Well, it certainly didn’t take long for this running joke to become rather serious once Obama said that he will start playing politics with gun control (gun “safety” has nothing to do with it!) and that was like lighting the Christmas Tree at the start line of a dragway for gun haters everywhere. We here at the ‘Grok have been blogging about this almost non-stop. Yes, at the top level this may be about guns and certainly that word, and associated words, have filled our posts. Yet the deeper levels, this has nothing to do about guns – and the political Progressives know it well. At the bedrock level, this is about trust and control by politicians, and guilt, innocence and Freedom of the Individual. Frankly, we see that Politicians, especially on the Left, are acting on pure emotion as individuals instead of sober minded, thinking policy makers that know better than to create public policy based on outlier events (for while being horrific events, and tragic events, these mass killings are certainly outweighed by the massive number of deaths of innocent babes in the womb by State sponsored / paid for abortions).
But that doesn’t come up as it spoils the narrative; they decry the death by the gun but not by the abortionists speculum, vacuum or chemical agents.
But back to the premise of the Title: two very recent posts have proven that Americans are in disagreement with the Freedom-crushers (as opposed to calling them mere-gun grabbers). I also went to a local gun store this morning and range to get a feel for what is actually happening locally – and was surprised by what I heard.
Breitbart had the two posts:
Massachusetts citizens have been buying more and more guns for years as requests for gun licenses have spiraled. Now, after the Connecticut school shooting, Class A permits which cover handguns, rifles and shotguns have risen 36%.
Bob Bernstein, who owns Bob’s Indoor Public Shooting Range in Salisbury, said, “Women, when we first opened up were almost non-existent. That was 23 years ago. Within the last 5-6 years, women who come in and shoot now are 30-35%.”
Candi Hogan is one example. She had never fired a gun before yesterday, but after the Connecticut massacre, she’s looking for a gun license and wants to teach her daughter Micaela to shoot and get a license, too:
Brownells, the World’s Largest Supplier of Firearms Accessories and Gunsmithing Tools, is reporting they just sold what is normally a 3.5 year inventory of extended AR-15 magazines in 72 hours.
They sold so many magazines so fast that online shoppers were clicking on magazines that showed up as “in stock,” only to find them on back order by the time they navigated to checkout.
Brownells’ CEO said, “The demand for magazines actually exceeded the ability of the system to keep up with the volume that was being ordered.”
This same scenario is playing out all over the country, and not just at online suppliers.
I can vouch for that. I have read several posts recounting about extended mag purchases – one stuck out. A commenter had said when he bought a few first thing in the morning, the inventory count said 9,3000 of this model for his particular model. 10 hours later, they were all gone.
As I said, I went over to the local gun range, I walk in and the owner greeted me with a haggard look on his face – a very tired guy. He reports exactly what I thought was happening “Skip, look at the walls!”.
Bare. And he doesn’t have cheap stuff either – he believes in selling stuff that he can stand behind for years and years (and yes, for full disclosure, I have bought products from Bob at Belmont Firearms from such makers as Mr. Mossbert, Mr. Walther, Messrs Smith & Wesson, Mr. Ruger, and Mr. Sig) – I have found that like Doritos, you can’t have just one). He said that folks would buy something and then he would have to send them home as they could not call into the FBI NCIS system to complete the required background check. He’d then call in at 8:00:01 – and then spend the next 3 hours trying to catch up.
I was interested in a Ruger 10/22 – a .22 caliber and getting a .308 AR style rifle. He only had three left of the former; all AR style guns were long gone. In .308 (which is more powerful than most of the ARs sold which are chambered in .223), all he had left for sale were H&K’s starting at $3K, another at $6K, and some others that he smiling (but bluntly) said – “you wouldn’t even consider buying them”. Normally well stocked with AR & AK mags, he was out. I didn’t have the heart to even ask about getting a few Sig mags for the P220 – after yakking a bit with him and some of the other customers that had come in and declared “yeah, just like I figured it would be” came in to get whatever was left. And then some “motivated” customer came in; in the space of 10 minutes, Bob sold 4 higher end rifles, as I said, that was all he had. Now normally, people take their time, ask questions, hold the rifle (or pistol) up, look down the barrel, fuss over it, and ask “what else will you throw in?”. While I was watching, they asked the price, looked down the barrel quickly, and said “I’ll take it”. Yes, one guy did ask the question “throw in some ammo?” and quickly got “Nope”. The guy’s quick response was not to haggle but “I was going to take it anyways”. A $5,000 gun. It only took 30 seconds from start to agreement.
