” was for the deliberate purpose of DENYING the right to Roman Catholics. And why deny the right to keep & bear arms to Roman Catholics? Because the Protestantes considered them dangerous and wanted to keep them down and out and powerless, that’s why I understood in principle that I didn’t trust him or his Marxist chums to disarm anyone. If you want to oppress someone the first thing you do is disarm them. It’d be stupid to try to oppress them before you disarm them. He had nothing to say in response and that was the end of the discussion.
On January 3, 2022 at 12:30 pm, Ned said:
So the limousine liberal fake socialists who pay the bail of BLM terrorists in our neighborhoods want law enforcement to keep them safe in their communities.
Maybe the hoi polloi should start a GoFundMe page to pay the bail for the criminals who commit crimes in Beverly Hills.
On January 3, 2022 at 12:38 pm, billrla said:
Don’t let the deprecating tone of the Beverly Hills article get in the way of an important point: More private citizens lawfully owning firearms is a good thing. It does not matter where such people live.
The author of the article wanted to poke fun at people who are fearful.
On January 3, 2022 at 1:51 pm, StillSworn said:
Lets hope they experience the same frustrations we do and then come to understand our common ground.
On January 3, 2022 at 3:26 pm, ExpatNJ said:
“Where do you keep your handguns?
This .45’s magnesium, light as a feather.
All right, I’ll buy it.
Let’s see now, that comes to $427.66.
All right, I’ll give you cash $220 and a check for the rest, all right?
All right. $220 will cover everything but the guns…which I’ll hold for you till day after tomorrow.
Day after tomorrow? We need them now.
State law.
Handguns have to clear records with the police. All hell may have broke loose in LA…but the boys in Sacramento will still be doing business.”
~ Script, abridged, from “Panic in Year Zero!”, movie, 1962, starring Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel, Joan Freeman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_in_Year_Zero!, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056331/
On January 3, 2022 at 4:38 pm, George said:
How quickly they forget about Manson family murders.
On January 3, 2022 at 8:41 pm, Penrod said:
I have to disagree with billrla, who said: “More private citizens lawfully owning firearms is a good thing. It does not matter where such people live.” Nazi Germany was in favor of the Politically Correct owning more guns, and prohibited guns to the Incorrect. Just change ‘where they live’ aka Not Our Kind to ‘Not Our Kind aka non-Aryans’.
Same old thing. Armed insiders: good. Armed outsiders: guns need to be a felony.
Socialists everywhere gonna disarm everyone who isn’t. For safety. We don’t need more armed Socialists. They aren’t going to learn anything from the process of buying a gun. If they were that smart they wouldn’t be Socialists.
On January 4, 2022 at 7:02 am, Nosmo said:
I wonder how many robbers & looters will soon be owning expensive shotguns. Without some amount of training, both in the psychology and biomechanics of defensive shotgun shooting and – most importantly – when, and whom, not to shoot so the anti-gun District Attorneys don’t rape you worse than the R&Ls, I suspect there are a bunch of very high dollar (Beretta, Benelli, Mossberg, Franchi, et al) Image Enhancers that will “rapidly transfer ownership” in an unauthorized manner.
It would be interesting to observe the results of an uninitiated and untrained new shotgun owner attempting to repel boarders with an 870P or Mossberg 500 and Hornady 86240s (a modified version of the Italian Army rifle description comes to mind: “Only fired and dropped once.”) It’s possible the first R&L through the door may have a bad day but the herd right behind him won’t.
On January 5, 2022 at 6:09 pm, The Old Freedom Fighter said:
ExpatNJ: One of the best Cold War/Doomsday movies ever made. Still gives me the heebie jeebies 60 years later. It’s right up there with “FailSafe” (1964) “On the Beach” (1959) & “The Word, The Flesh & The Devil” (1958). I’ve recently noticed a few prepper web sites are now including nuclear war survival info.