Conffederate
Confederate

November 20, 2008

Only Supply is Dampening The Run On Guns

"I could sell a hundred ARs an hour, if I had them."

That was the word from the man behind the counter at my local gun shop yesterday afternoon when I stopped in. As if to put an exclaimation point on his claim, two men added their names to an ever-growing waiting list to purchase AR-15 carbines within minutes of my entering the store.

Two months ago, the first two racks of rifles to great you as you entered Fuquay Gun & Gold would be bristling with AR15 carbines, AK-pattern rifles, and a smattering of SKS carbines. Today, those same worn racks are almost bare except for misfits from the Island of Misfit Martial Toys—a pair of Saiga Ak-pattern shotguns, a .22 caliber AR-clone, and a nearly $900 VZ-58 with the ugliest stock I've ever seen.

Fears of an Obama administration attempt to raise prohibitive taxes and reinstate bans on so-called "assault weapons" and standard capacity magazines have led to rushes on many kinds of semi-automatic rifles and pistols, especially those with high capacity magazines. Until recently, Obama's transition website indicated his intention to reinstate the ineffective 1994 Assault Weapons Ban that passed under President Clinton and expired in 2004 under President Bush.

Local news reports from other gun shops across the country seem to indicate that a run on military-style semi-automatics and ammunition of all types may continue for months as long-time shooters and new gun purchasers stock up in preparation for what many expect to be one of the most divisive, anti-gun federal governments in years.

Update: Janet Reno's Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton years, Eric Holder, seems to be Obama's choice to be the next Attorney General. It wasn't until Glenn Reynolds highlighted a post at the Volokh Conspiracy that I realized how dangerous of a selection Holder is to gun owners.

Earlier this year, Eric Holder--along with Janet Reno and several other former officials from the Clinton Department of Justice--co-signed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller. The brief was filed in support of DC's ban on all handguns, and ban on the use of any firearm for self-defense in the home. The brief argued that the Second Amendment is a "collective" right, not an individual one, and asserted that belief in the collective right had been the consistent policy of the U.S. Department of Justice since the FDR administration. A brief filed by some other former DOJ officials (including several Attorneys General, and Stuart Gerson, who was Acting Attorney General until Janet Reno was confirmed)took issue with the Reno-Holder brief's characterization of DOJ's viewpoint.

But at the least, the Reno-Holder brief accurately expressed the position of the Department of Justice when Janet Reno was Attorney General and Eric Holder was Deputy Attorney General. At the oral argument before the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Emerson, the Assistant U.S. Attorney told the panel that the Second Amendment was no barrier to gun confiscation, not even of the confiscation of guns from on-duty National Guardsmen.

As Deputy Attorney General, Holder was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control. He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called "assault weapons" (cosmetically incorrect guns) by anyone under age of 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, national gun registration, and mandatory prison sentences for trivial offenses (e.g., giving your son an heirloom handgun for Christmas, if he were two weeks shy of his 21st birthday). He also promoted the factoid that "Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence"--a statistic is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as "children."

After that, Holder's plans for gun owners gets worse.

And as "stace" noted in the comments, Obama's desire to reinstate the ineffectual "assualt weapons" provision of the 1994 crime bill is back on his web site as a goal for his administration.

Update: Even Better! I'm starting to understand why the protégé of a Marxist domestic terrorist would favor someone like Holder. He'd regulate the Internet as well.

Reasonable restrictions seems to be the only way these people can view the Constitution. For our own good, of course.

Final Update: Screening to keep gun owners out of his administration?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at November 20, 2008 11:52 AM
Comments

I want one. I'm afraid of guns. They scare me. But some things are more dangerous than a gun in the hands of a free citizen of a democracy. Like a Marxist Socialist in the White House... because Marxists have killed 100,000,000 human beings and are the most murderous politicians in world history, I believe. But an armed citizenry is a protection against mass murder by Marxist Socialist politicians - the most genocidal politicians on the planet, perhaps.

See, I used to call those guns "AR's" for "Assault Rifle". But that's not really what they are. They're "C&BS". "Check & Balance Systems".

I think we need our Check & Balance Systems now more than ever here in the USA.

All sytems must operational and prepared for the exercise of our Constitutional Right.

Now, if the Founding Fathers wanted us ARMED against a Government that could go genocidal on us, did they really believe we were supposed to honor politicians in order to honor God?? Do Christians really understand that we are to view Marxist Socialist politicians, for example, as evil?? And protect ourselves?? Because they might try to kill us?? That's what the Founding Fathers were MOST concerned about... because they knew history... and they did not exalt politicians or believe that honoring politicians in office was necessary to be a good Christian. They thought being armed against the Government so officials wouldn't get all power hungry and turn murderuos... and having no trust in the Government... was being Christian.

