I stopped by again today, on the off chance that all the sales activity might have brought in some seldom-seen collectible firearms in trade. 2012 has been good to me in that respect.
The place looked like it had been hit by locusts, or the government had confiscated all the guns.
Well, not all the guns, but they were reduced to two AR15 clones (being eagerly eyeballed), one HK91 clone, and two $2100+ Springfield M1As. Shotguns, handguns, and .22s were thinned out considerably. Magpul 30-rd magazines were sold out, as were most of the X, Y, and Z brand cheapies. They still had a dozen $42 H&K magazines, but they were moving too, just not as quickly. 5.56mm ammo? Fuhgedaboutit.
Meanwhile, people kept on walking into the store, asking about AR15s in stock. As soon as they heard the news, they turned around and left. Apparently a lot of people have been traveling around the Detroit area from store-to-store, hoping to find something, somewhere. If this had been a natural disaster, food supplies would look like this.
Talking to the owner, I asked why he didn't triple or quadruple the prices on the last of his inventory, as other stores in the area did. He said he hoped the panic would blow over, and when prices returned to normal, potential customers would remember who tried to rip them off, and who treated them fairly.
He also said he was amazed by the instantaneous panic buying of AR15s, despite selling tons of them over the last four years. The 2008 post-election sales were a tidal wave, and the 2012 sales even bigger. But he didn't see the panic coming until our overlords in DC started their Second Amendment trash-talking over the last two weeks.
Be grateful you have food, even if you can't find an AR15 to save your soul, right now. Remember this situation when things slowly return to normal. These are regular Americans, voting with their feet, and dollars.
I don’t know if I’d be getting another one now, or not, but I’m glad to have already gotten mine. Or... no... dang... now I remember that I threw it in the bay. And all the ammo. Dang. Way out in the deep part.