Bob looked at me, a small shrug of his shoulders and a quick smile, as to say “See, I told you” even as he had 3 other people waiting for him in line to purchase other offerings (and yes, they all heard the price).
I talked to another friend who was at Riley’s yesterday – he said similar things except he added that as he was going in, person after person was coming out with ammo – not just a box or two (each containing 20 or 25 rounds) but cases. He also reported that more than a couple were using a dolly / hand truck to move their purchases to their vehicles. The place was packed and he remarked that he had never seen the walls so bare of inventory. Back to that Breitbart post:
For example, at the Scottsdale Gun Club in Scottsdale, AZ, where the walls are normally blanketed with AR-15 variants and other popular rifles for sale, those walls are now barren. And the boxes of extended AR-15 magazines are gone too. All bought up as a safeguard, just in case House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) does something other than stand his ground and tell Democrats that any new gun control legislation is a non-starter.
There are plenty of great gunblogs out there – they are all reporting similar stories
Are Progressives heading for a Firearms Overreach Cliff?
As I stated above, I did spend a bit of time yakking with some of the regular customers that were there for some small stuff and to engage in some small talk. I ended up talking with a gentleman that had just retired from one of the local police departments and recognized my name from writing Letters to the Editor. We discussed other areas in which it seems that Progressives are trying to put our Freedoms into smaller and smaller boxes; it seems that they are trying to eliminate Civil Society, leaving only Leviathan government and single Individuals. But on this current topic, of Progressive Democrats coming out of the woodwork, he said (paraphrased):
“They will have a revolution on their hands“
Here was a former law enforcement officer openly and saying this? I have also heard the same from others. Others have said “Fine, I know how to get those rifles by other means – a bit pricier but not a problem: “I can get them via Mexico or via Canada”. Well, given how little enforcement the Obama Administration has done for our border security, I’m not surprised. Heck, one of the said that he had been offered live grenades. I certainly did not pursue any of that, but it is the kind of information that puts a damper on the idea that the Government can take all, or even a significant number of the legal guns already owned by, again, lawful citizens.
Do folks like Feinstein and Cuomo and Obama simply expect these kinds of folks to “fork it over”? And what will the reaction be from those tasked to do the taking – the local police and the State police? They are seeing the same news we are – what are they thinking? Will they believe that this is a bridge too far for them to go – forced to go house to house and demand guns from folks that have never done anything wrong?
While not exactly very high information folks (e.g., not news or political junkies), these folks are seeing the America that they grew up in, in some cases fought for and protected, and what they want for their kids, being taken away from them. They see the ground becoming a sinkhole for traditional values and being replaced by Progressive ones that are antithetical to them. And they are getting mad again.
Face it, most people do not “do politics” – they just want to be left alone. This is the one thing that Progressives just can’t seem to understand – or are too willing to ignore. They seem to have the overriding disposition that they want to “progress forward” and that in their pursuit of “perfecting us in order to reach that more Perfect Union” that they should have the authority to force us all to join them. This is why the extreme pushback and extreme demonization by Progressives of any group or any person standing in their way; they cannot allow anyone to keep them from their “salvation in the Cult of Biggest Government”. They are well on their way to ridding themselves of the buffer of Civil Society that stands between their Big Government and the Individuals that they wish to “Borg-ify”.
This unwillingness to “progress” was unleashed back in 2010 by the TEA Party that made itself a force in the elections. While not as successful at the national level from a PR result in 2010, there still were TEA Party folks elected. And at the state levels, more legislative bodies and governerships have moved away from the Democrats than ever (sadly, however, not NH).
It is my contention that Democrats, spurred on by the Progressive uncontrollable urge to disarm Citizens that have done nothing wrong but simply engage in a hobby or sport in which the Progressives have a visceral fear and loathing for, may end up repeating what happened to them after the first gun ban. This may be especially true because Progressives like US Senator Diane Feinstein and US Senator Blumenthal and NY Gov Andrew Cuomo AND President Obama (who has voted against the Second Amendment) may not learn the lesson of the aftereffects of putting the first gun ban in place.
In this jeremiad to get “guns that are only meant to kill others”, be prepared to be demonized – already we hear that if you want to keep your guns and your ammo and your magazines, so you are evil, bloodsucking, baby killers, spawn of the hated NRA that controls everything.
How much you wanna bet that the Koch brothers will be tied into the NRA fairly quickly?
