Immediately following the Northridge earthquake several people tried to buy en mass entire stocks of flashlights from stores. Fortunately managements implemented a voluntary limit of two per customer with enough batteries to load and refill once. This was to stop SPECULATING and PRICE GOUGING which were later prosecuted successfully against several individuals and companies. Likewise water was trucked in while the main system was damaged or compromised. People in the area were limited to 5 gallons a day. Hoarding is accumulating neccessities during a crisis that exceeds your immediate needs to the detriment of others. By this loose interpretation every LDS family with a mandated food supply could be prosecuted. I believe it's focus would be a person with enough penicillin to treat 1000 people for example. During the german seige at Stalingrad a very well dressed and obviously well fed man invited a starving young couple to his home. They quickly fled when he tried to kill them with a knife. The police entered and shot the man and a few companions on the spot. They had turned to cannibalism <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />.