But these stories give very cogent reasons for the rise in gun sales, and those reasons don't include this:

http://www.adl.org/learn/extremism_i...sm_in_the_News

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/...04368291538100

I don't think any area is without racial and ethnic incident. I only googled Portland because someone claimed that the pacific northwest didn't have issues like this.

The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate groups by state:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp

I didn't say the PacNW was without incident. I said "racial violence" is not more of a west coast thing.

Trust me, there is violent racism in Ohio. The KKK and the Arian Brothers are very much in the rural areas and southern Ohio. I can't say we have ever had unfortunate people being dragged to death, but hate is all over.

I will never forget when former Cleveland Mayor Michael White, who happened to be black not only allowed a KKK Rally, but he ensured their safety in order to protect their First Amendment Rights. It proved this mayor had more brains and backbone than the ugly demonstrators.

I agree that it's not more of a _______(name any geographic area) thing.

I tend to think it's most likely to happen in places with populations diverse in race/ethnicity and in areas with lower economic status, but I don't have data to back that up. Eta: It's about conditions present, rather than region. The South has a crappy history on this point, but I don't think much remains worse here than it does in other areas with comparable demographics without a similarly crappy history.

that's so crazy.

If you add up the groups in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington together, we still don't have as many in the single states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and only one more than Tennessee.

There's a few parts to this though. Up here there is a lot of land, people can live on their own, mind their own business, and Oregon and Washington both don't have income tax, Oregon doesn't have sales tax either. You can have a little separatist group and be survivalists, and a lot of time they don't even do anything locally. The Aryan Nation moved back east and the City of Coeur d'Alene would shut down when a hate group wanted to have a parade. I'm not saying there aren't hateful, ignorant people in Idaho, but they aren't organized in these groups, these groups are mostly outsiders from elsewhere.

I also find random irony with a hate group targets Jews in an area with a very small amount of Jews. Also with the League of the South group active in states that didn't even exist during the Confederacy. To be honest the hate crimes in the area have changed to members of GLBTQ community members being attacked, with many in the two local college towns.

In my travels I have come to the conclusion that racism is more prevalent in the North (especially racism against whites but also white racism). I will say, however, that discrimination towards homosexuals is much more common in the south.
My personal theory is that black people and white people live in closer proximity to one another and attend the same schools in most parts of the south while there are still a lot of public schools in the north are 99% white or 99% black. I grew up having black friends because of this and as a result I am not racist where if I didn't have that happen I admittedly would probably be racist.

This is totally anecdotal, but I've been meaning to post this story and this seems a good time.

A couple of days before the huge recent Obama rally in St. Louis I was in a gun shop with my husband. (Incidentally, he owns multiple guns, is a member of the NRA, and is voting for Obama.) While we were in there (him shopping, me sitting on a little couch waiting for him), one of the employees came out to say that he just answered a phone call from an Obama volunteer, and the guys in the store had a good chuckle about it.

The guy proceeded to comment on the fact that he had a friend "working Obama's detail" that weekend. Then they all joked about how the friend should accidentally fall asleep on the job, at which point I think they realized there were non-regular customers in there and they stopped elaborating.

I realize I was in a gun shop, but I still thought it was pretty incredible to actually hear people joke about wishing that Obama's protective detail would fail in their job to protect him. I'm not naive enough that I was surprised they would think it, I was just surprised they would speak it in front of customers. Hubby and I decided it was a good thing that he drove his vehicle there, since mine has an Obama sticker on it. ;)

This type of thing happens quite a bit up in Seattle, which is heavily leaning Obama. Before I met my republican boyfriend, I never realized just how much people shot their mouths off without thinking about the people around them. Many people here, because we're in the majority, take that for granted and say things they shouldn't say. I have a feeling that happens in many places. My boyfriend sometimes doesn't want to accompany me to certain gatherings because he feels so personally insulted by the brazen pro-Obama supporters. Of course, I feel the same way when I accompany him to the gun range or shop and hear crazy theories about how the nation is going to go to hell on Obama's watch. People really need to wake up and realize that politics and people are complicated; just because someone has a gun doesn't mean they're a republican, and just because someone lives in Seattle/other large city doesn't mean they're a democrat. We all need to think more before we speak.

More difficult said than done, unfortunately, including outside of politics.

Trust me, I'm not saying there isn't any racism present in the north/northeast. The point is, it's not centered in these areas, and there aren't numerous incidents of violet racism there, as Daemonseid had suggested.

my first thought too

I'm not surprised that gun sales are up. If the Democrats do take the majority and the presidency, the possibility of the limits to our Second Amendment rights are very real. I've had more than a few people tell me that they're buying now.


ETA: As for the assassination plot, I'm not surprised. Look how many plots there were against JFK because he was Catholic. Sen. Obama had Secret Service protection for several months prior to any of the other candidates. Which doesn't mean I'm not going to be praying for his safety.