Yes. But How to Make Money From It?

Quite obviously democracy is evolving. The form it is now taking is major eruptions of well-off young people in country after country. No sooner has Turkey calmed a little than Brazil explodes. And what with nearly two hundred countries in the world, the end is not yet in sight. This got me to thinking along capitalist lines. How does a person take advantage of this opportunity? Is there a way to cash in on all these many Springs? Deep thought eventually produced an answer. Why not invest in tear gas manufacturers? Why just the other day—its own spring now yesterday—Egypt purchased $2.5 million worth of tear gas for future virtual elections. And that stuff came from here. So who are the suppliers?

Well, fellow investors, things actually don’t look all that promising. The three leading tear gas suppliers in this country are Combined Systems Inc. (Jamestown, PA) (Egypt’s supplier), Nonlethal Technologies (Homer City, PA), and Defense Technology (Casper Wyoming). Only the last of these is, in a manner of speaking, publicly traded. Defense Technology is a subsidiary of Safariland LLC. Safari itself is owned by the UK defense giant BAE Systems PLC. Now you can buy BAE stock, but milking this new emerging market by way of privately held companies is just a little difficult.

How does a domestic supplier sell to other countries—like Egypt, Turkey, and Brazil? Well, with the permission of the State Department. The State Department offers its form DSP-83 (link). The foreign buyer must fill out the form. If State approves, the vendor can ship its shiny tear gas canisters. But if you are hoping to sell tear gas to Brazil, you might want to think twice. The competition may be too tough. Brazil has its own company, Condor Non-Lethal Technologies, based in Rio de Janeiro. Condor is a major force—specializing in all kinds of devices for launching non-lethal munitions, not least rubber bullets, and also, of course, what in the trade are called lachrymatory grenades. But the shorter phrase to use, when making inquiries, is “aerosol defense.” That will get you beyond mere tear gas into other useful ways non-lethally to stop democracy when it evolves too fast.

In researching my future means of survival, after Congress nixes my Social Security, I discovered a helpful list from the National Institute of Justice yet (link). That brochure shows 16 manufacturers of pepper sprays, as of 1994. The stock of some of those companies is surely sold on some exchange. But researching that list is still ahead….