Need help with “Essential Businesses”

[ELB]

Yeah, you go in some stores like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Target, Office Depot, etc. and people are just buying all kinds of stuff as usual.

I was in Walmart on Tuesday picking up a water hose. The place was full of people buying everything but food. They were picking the garden department clean. I was in line behind a lady with three kids and a cart full of gardening supplies and plants. I kind of found it comforting that not everyone has been completely scared out of their minds.

There are places where the local government has ordered "non-essential" businesses (that sell, for example, bird seed or furniture) to shut down, while allowing "essential business" (that sell food, gas, and the like) to remain open. Then the "non-essential" businesses complained that the "essential businesses" who had multiple product lines (like Walmart) were being allowed to sell "non-essential" products like birdseed and furniture, to the obvious disadvantage of the "non-essential" businesses selling the same thing that were forced to close. So now there are orders requiring the "essential businesses" to sell only "essential products."

Happy that Texas, at least my part of it, has avoided this so far.

[03Lightningrocks]

Yeah, you go in some stores like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Target, Office Depot, etc. and people are just buying all kinds of stuff as usual.

I was in Walmart on Tuesday picking up a water hose. The place was full of people buying everything but food. They were picking the garden department clean. I was in line behind a lady with three kids and a cart full of gardening supplies and plants. I kind of found it comforting that not everyone has been completely scared out of their minds.

There are places where the local government has ordered "non-essential" businesses (that sell, for example, bird seed or furniture) to shut down, while allowing "essential business" (that sell food, gas, and the like) to remain open. Then the "non-essential" businesses complained that the "essential businesses" who had multiple product lines (like Walmart) were being allowed to sell "non-essential" products like birdseed and furniture, to the obvious disadvantage of the "non-essential" businesses selling the same thing that were forced to close. So now there are orders requiring the "essential businesses" to sell only "essential products."

Happy that Texas, at least my part of it, has avoided this so far.

Wow! IMHO the government should not be "ORDERING" any legal business to shut down. It is OK to suggest it but to require it is stepping over the line. If this government intrusion on our rights continues, they will eventually get around to guns. Imagine being told that all LTC's were "temporarily" suspended in an effort to protect those who don't have an LTC from being shot. Sounds crazy but it is no different than requiring places to close in order to protect people from contracting China Virus. I don't like any of this. Not one bit!

[srothstein]

3. No politician is going to risk closing the liquor stores. It is said about code enforcement that they do it to the level the public will tolerate. I think closing liquor stores would exceed the public's tolerance.

Well, not in Texas. The Pennsylvania government has ordered all liquor stores in the state to shut down. There were some articles about how they should reconsider this because people could go into withdrawal and die from it.

But PA has always had very strict laws on liquor. They own all of the liquor stores and no one can sell liquor other than by the drink but them. So they cannot even close their own stores without arguments now.

[03Lightningrocks]

3. No politician is going to risk closing the liquor stores. It is said about code enforcement that they do it to the level the public will tolerate. I think closing liquor stores would exceed the public's tolerance.

Well, not in Texas. The Pennsylvania government has ordered all liquor stores in the state to shut down. There were some articles about how they should reconsider this because people could go into withdrawal and die from it.

But PA has always had very strict laws on liquor. They own all of the liquor stores and no one can sell liquor other than by the drink but them. So they cannot even close their own stores without arguments now.

This is actually true. Alcohol withdrawal and Xanax are the only two addictive substances that can actually kill a person in withdrawal. The others just make you think your going to die. The thought of it did cross my mind when they decided to allow liquor stores to remain open.

[Flightmare]

3. No politician is going to risk closing the liquor stores. It is said about code enforcement that they do it to the level the public will tolerate. I think closing liquor stores would exceed the public's tolerance.

Well, not in Texas. The Pennsylvania government has ordered all liquor stores in the state to shut down. There were some articles about how they should reconsider this because people could go into withdrawal and die from it.

But PA has always had very strict laws on liquor. They own all of the liquor stores and no one can sell liquor other than by the drink but them. So they cannot even close their own stores without arguments now.

This is actually true. Alcohol withdrawal and Xanax are the only two addictive substances that can actually kill a person in withdrawal. The others just make you think your going to die. The thought of it did cross my mind when they decided to allow liquor stores to remain open.

That is actually the reason I'm hearing from various elected officials as to their thought process for leaving liquor stores open.

[Lena]

I met a friend at our gun club yesterday and was very surprised as to seeing entire families there shooting, we did have a range totally just to ourselves and noticed 4 more open for members.

[ELB]

Wow! IMHO the government should not be "ORDERING" any legal business to shut down. It is OK to suggest it but to require it is stepping over the line. If this government intrusion on our rights continues, they will eventually get around to guns. Imagine being told that all LTC's were "temporarily" suspended in an effort to protect those who don't have an LTC from being shot. Sounds crazy but it is no different than requiring places to close in order to protect people from contracting China Virus. I don't like any of this. Not one bit!

I think if you dig into it, you will find that government, especially local government, is a lot more powerful, constitutionally and traditionally, than most people realize. An event of this (pandemic) magnitude is probably not within the memory of any living American, but back in the bad old days quarantines, martial law, and all kinds of other exercises of government "police power" were rather more commonly used. The check on this is that a local government, being local, is a lot closer to the people being "policed" and can be held, theoretically at least, more accountable with direct elections, protests outside their windows, face to face town meetings and the like. I suspect that this "check" loses some power in big cities (and states) where percentage-wise relatively few vote and the elected officials are in fact physically and culturally distant from those affected by the state power (and not just during states of emergency).

[03Lightningrocks]

Trump Admin Names Gun Makers, Retailers Essential Businesses Nationwide

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020 ... ationwide/

Looks like gun stores now have protection against anti gun governors

[Chaparral]

Open or not, at this point in time, I don’t think I want to go to a store and handle a gun, or anything else, that may have been handled by a number of other people. I keep a reasonable supply of ammo and food on hand at all times. I’ll chill at home, for now, read a few gun forums, and watch some YouTube videos.