5 Jan 13

“‘Learning’ is but a foil to common sense, a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as ‘spectacles’ to look at nature, than as ‘blinds’ to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions.”

William Hazlitt

Today, I visited several local gun retailers, large and small. Here is what is going on currently, at least here:

One shop has a small quantity of 223 hardball still available, at $0.86/round. Restricted to 100 rnds/customer. None was available at other locations, at any price.

I found several, new ARs still for sale. Daniel Defense, SIG, Bushmaster, 1.9-2.5k, and up! Four weeks ago, those same guns were marked at $900.00-1k, and there were plenty from which to choose. Dealers told me copies they currently have “in stock” had just arrived, and would all be sold, probably by the end of today, surely be the middle of next week.

I found 30-rnd Pmags (no window) for sale at two locations, $45.00/copy at one, $60.00/copy at another. Limit of two/customer, and there were only a few left.

Pistols in 40S&W, 45ACP, 45GAP, and 357Sig, and revolvers in 38Spl, 357Mg, and several other calibers are still in pretty good supply, at least for now. Pistols in 9mm are completely sold out! No G19s, G17s, nor XDs, XD/Ms, M&Ps, even Berettas in 9mm are available anywhere.

Magazines for 9mm pistols, particularly double-column, are also sold-out. I couldn’t find any for sale.

Hardball 9mm ammunition is available in small quantities. Same with 40S&W and 45ACP. High-performance pistol ammunition, in any caliber, is completely gone!

Storage rooms were stacked high with guns that are already sold, but awaiting transfer-approval. Out state’s “instant check” system continues to be hopelessly constipated. Wait-times are now exceeding one week, and continuing to extend.

Activity was high at all locations. Many customers waiting around interminably for the attention of haggard clerks, only to be told that inventories were badly picked-over and continuing to dwindle. No “law-aways,” and scant chit-chat. You either buy on the spot, or move out of the way and let the next customer in!

A significant percentage of retail sales is now investment-oriented. People are taking money out of the stock-market and re-investing in “tangibles,” like serious guns and ammunition.

I’m regularly getting phone-calls and e-mails from students and subscribers wanting to know where to go to buy ammunition and guns. All I can tell them is, “You waited too long!”

No one can predict where all this is leading, but I can plainly see nervous expressions on faces of hopeful gun-buyers. I am persuaded that it is not just threatened restrictive gun legislation that is driving this current feeding-frenzy. The simultaneous convergence of a number of other issues (the “debt-bomb,” about which we’re doing nothing, war in the Middle-East, our southern “border” disintegrating, weak/confused/corrupt leadership at the highest levels) has persuaded many that all of Western Civilization is circling the drain.

What’s next? Hyper-inflation? Another “Great Depression?” Another World War? Massive civil unrest? Foreign invasion from the south? States seceding from the Union, and the USA breaking apart? Civil war?

None of that was even seriously discussed in 2008. It is now, and no longer just in whispers!

In any event, I see no lessening of tensions any time soon. When people ask, “When will this frenzy end?” I have to reply, “Maybe never! You had better be personally prepared, in depth!”

Finally, this from a friend in CT:

“Friday, I went to register for classes at our local community college. I noticed a multitude of smartly-uniformed ‘security,’ personnel. They carried batons, pepper-spray, and handcuffs. But, not one was armed! We’re apparently proud of being stubbornly stupid, and determined to remain that way!”

Many, too many, just don’t want to know what they don’t know!

“Never call an unarmed man ‘security’”

Dave Grossman

/John