Posted on 03/31/2009 5:17:17 AM PDT by kellynla
As I was walking through the ammunition aisle at my local Bass Pro Shops, I muttered to the man standing next to me how disappointingly empty the shelves were. “Not as bad as last week”, he said. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Back in February, Cabelas, a publicly-traded outdoor outfitter saw its stock go up 35% in one day when earnings blew away estimates because of very strong “sales of firearms and related accessories.”
If President Obama has stimulated anything in America, it is demand for guns and ammunition. According to Rich Wyatt, the voluble and intense owner of Gunsmoke -- a firearms training facility just outside Denver -- “If I had known it would be this good in the gun business, I might have voted for Obama.”
It’s not just a couple of stores seeing a run on guns and even more so on ammunition. From local gun shops to WalMart to sporting goods stores, the story is the same: When the store gets a shipment of ammo, particularly .45, 9mm, and .38 handgun ammunition, “people come in and they buy it all.”
The manager of a local gun shop where I’ve been a customer told me that business has doubled since the election. Whereas the typical first time buyer pre-election had generally been a 30- or 40-something male, first time gun buyers now include more younger people, older people, and women than in the past. “They’re buying semi-automatic pistols and shotguns for home defense, as well as ‘concealed weapons’. There’s also a strong interest in ‘black guns’”, military-style assault rifles, both from people who want to buy them “because they can” as well as others who believe they’ll be able to sell them at higher prices someday soon.
Where politics was rarely mentioned during a gun purchase a year ago, the store manager says at least 60% of his customers mention the Obama administration now.
At Rich Wyatt’s Gunsmoke, “We are getting ‘Prius-driving Obama people’ buying guns because they realize they picked the wrong pony…even though they never admit it.” Just like my local gun shop, Wyatt has “old ladies and young people and liberals” buying guns. He says that while there were spikes in gun buying during the Clinton administration, during the Rodney King riots, and even just before Y2K, he’s never seen anything remotely on this scale.
A customer I spoke with at Bass Pro Shops (the employees wouldn’t speak with me for an article) actually owns a gun shop, but he was buying ammunition there because his wholesaler had run out. His customers are hoarding ammunition and, to a lesser extent, guns. He described a recent spectacle at a gun show where one vendor had a relatively large supply of ammunition and customers were swarming around him buying 50 boxes at a time…and not at a bargain price.
At Dick’s Sporting Goods, they were almost out of .45 ammunition after having received a shipment just that morning. Not only are people buying as much ammunition as they can find and afford, they’re doing it during the work day rather than taking the chance that it will be gone by the weekend.
As if the message weren’t clear enough, a sign at a local WalMart said “Due to the increased demand from customers for ammunition, our suppliers are increasing production…” A salesman said that their ammunition supply is now infrequent and unpredictable: “We used to get shipments almost every day. Now we only know we’ll have it when we see it. I get at least a half-dozen calls a day asking for ammunition, especially for handguns, and when it arrives, the customers buy everything.”
Over at Gunsmoke, Rich Wyatt says “Now, it’s not what the ammo costs; it’s ‘do you have it?’”
Much of the demand for ammunition is due to an NRA advertising campaign during election season which described Barack Obama’s historical positions on gun issues, including having said that he would support a 500% federal tax on guns and ammunition. And while it is true that Obama has not made many anti-gun statements recently, gun rights expert David Kopel explains clearly that Barack Obama is easily the most anti-gun President in US history.
In his 2004 Senate campaign, Barack Obama said he would like to ban concealed carry permits. Now that Obama is President, Gunsmoke’s concealed carry courses are selling out class after class (50 people in each) in addition to their 3-day pistol classes, which are already sold out through June.
“People are petrified…afraid for their rights that Obama is going to attack. And while Obama says he doesn’t support banning guns, a 500% tax would effectively be a financial ban on both guns and ammunition. I think the left’s goal is that in 50 or 100 years, there are people who don’t even know that they could have bought guns or ammunition.”
Colorado is several months behind in processing concealed carry permits because of demand. Last month, it was reported that Florida “is buried under a backlog of 95,000 applications for concealed-weapons permits and it needs to hire a lot more people to handle the paperwork.” In Georgia, firearm permits were up 79% in 2008 over 2007. In Oklahoma, the number is around 90%. In Ohio, the number of concealed carry licenses issued in the 4th quarter of 2008 was 111% higher than the 4th quarter of 2007.
Wyatt’s concealed carry classes emphasize the basics of gun use, safety, and the law, but “It’s Politics 101 as well, trying to make sure people understand not only their rights regarding guns but also the Constitution and their rights and responsibilities as American citizens.” He tries to make sure people are conscious of the “boiling the frog” approach by government to infringing on our rights, and gun rights in particular, just slowly enough that the average person might not notice. Just be prepared, he warns, for the return of government saying “We’re not banning all guns…just these guns.” And that’s part of the reason that there’s so much demand for ‘these’ guns, which is to say just about every type of gun you can imagine.
Since the election, the shares of gunmaker Smith & Wesson have more than doubled, with competitor Ruger’s shares up nearly as much. Two weeks ago a large gun and ammunition manufacturer, Olin Corp. raised its earnings guidance, anticipating a record quarterly profit for its Winchester ammunition division. The American public is speaking, and they’re saying in no uncertain terms that they don’t believe President Obama’s claims to support gun rights since his history says something very different.
