The Obama administration has directly or indirectly caused several gun-control panics beginning in late 2008. With each successive panic the high-water price level for popular weapons has declined, because manufacturers ramped up production in response to price incentives and because panic is difficult to sustain. There is more market competition and improved manufacturing technology, so supply and quality have improved despite executive orders curbing imports. In 2015 you can buy a US-made budget AR-15 from a good manufacturer for around $600. Back in the early ’90s when these panics started a similar gun would have cost $2k+ in more-expensive dollars.
33 thoughts on “Unintended Consequences”
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3D printed guns will be the next beneficiary. Every time some government agency threatens to ban them, more copies get downloaded. Without government threats, there wouldn’t be any issue because the technology isn’t adequate, but with the threats the innovation machine gets revved up until it’s only a matter to time before we’re all building and assembling pistols at home.
True, we are in a nice little period of seeming normalcy. When Hillary gets nominated it’ll all go back up to post Sandy Hook price levels. When she gets crowned it will double and treble and stay there indefinitely.
Protip: Sandy Hook was a wonderful dry run for what the future holds — both in terms of the amount of vitriol that will be loosed against gun owners, and in terms of what actually happens in a manmade famine in the shooting sports. Contrary to popular misconception, you could still find primers and brass. Even premium-grade bullets. They were dear, but they could be had. It was and is smokeless powder that became the great bottleneck. When and if you could find the stuff, it was never the variety that you used and averaged $100+ per pound by the time you added the hazmat fee in; and buying the stuff had all the secretive tension of a drug deal.
Protip #2: We also found that special snowflake calibers vanished from sight, and even old standbys like .22 LR and 30-30 went missing from the shelves. I now place my trust exclusively in .223 (the standard NATO cartridge), the 30-06 (the most popular hunting cartridge on the planet), and the 12 gauge shotgun (even mid-Sandy Hook you could still buy bird loads at WalMart, and at indoor ranges that is still deadly).
Protip #3: Good old IMR 4895 and H4895 (old school military ball powders with slightly different burn rates) can be used to load .223 to 30-06 and a good many cartridges in between. Standardize your loads so that in the worst of times your rifles will still go bang. Get a bullet mold for each one of your rifles as well.
Protip #4: It is still legal to crank out your own lower receiver for an AR-15 and slap a parts kit on it, thereby creating your very own untraceable ‘ghost gun.’ Polymer 80% lowers with the correct jigs can be turned into the finished product in your garage with nothing more than a drill press. Buy one for every member of your family while they can still be had and/or that dangerous bottleneck is closed by our wise and discerning lawgivers.
We are about to have our heads held under water for the next eight years while our enemies arm and the financial markets worldwide creak and sway. That includes all you free and breezy souls in supposedly that-can’t-happen-here states like Texas and those of you that own no firearms at all. This is very possibly your last chance. This is the calm before a series of storms that will feed off of each other. Even if all of my Chicken Little BS comes to naught, you have still made a lifetime investment that will never wear out or be obsoleted. Stockpile now, for the love of God — and pay cash whenever possible.
Please. PLEASE.
/shakes head, turns back to his Lee turret press
Good advice. Things are OK for now. They could get better or worse. It’s prudent to prepare for worse.
Chattanooga: ‘act of domestic terrorism’. Can someone please explain to me the significance of the ‘domestic’?
The writer gets paid by the word?
“With each successive panic the high-water price level for popular weapons has declined,”
Pretty well says it all. You people live there on purpose, interesting.
Trump…who’s completely full of shit but at least he’s doing a great job looking like he’s on our side*…got my vote today.
Trump would arm the Military in the States, so we can stop being slaughtered like animals in pens.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-would-end-gun-free-zones-on-military-bases/article/2567907
*for it’s time Whites had their own Al Sharpton.
So, Phil … and I’m just asking for a friend … what model sidearm would you recommend for a woman with some but not very extensive military training on their standard sidearm, but rather small hands, who isn’t really that into competitive marksmanship. Ready availability of ammunition for it also is a must. Again … just asking for a friend.
