The Coming Demographic and Ideological Shift of the Gun Market

I’m all for free markets, but this whole panic has created a run on guns that has caused prices to skyrocket.  Saw some 20 round AR-10 magazines where the bid was $100 per.  Seriously.

On the upside, this run could help us sort out who our friends are and who's just selling out.  I’m all for making a profit-even a premium to prevent a run on your store, but if you’re just selling out, then are you’re just selling out?

The government would have you to "turn in" your firearms and such or participate in a "buyback" program.  If you're simply going to give up and sell out, then at least consider "selling out" or "giving back to your community" where firearms are concerned. 

There are many among us who would gladly say, you give me that gas and I'll gain ground with it.  (Lee Greenwood, your party is waiting...)

I thought of another aspect of this run on firearms and the gun grab. 

 

The inventory at those stores has been wiped out. The good news for the stores is that they made a lot of money. The bad news is that it may be a while before they can get some more good to sell.  Oh and there's that whole "fiat currency" called the Dollar that is doomed to be worthless in the near future.

Manufacturer's inventory can't be that far ahead of the stores.  "Just In Time" is a part of this industry just like any other-especially with the economy we're in.  So I wonder how long those small stores will remain in business if there's simply no inventory to be had?  The bills won't stop coming just because the inventory has. 

I wonder how many small gun stores might go under-waiting for shipments of goods that will simply never come?  (As GardenSERF once said, "When's the last bread truck?") 

And what does this have to do with the demographics or ideology of those businesses selling products?  Glad you asked!

Look at the list of retailers that Biden was meeting with today:

• Academy Sports + Outdoors
• Bass Pro Shops
• Big 5 Sporting Goods
• Cabela's
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Dunham's Sports
• Gander Mountain
• Sportsman's Warehouse
• Wal-Mart
• National Retail Federation – (awaiting confirmation)

Notice anybody who's not there?  Midway?  Brownells?  Ammoman.com?  Lucky Gunner?  Who else? 

 

The mom and pop gun stores like Gun Cellar over in Leeds, that's who.  Your local gun store.  The big box stores are no different than the mom and pop gun stores where inventory is concerned.  But when it's time to restock, I wonder who'll be the first in line?  And who will pay the highest prices? 

 

The winners and losers have already been identified.  (see the partial listing above)

 

The strongest will survive.  The largest will survive.  The ideologically pure will survive.  It's all politics.  Many great little mom and pop stores that have been around for decades may dry up and die leaving the big box stores or the supermegascary black tacticool logo stores that are more closely aligned with the Police State as your only choices for anything gun related. 

You know who I'm talking about.

The Dicks.

The Dicks will be only too happy to go along with whatever the government tells them they have to do.  WalMart has shot themselves in the foot (pun intended) by first refusing the White House invitation, then deciding to go. Dicks on the other hand stands to earn plenty of Chicago points for having voluntarily pulled some guns from the shelves, unilaterally cancelling pre-orders, and the like. 

So where do we go to restock?  To get parts? 

The Dicks.  We'll get screwed on the prices we pay, get scrutinized by corporate America, have to show ID for any purchase related to anything firearms related, and a record will be kept of such purchases and shared with the Police State who allows them to remain in business in “hunting” and “sporting” related firearms. 

I took the Mrs. with me to the RK gun show in Knoxville, TN at the end of 2012.  The crowd there is a degree or two rougher than what I’m used to seeing in Birmingham.  No value judgment there-it’s just how it is.  (Example: There was an Outlaws Motorcycle Club table as part of the show.) 

What is being planned here is to completely eliminate the culture of the gun as we know it.  To change it from being based on individual values and beliefs to a collective based on whatever the State says. To take guns out of the hands of people who might have a Scary Assault Beard, low sideburns, long hair, a shaved head, overalls, bad ass tattoos, leather vests, chewing tobacco, irregular dental work, or who just don't smile a hell of a lot.  Instead, they want only nice, clean, not-so-scary guns for nice, clean, not-so-scary yuppie suburbanites in subdivisions with Home Owners Association covenants.  Safe people who wouldn't hurt a fly (or dream of saying "no" to the government).

You know why you see so many “scary” looking characters at gun shows?  Because they won’t patronize the Dicks of the world.  I'm not totally in my element at gun shows, but I'd rather bump into a bad ass at a gun show and learn something than go through a turnstile at Bass Pro Shops and talk to a gun salesman who can't answer the simplest of questions. 

I believe one of the desired outcomes of this campaign is no different than the rest of what Team Obama has done in the last 4 years.  They want to destroy successful markets and economies wherever they exist.  You didn't build that!  Destroy successful markets and replace them with markets that they control.  We built that!

Whether that new market succeeds isn’t important.  What’s important is whether they control it.  See, it's not just the demographic shift of punishing the mom and pop business, it's about the ideological shift that will take place.  What Wal-Mart did to the mom and pop stores, Obama wants to do to the mom and pop gun shops.  Let the big box, low choice, no option, state approved ideology retail stores handle this entire market sector and eliminate the little guy from the picture. 

And how ironic this is.  I thought that the left hated Wal-Mart because they destroyed small-town businesses!!  More irony: Had Wal-Mart remained in the gun business-selling the guns and accessories people were actually looking for, then they might have run the mom and pop store out of business already.  Especially if you could pick up a crate or two of XM193 on stripper clips in the 30 cal cans as easy as you can grab a box of 640 hot dogs.

It is widely accepted that most of the surveillance systems installed in the last decade or so either feed into Big Brother's fusion center or are capable of doing so.  It's a safe bet that your mom and pop stores generally refused such intrusion for the price, or on principle.  Ideology.  See this link from 2011 related to WalMarTSA and their participation in the "see something, say something" snitch program. 

All I can tell you is that if they get their way, then in the future there’s going to be a bunch of Dicks in charge of the manufacture, transport, distribution, and sale of guns, ammo, and accessories.  And we're going to be screwed-or black marketeers.