A Dangerous State of Affairs

Fort Worth, Texas — “I thought I was a gun nut,” he says. “But that was before I started working here.”

Here is the firearms department of a suburban chain sporting-goods store, where customers and soon-to-be-disappointed would-be customers line up outside before the store opens hoping for a chance to purchase ammunition. You see the same thing all over, outside Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops and Academy and independent local retailers: signs apologizing for the paucity of the firearms inventory, signs advertising a two-box limit for what little ammunition is available, the anxious faces of frustrated shooters.