Oh, carry a swordstick, Sgt Mom. Very stylish. For your friend, I mean. Or a swordumbrella.
“The writer gets paid by the word?” I don’t think so; it seems to be an official category – it was reported as such, anyway. Was the Boston bombing also ‘domestic terror’? How about the time that mad muslim psychiatrist murdered lots of servicemen: was that classed as ‘domestic terror’?
Hate to break up the party but the guys who have whispered “Obama is coming for our guns” for the last 7 years to an audience too eager and obtuse not to believe it probably had something to do with it.
P.T. Barnum would love you guys.
Mom, I’m not much of a handgun guy. But for any beginner who is recoil averse (which I admit I am) and just wants a compact little bang stick they can carry and use with small hands, and for which ammo is cheap and readily available, I unhesitatingly recommend the Ruger LCR in .38 Special. The latter is slightly larger, but will chamber and fire .38 specials as well. Both models sell for between $300 and $400, so the price is right. They are small enough for pocket or belt carry, there are holsters available for both, and the design of the frame damps felt recoil. There is no hammer, mag release, slide release, safety, or any need for them. Point and click.
There are a number of good loadings in that caliber that are especially made for short-barrel revolvers, so you get most of the power without all the flash and recoil. You don’t have much in the way of bears in Texas, so it will definitely wilt any two- or four-legged violency stuff you run into when you are hiking or camping. Load the short-barrel +P Speer Gold Dots for trouble and practice with the cheap stuff — to find the latter, follow the link below:
http://gunbot.net/ammo/pistol/38special/
I carry a short-barrel 1911 and make it work for everything, but I’m thinking about picking up an LCR for pocket carry myself. Also, for little old lady or teenaged users, do not underestimate the mighty .22. It is a killer.
Bleah. I meant to include the LCR in .357 in my long-winded sales pitch above. But I don’t honestly think any loading of the .357 is going to give you that much more oomph out of anything less than a 4″ barrel. Go with the .38.
“Can someone please explain to me the significance of the ‘domestic’?”
It’s called “domestic” because the globalist post-Americans in charge of the country don’t want the public asking inconvenient, politically incorrect questions.
For example, why was this muslim jihadi here in the first place? Why is the government bringing in more, as many as it can? Why were those marines unable to defend themselves? Why, nearly fifteen years after 9/11, after the expenditures of trillions of dollars, and thousands of lives, are we still not safe from muslim terrorism?
So, quick, just define it as “domestic” and all the inconvenient questions can be made to go away.
>P.T. Barnum would love you guys.<
regardless of the desirability, in 1985 you could smoke almost anywhere including airplanes. so you are an idiot if you think we haven't notice the proggtards ongoing and relentless assault on liberty.
“Hate to break up the party but the guys who have whispered “Obama is coming for our guns” for the last 7 years to an audience too eager and obtuse not to believe it probably had something to do with it.”
Hate to break up your party but Obama has in fact been coming for our guns for the last seven years. He continually bleats about just how much he’d like to do that.
He’s such an incompetent he can’t manage to get it done- despite the massacre of that entire schoolroom for of schoolchildren that was so eagerly awaited by gun control groups, despite having an overwhelmingly democrat congress for two years, and despite a completely worthless and gutless opposition party.
Pitiful, isn’t he?
“Trump would arm the Military in the States, so we can stop being slaughtered like animals in pens.”
This is a blindingly obvious response to these sort of events, especially since this isn’t the first time it has happened.
It says a lot about the astonishing heights of worthlessness that the Republican party has managed to scale- far eclipsing the height of Mt. Everest- that Donald Trump- Donald freakin’ Trump- is the political figure to make the suggestion.
Sad.
I have a new Colt 1911 coming. I have a Walther PPK which is too small for my hands. My wife is going to shoot it and see if she likes it. She has taken one class. Anyway, I am not a collector but do want some security.
