Gearing up, but for what?

A few snippets for those who wonder why I'm increasingly concerned about the future:

According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.  It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November. 

Meanwhile, other records are falling, too:

The Obama administration announced last week it had finalized a record $29.4 billion Boeing F-15 sale to Saudi Arabia, dwarfing previous individual U.S. arms deals and supporting jobs by increasing exports.

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The United States has signed a $3.5 billion sale of an advanced antimissile interception system to the United Arab Emirates, part of an accelerating military buildup of its friends and allies near Iran.

I don't know what's more disheartening: that so many people are racing to arm up, or that the only functional exports the U.S. seems to have left are weaponry and inflation.   Let's hope we all don't have to break out these new toys...