Rich Wyatt’s position is typically none too subtle: “Barack Obama is right about one thing. We are clinging to God and our guns, and I defy him to try to take either one from us.”
As for me, after a day of thinking about the Obama administration and guns, I bought my local WalMart’s last box of .38 caliber ammunition.
...septic tank driver gets pulled over...
“Whatcha got in the back there?”
...A bunch of [expletive deleted]...
(OK, I’ve got to unplug for a while...I think I am hacking to many people off these last few days...hehehe)
Ask the goobers who amended the Appendix in the latest Super-AWB bill...
HR 1022 was a bill in the congress (in the session before this last one...)
I forgot what the bill number is this session right off the top of my head...
It was a good suggestion. Our older son has a Marine radio on his fishing boat, a portable if he goes ashore and has one that his wife used to use at home to contact him. Now with the cells they use the cells, which probably would work.
We may consider high quality long range walkie/talkie CBs.
Good suggestion re the communication needs.
Thanks
I'm not trying to be insulting with this, but he's absolutely right, Dave. The treachery of this building enemy is beyond belief. Their ability to "turn" people against you is beyond belief, even your own flesh and blood!!!
In spite of your best efforts, they'll find a way to try and hurt you with a mortal wound to either your body, or your mind!!!
Just remember Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tong and the ruin they wracked on their own nations. Relatives (families) died!!!
bookmark
Same here. The range I go to is now crowded at times it used to be empty.
Yes, it has changed alot. I came from a small town of 750, good salt of the earth folks, just not rich. Now that town is full of welfare cases and meth producers. The welfare cases are thanks to the county “family services” who encouraged the good for nothings to come to our town because “housing is cheap there”. There were no big cities around to get jobs so the younger citizens moved closer to work. Used to have 2 grocery stores, now have none, everyone drives 30 miles one way to get their stuff from Walmart. Yes, things have changed.
One thing is I keep seeing everyone say they can’t find ammo. I may not find the brand I want or exactly what I want (I try to buy what my brother says I should buy) so I’ve had to put up with not getting exactly what I want but I can find the caliber I need. But probably because I only get 22LR and .38. Maybe they’re more common?
Oh dear, I started this 30-40 minutes ago, thought I’d already sent it! Hope you’re still there.
Get a distress laser pointer and mount it on a small spotting scope, align it up, or a cheap rifle scope, it can be used as a line of sight morse code system. Like an Aldis lamp.
The distress laser pointers broaden out and are easier to see and won’t blind the observer. Do not use a line laser.
You are assuming that people are going to wait for the government to come and get them.
I keep a day’s supply
Let us know how the hogs like the taste of politician.
They can be alot of fun as well. Used to work for a major sporting goods retailer, worked at the corporate offices so we got to try out lots of fun stuff. The laser pointer...you'd be just busy doing your work, look down and see the laser pointer on your chest but you could not figure out who was pointing it at you. Maybe our sense of humor was warped but we had the most fun with that.
Another laser pointer story, co-worker had a friend out of state who lived in a bad area. Full of partiers playing music late at night, some iffy dealings like maybe drugs and such. He got tired of their noise one night, pointed his laser at one of them in a group of 4 or 5, they immediately stopped what they were doing and took off. Quiet for the rest of the night. Now I know that may not be the smartest thing to do but it was a funny story.
His bucks ought to be able to set himself up real nice.
I trust no one on my block except the lady next to us.
Both of our sons are in the same situation.
My trophy wife commented on a recent road trip that I haven’t been very vocal about 0boz0 outside of our home. As noted before, she is less tolerant of him than I am.
I told her, that we don’t know who to trust if this bad dream becomes a nightmare. I don’t want to be on an hit list for 0boz0’s thugs in his upcoming “Volunteer Army”.
My wife’s brothers are discussing this very issue. They live in the Midwest about 200 miles apart. One still lives in the hometown where they grew up with lots of cousins. The problems some of those cousins may have voted for 0boz0.
The other/older brother lives on a small farm surrounded by larger farms about 20 miles from the nearest city. His sons/DILs, daughter/SIL and Grandkids are in that area. So he and his wife don’t want to move. The other brother has a daughter/SIL and two grandsons within 7 miles, and they don’t want to move.
The next time we talk about this to the younger brother, I will mention the option of putting a trailer on the small farm of the older brother.
The younger brother has talked to some of his conservative cousins up north in his area and the possibility of buying a lot of farm land separately but adjacent to each other and putting in good pre fab homes, barns and other buildings. The land is great farm land, loaded with deer, wild turkeys and pheasants. With a small year round river/stream and a good water table. A couple of the cousins and their sons have been farmers all of their life. Most of the guys are Nam Vets are in the same age group and get alone okay and have decades of watching each other’s backs. All of the guys hunt and fish and have various skills. The wives are great Midwestern Gals. They are teachers, nurses and business ladies.
I guess that the best bet will be to hit all of the local gun shops and pick it up a couple of boxes at a time.
Local shops will be expensive, but I think shops have that cal in boxes of 25. The last big cache that I knew of came from Yugoslavia in 1260 cases. All gone now.
Look on the bright side - we know it’s the “good guys” that are stocking up, and the bad guys know this too.
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