:)

I want a Check & Balance System because it's one of the most effective deterrant against politicians acting like they're God and deserve our worship and think they can take away our Constitution and our Rights... even to life.

Politicians are dangerous people that are most prone become very evil and dangerous when the people don't have those Check & Balance Systems against a Government gone Socialist, for example, which is a Government System responsible for 100,000,000 murders of citizens of it's own countries.

I pray my fellow citizens are armed to the hilt... and rise up to protect and defend the right to bear arms if this Government tries to take that right away. Because the next step by a Marxist would be genocide, imo, and Obama is a Marxist, imo, based on the facts.

Grace.

Posted by: ld at November 20, 2008 12:55 PM

If I had more disposable cash laying around, I'd definitely be stocking up on ammo. Unfortunately, I live in NJ so any restrictive gun measures would probably put the rest of the nation where I'm at now, so there's none that I can buy now anyway that I feel are at risk. But the thought of the rest of the country being like NJ scares the daylights out of me.

Posted by: Mike Gray at November 20, 2008 01:41 PM

Went to Georgia Arms (georgia-arms.com, ammunition supplier) yesterday (National Ammo Day), and couldn't get what I wanted - for example, they were all out of .45 hollow-point. Couldn't get 124 grain 9mm, they only had 115gr. Now, these people go to all the gun shows around, sell bullets by the thousand (go see), and they can't keep up with the demand in the last month.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Posted by: Bill Johnson at November 20, 2008 01:50 PM

Dear "Id":

AR stands for "Armalite Rifle", the original manufacturers of the AR-15.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15

by common definition, for a weapon to be considered an "assault weapon" it needs to be a rifle chambered for an intermediate caliber, capable of both semi and fully automatic fire. the media will tell you otherwise, but as usual, they are wrong.

it *is* possible to own an assault weapon here in the US, but you must pay all the taxes on one, and live in a state that allows them, such as Arizona. the vast majority of "AR's" sold in the us are semi-automatic only, and therefore are just rifles.

as for being afraid or scared of guns, does your car scare you? or your kitchen knives? guns are simply tools that are as safe as anything else in your house or garage, provided you are properly trained, understand how they w*rk, and treat them as you would any other useful but potentially dangerous piece of equipment, like a chain or skill saw..... call up the local shooting range and make an appointment with an NRA certified instructor for a weapons safety course. they are reasonably priced, and you're likely to find that you're a lot less scared when you actually know something about how guns are handled.

Posted by: redc1c4 at November 20, 2008 02:46 PM

Boy, you guys are just suckers. Running out and spending your very hard-earned dollars because the gun industry tells you to. Sheesh. Go ahead...buy all the guns and ammo you want. Knock yourselves out. But trust me folks...if the US Government comes for your guns (which they won't)...you don't stand a chance against a modern-day SWAT team. Obama is not a Marxist, or a socialist and raising taxes a little bit to dig out the economy is not the end of the world.

Posted by: Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:22 PM

Forget you Mr. Goldstein, you're delusional if you think Obamamaniac isn't intent on taking my hard earned assault rifle from my cold dead pried apart fingers. Typical lie-beral nonsense, hey look over there, not over here, presto, the A.R. is gone! Poof! Then what are we to do? We're screwn. Concentration camps, that's what. You betcha!

Posted by: Kirk R. at November 20, 2008 03:28 PM

Kirk R. Your a moran! I voted Republican my entire life, like my father and his father. Do you want to live in a world without AR like we did from 1994 to 2004!!!11!! JUST WAIT. Maybe if you were in a concentration camp, it would help you think more clearly!

Posted by: Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:33 PM

Roger it is seid that those who do not remember there history aro doomed to repite it. A lot tof pepole seid the same thing about Hilter!!!!!

Posted by: Rich in KC at November 20, 2008 04:30 PM

I see the SadlyNo grade schoolers are paying a visit.

Posted by: goober at November 20, 2008 09:46 PM

You're an idiot, Goldman. The organ's of state security are not sufficient to stand up against an armed populace in a state of rebellion, as history has shown in dozens of cases. Also, in the event of such a breakdown of constitutional rule in the U.S, a great deal of the army and police would be on the side of the rebels, civil wars work that way.

That's not going to happen today, this year, next year or ten years from now. But fifty years? A hundred? You honestly think you know what history has in store for the republic? Arms in the hands of the people are the final check against tyranny. The FIRST thing any would-be tyrant does is disarm his victims. READ SOME HISTORY, GENIUS.

Posted by: Amos at November 21, 2008 02:48 AM

If one takes a look a the past, Govt's typically institute gun bans before the killing of citizens starts. Ask any Nazi concentration camp survivor how did it start. Secondly, with Mexico's drug lords openly killing their military, police,and citizens like its open season, what do you think they would do to the US if they knew citizens here had no ability to protect themselves? Wait- dont they have gun control there?

