AWB Panic! . . . or not

[Halal Pork]

Sounds like the law of supply and demand to me.

You beat me to it.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

With all the back and forth during the de-bait about Romney and Obama's investment portfolios, I am beginning to suspect Obama must be heavily invested in Bushmaster, Olympic Arms and Red Jacket.

 

[Trent]

I went gun shopping with a friend (who was a first-time firearms purchaser) this Thursday.

Didn't see any long lines at the gun shops we went to, and all of them had plenty of ammo, evil black rifles, and reloading components on the shelves.

Helped my friend pick out a used Glock 23 for $409 that was in mint condition. He was originally shopping for a new S&W Sigma 40 but jumped on the Glock when he saw the price.. Great deal.

So, no "run on guns" locally, at least, for now.

 

[JustinJ]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Warp
Sounds like the law of supply and demand to me.

You beat me to it.

How about price hiking for food and water after a hurricane? Or how about spiking the price of gas during an OPEC embargo? Are those just good ole "supply and demand" at work as opposed to profiteering?

 

[Warp]

How about price hiking for food and water after a hurricane? Or how about spiking the price of gas during an OPEC embargo? Are those just good ole "supply and demand" at work as opposed to profiteering?

I would expect gas to get very expensive during an OPEC embargo.

 

[Halal Pork]

How about price hiking for food and water after a hurricane? Or how about spiking the price of gas during an OPEC embargo? Are those just good ole "supply and demand" at work as opposed to profiteering?

You lost me already when you wrote "monopolies are a natural result of capitalism. But many would also consider both unethical and both are sometimes illegal." I decline to drift any further along these lines as I see where it's going.

 

[JustinJ]

You lost me already when you wrote "monopolies are a natural result of capitalism. But many would also consider both unethical and both are sometimes illegal." I decline to drift any further along these lines as I see where it's going.

My comment has already reached it's destination. Price gauging, which happened to guns and ammo, is a result of supply and demand but that does not make it ethical. That's it.

I would expect gas to get very expensive during an OPEC embargo.

It did. But most places raised their prices relative to their costs. Some however raised them far beyond that to take advantage of the situation.

 

[TennJed]

OP talks of panic buying, AWB.....dont you already have your "assault weapon", magazines......the panic buying is for the folks whom havent seen the light yet....

I don't know if I have seen the light or not since I am not sure what you are talking about. Can you be a little more specific and clear on your points. How does Zimmerman factor into this and when was Obama thrown out

 

[Ken451]

With ONE dealer having 120,000 magazines in stock, I somehow doubt that there will be an industry shortage. I mean, how many magazines do people need (as opposed to want?) How many are they going to want?

Yes, I bought some "high capacity" magazines back in '94, but only 2 or 3.

As for nothing happening on a AWB until next year or 2014, well I would be careful about the executive orders that Obama has been abusing. A lot of the stupid stuff we have seen in the last 20 years has come in via that loophole. Once the election is over, he will have nothing to lose, no false facade to fabricate.

 

[Elessar]

An AWB would be hard to push through Congress, at least during the next two years. However, this president has already shown his willingness to bypass Congress and just decree things, regardless of the actual law. Changes to the immigration law, environmental law, and changes to welfare reform law are just some notable examples.

It is perfectly reasonable to imagine a scenario where he simply issues an "public safety executive order" to the BATF to enforce an immediate halt on the manufacturing and transfer of all the stuff he wants to ban, including ammo. Crazy paranoid idea? Maybe it was, but plausible these days.

 

[Warp]

Edit: Nevermind...aren't really supposed to do politics on THR, as I recall.

 

[bikerdoc]

Politics aside and back to the original question, AWB panic or not?

According to what I am seeing again, not.

 

[K1500]

Dude, it's price gouging, not price gauging. If you are going to try to put together a coherent argument, at least get the spelling right. In addition, your example has nothing to do with monopolies, rather it has to do with a temporary but substantial increase in demand.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

Obama, I'm in fear for my life, from the long arm of the law.....................

 

[76shuvlinoff]

Got a couple thousand 223s and a several hundred ea of 12ga, .45 .40. 357 .38 spcls, 9mm, even .380 and .22lr

there's nothing to panic about yet.

 

[Ignition Override]

To answer the OP's question, I bought my sport/utility rifle in August '10.

It is a Service Grade Garand from the CMP, our primary WW2/Korean Battle Rifle.

