I didn't forget inflation in the least, you just failed to read closely - I specifically stated:
So maybe the inflated price of AR's is about on track
AR's are really just coming back to where they were, which is higher than they should be considering the market competition these days. The others are inflating over any value they really should have.
If you read and understand the English language, that SHOULD read to you as:
AR prices today aren't so far off from where they were 10-15yrs ago. This effectively suits the market, since greater market competition relatively depressed AR-prices since that time, counteracting appropriate rising costs due to inflation. Even considering AR's are below their inflated values - in my opinion they're still over priced relative to their market competition.
I might challenge a bit the 1993 pricing you're talking about - while it wasn't as far back as 1993, I started building AR's in the late 1990's, and I remember building them, if I bought in large enough volumes, I could just sneak them under $300 each, but typically completing them in the $300-350 range, and that was even before I grabbed greater discounts when I got my FFL. Correcting 1993 dollars to 1998, $269 is $303 - so I wouldn't have been too far off at that time from the mark you state as impossible. The ban threw everything for a loop, as did its sunset, and of course, panic buying phases and different state level AWB laws (good and bad) have pushed things around, but overall, I think the market on AR's has been relatively marginalized for a long time - much more so than these other models I referenced. I do recall in 2006 "ish" time frame after the ban buying a Bushmaster M4 Hbar for $750 and being glad to find one on the shelf - an equivalent rifle today is barely over half of that price...
However - tell me how in sam he11 you can reason away with inflation justification that a $75 Mosin (a 2000-2005 era price) exceeded it's appropriately inflated cost of $105 by 3-4x? I know in 2007-8, they could be bought for $125 locally, which inflates to $145 today - again, how do you explain them running 2-3x that price today BY INFLATION? Or a $250 2005 SKS is running $450 today, instead of it's $309 inflated value? I bought a Marlin 1894 in 2002 for $380 - inflation corrected to $509 in 2016, list price on the rack for the same rifle today near me is $655...
Inflation is not the driving force in these increased prices. Market supply and demand affects ARE what's setting the prices.