Posted by: BroomO at November 21, 2008 06:21 AM

That reminds me...I'll be first in line tomorrow morning when the local gun show opens for business. :)

Posted by: W-K-B at November 21, 2008 07:03 AM

Goldman, You must get your information from the mainstream media. Or you are just ignorant. Obama has surrounded himself with America haters his whole life! I think you are a victim of the " Oh it's all just republicans lie" crowd.This guy has NO experience!And is the number one lib in the senate! I'm sure that he'll try to fill every judicial slot opening no matter how small with socialist's. And people like you will say" Oops ,guess we were wrong" TOO LATE THEN DUMMY!

Posted by: marine43 at November 21, 2008 07:41 AM

Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:22 PM:

"...raising taxes a little bit to dig out the economy is not the end of the world."

Yeah, we'll tax our way out of the recession. After that, we'll dig our way out of a pit, climb our way off of a tower, and eat our way to a svelte new figure!

That's the ticket!

Posted by: Troll Feeder at November 21, 2008 08:47 AM

A SWAT team is not made of Terminators or Aliens or Predators from a hollycr@p movie. It’s people with good training and good kit provided by the people they have sworn to serve and protect. And they don’t stand a chance against the people armed and in revolt. Just how many SWAT are there? And how many of them are willing to kill the people they swore to serve and protect? Don’t kid yourself and don’t drink the liberal-communist cool aid of the almighty state. Neither the state nor the security forces stand a chance of the people says “ENOUGH!!!” And you will see many LEO, SWAT included and many a soldier of all kinds joining the ranks of a revolution. They don’t live in limbo. They are Americans, too. Only liberal-communists entertain the concept that the people are powerless because that’s how they feel themselves and how they would want the rest of the people to be. Surprise!

Posted by: Jorge Banner at November 21, 2008 09:34 AM

Bob, the AWB is back up on Obama's website now.

"They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent."

http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy_agenda/

Posted by: stace at November 21, 2008 09:37 AM

Anyone that calls the current slew of gun buyers "alarmists" is only fooling himself.

The current Democratic party and most of the Republicans in Washington worship the toilet that Kofi Annan used to crap on. They love the UN. It's easy to pick out the ones that don't give 2 cents about your *inherent* gun rights. Its the ones that say, "I love the 2nd Amendment! I think you should be able to hunt!" Alarms should be going off on your crap detector big time.

Remember the 2A is there to keep government from making laws about an INHERENT right. A right given to you by your creator, whether that be God or some sort of primordial soup.

The 2A does NOT grant you a right.

Posted by: Buddy at November 21, 2008 09:52 AM

In the current economic meltdown, it's not a SWAT team you need to worry about; it's the drug-addled poor people and crystal-meth zombies who are coming to take whatever you've got. We're planning to hug our own little armalite too, but sheesh; we're going to have to get in line along with millions of others. When we have to take all of our money out of the bank, during the run on it, we will need an armory to protect it. ;o}

Posted by: mountainaires at November 21, 2008 10:21 AM

The only "hunting" I see covered in the 2A is the hunting of tyrants and their lapdogs.

Posted by: Claymore at November 21, 2008 10:33 AM

Obama doesn't know his history. Even Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Isoroku Yamamoto understood America when he said, "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." There will be hell to pay if Obama and his administration even try.

Posted by: le comat at November 21, 2008 10:58 AM

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/20/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

Posted by: David M at November 21, 2008 11:18 AM

SWAT teams tend to do very poorly when they meet with armed resistance. They rely on surprise and intimidation. When those don't work, then it the history of assaulting starts to play out -- you begin losing 4 or more assaulters per defender.

Just last week, a SWAT guy was killed by a housewife with a handgun who thought he was a burglar. If you watch for them, you regularly see SWAT getting shot by homeowners that they are raiding.

Homeowners who did not know that they were coming, and were completely surprised, often asleep when the invasion begins.

Homeowners who do not train regularly with their weapons. Homeowners who do not have a specific intent to defend themselves from the police and are simply reacting and panicking.

If faced with the prospect of assaulting a home where the owner knows that they are coming, trains regularly with his weapons, and has a specific intent to protect himself from them, it would be the SWAT guys panicking.

Posted by: Phelps at November 21, 2008 11:35 AM

" This year will go down in history,
for the first time a civilized
nation has full gun registration!
Our streets will be safer,
our police more efficient,
and our world will follow
our lead into the future!"

