[Travis McGee]

[Gaffer]

Yet, from the record gun sales in December, and 2012 -- there were 16.8 million calls to the FBI for background checks for gun purchases last year -- the elites have lost the argument with the audience that counts. They have failed to convince those who buy guns

Actually, there are probably a lot more that 16.8 gun sales during the year. Off hand, I'd say I bought at least 8 weapons during the year , and two just recently and didn't need a NICS check for any of them here in Georgia with my CCW license.

[PizzaDriver]

The concept that a National Agency to oversee ALL firearm transactions, and approve or deny each transaction is just short sighted and wrong.

I was a teen when my Uncle GAVE me my first firearm [ a 410 shotgun ]. In my 20’s, and upon my return from VietNam I recieved a 22 rifle as a welcome home gift.

When one of my best friends move to the country, I gave him a 22 hornet varmint rifle.

When a neighbor was transferred oversees , by the USAF, I purchased his pellet gun, his spray paints & his solvents

When I pass, I intend to WILL my firearms to specific individuals.

I don’t see any need or Reason for a Federal Bureaucracy to be involved with stuff like that.

[longtermmemmory]

How many are first time buyers?

THAT is the key.

It is not enough for the same people to buy more, we need more new citizen owners exercising their right.

[PJammers]

The reality is there are two ways to deal with a human being, reason or force. The liberal mind cannot function within the rules of reality.

[mkboyce]

This is not about hunting, never was, never will be.

It is about personal protection from ALL enemies.

Anytime a polician says, ‘we respect the rights of hunters’, either doesn’t understand the issue or is lying.

[Hang'emAll]

The AR-15 black rifle, a version of which was used to slaughter the innocents in Newtown....

Would someone clarify this for me? Based on what I read, I thought the AR-15 was locked in the trunk of the perps car and he used semiauto pistols to kill everyone.

[ConservaTexan]

"...and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." - DOI, 1776

The founding fathers told us many years ago what to do in times such as now.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Many gun controllers not only do not understand what motivates those who disagree with them, they do not like them, reflexively calling them gun nuts, a reaction as foolish as it is arrogant and bigoted."

LOL....you go, Pat! Don't hold back....tell'em what you really think!

[Charles Martel]

The number of rifles like the AR-15 in private hands has probably tripled since the assault weapons ban expired. The NRA's David Keene estimates the number now at above 3 million.

Heh, "above" 3 Million is a very rough estimate. Even the lefties over at www.liberalgunclub.com like to do group purchases of stripped lower receivers, which don't get counted as completed rifles. The number of completed ARs sold is the tip of the iceberg.

[lurk]

Went to the Ranch/hardware store yesterday. The man at the guns & ammo counter said that the manufacturers of the popular calibers of ammo have wholesale orders scheduled for 5 years into the future.

If you’re into the market, this might be a place to put some investment money.

[lentulusgracchus]

(Art.)
Many gun controllers not only do not understand what motivates those who disagree with them, they do not like them, reflexively calling them gun nuts, a reaction as foolish as it is arrogant and bigoted.

I think Pat makes a mistake in trying to characterize or understand these people and their statements in this way.

They are working from a script on a called play. Barky called the play the same day as Newtown, making it hard to believe anything except that he was waiting for the chance to drop the handkerchief.

The called play has nothing to do with reason or even politics, but will be a pure-dimensional Stalinist campaign of demonization, as described by Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago, followed by what the other side hopes will be a crippling blow, followed by mopping-up and defeat in detail of the Liberty interest in this country. Show trials and pogroms later.