Notwithstanding the trolls.
>>you are an idiot if you think we haven’t notice the proggtards ongoing and relentless assault on liberty.
They’re taking away your liberty to smoke for your own good. Marijuana excepted. And burning flags. And books. And probably people too soon.
“just define it as “domestic” and all the inconvenient questions can be made to go away.” I had suspected that it was categorised that way so that it can be added to some accumulating total which will then be used to imply that the US is under attack by militant hicks and Christians. It’s hard to be too cynical, isn’t it?
I think that the three terror attacks I mentioned share a common feature that is probably more important than their domesticity.
“In 2015 you can buy a US-made budget AR-15 from a good manufacturer for around $600.”
The statists and media hate these rifles with a passion not because of their firepower so much as for what they represent. Power To The People!
Every free American is now able to afford and should own one of these rifles with at least 2000 rounds of ammo and a dozen PMAG’s in reserve. Now there is no excuse not to.
Ruger, Smith & Wesson and others offer moderately priced decent quality AR rifles in the $6-700 range. These are not battle rifles, far from it.
Good for weekend plinking and for when that day comes.
Xennady,
Started a white house petition to draw attention to the systematic civil rights violation of denying military service members and their families the same 2nd Amendment rights that civilians have. This is an issue that is doing exactly what you observed. Our service members and their families have been identified as high priority, easily identified soft terror targets. Way past time the paranoia of the military command structure be prevented from complicity in their slaughter.
Here is the URL:
http://wh.gov/iXXtU
Mike
Sgt. Mom,
My wife and I bought Ruger stainless steel revolvers last year. Trent Telenko and all my other friends recommended we get revolvers as our first handguns. Those are chambered for .357 but we only use .38 special rounds.
I got a six-round .357 Ruger GP 100 with a 4″ barrel first. Its action was wonderful – my only change was to put a red plastic front sight on it. My wife has smaller hands so she got a five-round Ruger SP 101 with a 3″ barrel. Its action was much harder than mine so we replaced it with an easier action.
These are not really concealable weapons, save that they can fit into purses, but they are joys to shoot.
Sgt. Mom, we got the revolvers for fun, not self-defense. Revolvers are appropriate for home defense because they need not be concealable and can be loaded all the time, though they should be locked up, preferably in a safe, if children can be in the house.
If your friend wants a handgun for self-defense outside the home, a small concealable automatic is preferable, probably using .380 ammunition. But she should practice a lot more with it than she’d need to with a revolver, because of the potential of jamming due to “limp-wristing”
Sgt. Mom, let me second Phil’s choice for you. My friends choice was a Smith and Wesson 38S +P “airweight” (15ounces), with hidden hammer (no snags). It fits into his pocket for those nervous times. It wouldn’t burden one’s purse at all. It’s in the same price range as Phil’s recommendation.
Someone advised him well and said that an inconvenient tool is one that you don’t have with you when you need it. With that in mind, and wanting to buy just one sidearm, this seemed to him to be the best all-around compromise.
If I can jump in, I will agree with most of Tom Holsinger’s
“If your friend wants a handgun for self-defense outside the home, a small concealable automatic is preferable, probably using .380 ammunition.”
and disagree with part. .380 auto is also known as 9mm short. It is a really underpowered round in my estimation, and I would recommend going with a regular 9mm. And that comes from someone who does really not like 9mm. The recoil is not that much greater, there are plenty of concealed carry 9mm’s available [Ruger makes some wonderful ones], and you have a better chance of stopping the threat. Plus the ammunition is far more available and cheaper for both hardball for practice and jacketed hollow point for carry.
And I do urgently recommend JHP. .38 Special, .380 Auto, and 9mm are basically the same actual caliber, and in the Full Metal Jacket version for the Autos, and 158 gr. round nose for .38 Special tend to penetrate and leave neat little holes without transferring the kinetic energy to the person or critter you are trying to stop. Kinetic energy transfer is how you make all the innards not work and stop them. And when rounds penetrate, they keep going and sometimes hit persons and things you don’t want to hurt.
