I can attest to the truth of this. Before 1989 and the Bush I import ban on "assault weapons," I didn't own a gun despite being very pro-gun (this was due to a lack of money - I had just gotten out of school 2 years before, and was buried in student loans and bills for furniture, etc.). Anyway, I bought a couple then.
Then Guv Florio came along the next year and banned "assault rifles" in NJ, where I lived then (but, thankfully, no longer do). Well, that started a buying spree. Among the guns I bought was an M-1 Garand, far more deadly than the little "poodle-shooter" that I had wanted to buy. Oh, and I've got lots of .30-'06 AP ammo. Boy, Florio really disarmed me!
Subsequent actions by Clinton & Co. spurred yet more stockpiling. I even owned (and still do own) in excess of 40 so-called "high-capacity" mags (really just a metal box large enough to hold more than 15 rounds of whatever ammo it was made for, as well as a compressed spring - gee, what a lethal weapon!). I could've served something like 200 years in prison in NJ had I been caught, but I didn't give a rat's hindquarters - I was simply incensed that my employees thought that they had the power to infringe upon my basic right to self-defense.
If I didn't know better, and I do, I might almost think that the gun-grabbers were being paid-off by the firearms industry, because I'm far from the only one who thinks and acts like you. I fondly recall the overcrowding at numerous gun shows in '93 and '94, and it didn't slack off much afterwards. Oh, and it got real crowded in Sept. and Oct. of 2000, when it looked like Gore might win.