But to poke fun at the "assault" lingo often distorted by the anti-gun crowd, my rifle never assaulted anybody.
Pulling the bolt until it stops has prevented it from assaulting my thumb-a bit awkward for a leftie to load the clip as instructed.

 

[Halal Pork]

To the OP's point, even at the height of the last panic, I saw plenty of black rifles on the shelves. I'd be very surprised if things were any different this time. What I did see selling out was ammo and primers so all bets are off on whether or not that will happen again. One point I'd add though is that compared to 1994, I think there are far more black rifles on the market today; so I don't think we'd see the supply drop and the prices surge to the same extent they did before. If a similar AWB came about, so many private sellers would be wheeling and dealing their piles of black rifles it just wouldn't be as drastic as it was in 1994. That is my take on it at least.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I think there are far more black rifles on the market today;

You don't need to think it; It's a fact.

There are many, many, MANY times more EBRs and high capacity magazines in circulation today than there were 18 years ago. In 1994, not that many people had an AR, and those who did usually had only a few magazines. Today, I can scarcely think of any "gun people" who don't own an AR or AK and a pile of magazines to go with it.

I'm not anticipating anything, but I currently have 3 assembled ARs, 2 complete lowers, an upper on the way for one of them, about 20 Pmags, 20 GI mags, a Beta-C 100 rounder, a half dozen AR-10 mags. And that's just AR's.........

And I'm not unique in this regard, either. There are many members here on this board with 3, 4, 5, even as many as a dozen AR's. Some seem to have >100 mags and tens of thousands of rounds.

So yeah, even if BHO gets re-elected and even if he wants a ban and even if he can get congress on board, they simply cannot ignore the market saturation that occurred over the last 8 years. There is right about 1 firearm for every man, woman and child in this country, and a decent amount of those are the type that were neutered or banned during the AWB. And this doesn't even account for the shift in the average American's view of gun ownership today versus two decades ago.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Prohibition.

Amazing how much interest is engendered by telling people they cannot have something.

 

[Walkalong]

Yep. Before Clinton started making a big deal about AKs and ARs, you could buy an AK for $150 and an SKS for $70 all day long, as well as metal core Chines ammo dirt cheap.

 

[mastiffhound]

I just went to Cabela's today in WV and they had a load of PMAGS on the shelves. That was nice. The thing that bothered me was the empty shelves and the mass of folks in the store. They have around 10 to fifteen slots for just PMAGS. 4 were empty. Each little hanger holds 10 to 12 mags I think. While standing there 3 gentlemen came over and picked up 3 to 5 mags a piece. I didn't see a run on AR's or AK's happening. Now the devices that feed them and the ammo is a different story. A firearm is useless without ammo or magazines. At that point a baseball bat or cheater-bar are a more handy weapon.

The ammo was selling pretty brisk. Lots of folks walking around with baskets and carts of ammo. The reloading section had very few people tooling around in it though. It was packed mostly in the firearms and ammo section. I find it sad that people fear what our government might do. So much so that we talk about "panic buying" because it is a real concern it also drives prices up. We fear all the time what our goverment might do to it's own citizens. How has it come to this?

 

[mljdeckard]

Not yet.

My fundamental philosophy about this topic is the same as the rest of the administration. Regardless of what he WANTS to do, how will he be in any more position to do it than he has been in the last four years? Sixty some-odd Democrat congressmen sent a letter to the AG stating that they would oppose any new gun laws. That hasn't changed. They don't have the votes.

The real threat is how he can administrate BATFE and pick new anti judges at ALL levels of the federal courts.

 

[Walkalong]

The real threat is how he can administrate BATFE and pick new anti judges at ALL levels of the federal courts.

Exactly.

 

[Ken451]

In 1994, not that many people had an AR, and those who did usually had only a few magazines. Today, I can scarcely think of any "gun people" who don't own an AR or AK and a pile of magazines to go with it.

Well, I've never been much into rifles, I only have an SKS and that doesn't take magazines. But I did order an AR (M&P-15) and it should be here tomorrow.

 

[jackblack86]

Nah. Congress still writes the laws and an AWB won't get through Congress unless there are strong Democrat majorities

I could be wrong but in 94 the dems controlled house and senate plus president clinton it was easy to push awb thru. I would worry too if we lost the house. Conversly I rarely need much of a push to buy guns or ammo.