This energy transfer is vital because if you need it, you are not going to be doing a Clint Eastwood and shooting someone 100 feet away offhand. You more than likely in any defensive use going to be within 10 feet [Should not be closer if possible. A firearm is a device for projecting lead over a distance, not a hand to hand weapon]. It is going to be by surprise. And all parties concerned are going to be full of adrenaline. You are going to have trouble hitting anything. I know cases where both a trained cop and a bad guy emptied their weapons at each other at 6 feet and all rounds missed due to adrenaline.
You want a round that will, if you do hit, hit hard enough to overcome their adrenaline and stop them. Note I emphasize the word stop. Never tell someone you are shooting to kill. You are shooting to stop the assailant in self defense or defense of someone else.
Now if you are regularly carrying for more planned and martial purposes, within the limits of hand size, wrist strength [which can be built up], and ability to control recoil [also trainable]; I go with one of the “Rules of Combat”.
Never attend a gun fight with a pistol whose caliber starts with less than “4”.
Sorry for the pontification.
Subotai Bahadur
There are about a gazillion youtube channels (some very good ones at that) covering many of these questions, and can be quite helpful. Just type in “EDC” and a rash ‘o vids will appear. Every time I hear the Decepticon’s name and guns mentioned, I can’t help but think of the joker that runs a gun shop in New Hampshire, thanking him with a big, Shepard Fairey-esque poster out front as “Gun Salesman Of The Year”.
The debate over caliber rages interminably, and always will, but I’ll mention this. Last year locally, a housewife shot an intruder six times with a .38 revolver, and he lived. I personally can’t imagine taking one of those slugs, let alone the full dose, but he did. I think the old joke goes “why do you carry a .45?” “Because they don’t make a .46”
It’s all sorted, with my friend and all – and thanks for all of your kind recommendations, which have been all considered carefully. Action has been taken, classes are on the schedule, say no more, say no more, nudge, nudge, wink wink.
The PPK is a 380. and had a tendency to jam so I spent some time shooting more rounds through it to make the action a bit easier. That’s a little round but the gun is cute and the size is right for her.
I talked to my first wife this week and asked her if she still had the 38 S&W revolver I gave her years ago., She does. Plus, she has the old .410 horse pistol I gave her years ago when I was a medical student and gone at night a lot. My father got it from some gangster friend and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a history. Anyway, the barrel is a foot long and it is highly illegal. She said she took it into a gun store one time to ask for the right ammunition and store owner freaked out.
Anyway, she is well armed.
There was an incident nearby where a woman shot an intruder with a .25 and stopped him when he was charging her. Probably not a good choice to bring if in a gunfight, but it looks proven for women in close quarters as a last resort type pistol.
“a firearm owner’s ID card for the weapon”
WTF is that ? A good way to confiscate them when Hillary is elected ?
Mike K,
That has to be Illinoisy. If you want to own a gun, ANY gun, in this state, you have to put in an application and send $50 to the state along with a photo and they will issue you a Firearm Owner’s ID, aka FOID. A nasty bit of unconstitutional gun law that the NRA has never challenged.
I remember when Chicago told everyone to turn in their guns. I was furious when my father turned in a couple of guns I would like to have had. I had the shotguns but he had a couple of pistols.
I completely disagree with the LCR advice, if the context is “a handgun for just-in-case for someone who is not eager to do a lot of practicing with it.”
I own, and carry every day, the competitive predecessor to the (similar, but semiauto) LCP, namely Kel-Tec’s P3AT. But I do practice a lot… these little lightweight and very short handguns are a *bear* to shoot accurately. Someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of range time would be much better off with the afore-mentioned PPK, or in a revolver is preferred the also-mentioned SP101. I have one of the latter, too, and it’s a lot more concealable than you might think if you have the proper holster.