. . . Adolph Hitler, 1935

Posted by: flathead at November 21, 2008 11:56 AM

Gun grabbing will never go far in this country because the effete, gelded wusses (e.g. Barack Obama) who think this is a great idea, will never be the people who have to carry it out. \

It will be people who believe in the Second Amendment.

And they won't do it and the geriatric hippies, pansy eggheads, slimy trial lawyers, race baiting poverty pimps, slacker college students and other drains on society who voted for Obama, aren't going to enforce it either.

Posted by: Brian at November 21, 2008 12:02 PM

I live in Virginia where gun ownership is high. That is reassuring to me on many levels. In the first place, if you have followed Australia's experience, crime has RISEN as gun ownership has fallen. Need I say more? Only those who are feeding on liberal pablum would deny that our nation is in grave danger from seditionists within and heaven-knows-what without. Personally, I'm happy to take responsibility for my own safety and freedom over a life of protracted and ever increasing subjugation!

Posted by: Gayle Miller at November 21, 2008 12:05 PM

Obama can have my guns when he pries them from my cold dead hands.

Posted by: southerngrace at November 21, 2008 01:12 PM

flathead:
That quote is a fake, IIRC. There are some other quotes about gun control by other members of the Nazi Party (as well as notables like Stalin) that can be verified, however.

(Old talk.politics.guns habit. I think it's still on the pro-gun FAQ for that newsgroup.)

Posted by: Patrick Chester at November 21, 2008 02:57 PM

i picked up a Ruger P95 about 2 weeks ago and 100 rounds for a starter gun.

it was only $360 and 47 for the amo

i used the economic stimulus check the Gov sent me to pay for it

i might send a letter to Plaosi and Reid thanking them for it

Posted by: insonh at November 21, 2008 05:48 PM

Goldman you don't know your recent history. An armed population can more than stand up to modern military power - remember Northern Ireland? Guns are illegal there but enough got into the hands of the IRA to cause the British Army many many casualties and the IRA wasn't that organized or that proficient with them either.

Our military has no idea how to handle an armed population - look at what is happening in Afghanistan now; the big Army is locked down on large bases while guys like me roam around the country at will because we are not hampered by the Big Army Stupidity Syndrome which strips away all initiative and common sense inside active combat zones. Get a clue mate - owning your own weapon is the first step to becoming a free man.

Posted by: Baba Tim at November 21, 2008 10:09 PM

I have many guns, and boh can have them whenever he wants... bulletts first

Posted by: bite m at November 22, 2008 12:21 AM

I managed to get one of the last two boxes of .45 hollow-point, but most everything was sold out at Wal-Mart. They didn't have anywhere to send me because everyone else was out too.

Posted by: Karen at November 22, 2008 02:25 AM

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?

Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?

After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat.

Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur -- what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked?

The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

If... if... We didn't love freedom enough. And even more -- we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! ...We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago."

Posted by: maximus otter at November 22, 2008 06:16 AM

I think it’s considered chic to refer to “Godwin’s Law” if comparisons to Hitler are made, and that is intended to show how just ridiculous such a comparison is, thereby taking it off the table.

But, that dude forecast, in his own writings, just what he was going to do, long before he actually did it.

Barry’s made his positions clear a long time ago.

As with his predecessor, people simply couldn’t accept that he was serious, that he actually meant it.

They probably still wont accept it, even while he does it. After all, he is practically worshiped as the leader of a revealed religion.

Perhaps, Jim Jones would be a better comparison.

(UPDATE - After posting this on another blog, with that line above, I just learned that someone named Jim Jones is on Obama’s short list for National Security Advisor. You just can't make this stuff up.)
-

Posted by: Paul_In_Houston at November 22, 2008 02:38 PM

If faced with the prospect of assaulting a home where the owner knows that they are coming, trains regularly with his weapons, and has a specific intent to protect himself from them, it would be the SWAT guys panicking.

Not really. Because their doctrine says they won't be coming in after you. Depending on circumstances they'll just secure the perimeter cut off the water and wait, or if time is an issue they'll call in the Waco Killers (aka FBI HRT.)

It is true that armed citizens, singularly or even in small groups, cannot withstand the forces of the government. Offer resistance and you will be killed. The point of being armed is not to survive arrest it is to make your arrest difficult, problematic and very public.

The living John Brown was just another abolitionist crank. Dead by the hand of government he became something else entirely.

Posted by: ThomasD at November 23, 2008 12:11 PM

European Resistance was able to stand up to the nazi machine. No SWAT or LEO or National Guard is going to do much better against the American people when the ENOUGH is given. Those who decide to obey the orders of the tyrant will be dealt with. Many won't and will join the ranks of the revolution. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." When Thomas Jefferson wrote that he wasn't talking about any foreign land, he was talking about America.

Posted by: Jorge Banner at November 23, 2008 06:46 PM