The U.S. Nationwide Run on Guns Continues Unabated

One of the stories that lurks beyond the current firearm rights political crisis, a current event the mass media empire nearly systematically avoids, is the frantic, ongoing nationwide run on guns. The run on guns is an objective and quantifiable expression of America’s real sentiments about firearms. That sentiment is that law abiding U.S. citizens want their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and they are making sure they’ll continue to have the ability to exercise it by working to stockpile firearms right now. The current unavailability of modern firearms of nearly any description, of standard capacity ammunition magazines, and of ammunition, tells an economic and political story the mass media doesn’t want to publish, even though a few have. 

Gun shoppers wait hours for NICS background checks

Americans are scrambling to stockpile everything firearm related, just in case the gun ban zealots manage to accomplish the unthinkable. In December 2012, the FBI processed a record 2,783,765 NICS gun purchase background checks, which was an increase of 39% from November 2012. That number implies that almost that many completed purchases occurred, since over 99% of such background checks yields a positive, proceed, response from the system.  In addition, ammunition of any and every sort, when it is available, is often being sold at prices as high as, and even greater than $2.00 per round in some places. That is out of control price gouging. Some people speculate that the federal government’s recent purchase of over 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition has also contributed to the retail market ammunition shortage as well. There are also retailers trying to charge $59.99 for $17.95 list price ammunition magazines. The cost of a stripped AR-15 lower receiver, the part that the ATF deems to legally be the “firearm” has tripled from less than $100.00 to $300.00, if one is lucky enough to find one. Before the gun frenzy began, complete lower receivers, ready to attach an upper an shoot were averaging $300.00. Over the course of the past few months, sometimes there have been hours long waiting lines at gun retailers as shoppers have lined up to purchase almost anything and everything they could find. People have been willing to purchase AR variant rifles of nearly any type, knowing they could customize them later, rather than risk not being able to purchase one later. 

Gun retail counters are crammed

Nearly every manufacturer of Armalite Rifle (AR) pattern modern sports rifles is reporting production backlogs of up to a year on their web sites. Some AR pattern firearm manufacturers are even refusing to take new orders because they can’t meet current demand, even as they try to ramp up to second and third manufacturing shifts at their production plants. Some machinists are operating the needed computer controlled metal fabricating equipment in shifts, working around the clock at some firearms manufacturing facilities, trying to supply the overwhelming demand for firearms that the current state and federal political threats to gun ownership have created. Mega Arms of Washington State, a manufacturer of AR variant rifle components including AR lower receivers, the component that is legally the firearm according to ATF rules, wrote on their web site that:

We are currently running 24/7 at our facility. Unfortunately we do not have any more floor space within the facility we occupy, so it’s not as easy as buying machines and “hitting go”. ... The machines we use range in cost from 400k-1million dollars, not including tooling, operators and training.

We have determined that due to the attitude of the current administration, it would not be fiscally responsible or in the best interests of our valued employees to take the risk of adding a new facility. We value our employees and do not want open a new facility, and hire a new crew to then turn around and lay them off if  (Feinstein's ban of all modern firearms) passed.

The firearms production backlog effects both first level firearms manufacturers, and their parts suppliers, all of whom surely could never have anticipated or prepared for what is likely the most contentious political battle of 2013, and possibly the most contentious political struggle over firearm rights in decades. Initially, the stock prices of shares in the firearms manufacturers that are publicly traded fell after Sandy Hook. Since then however, all relevant stock prices have rebounded. Publicly traded Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co., have both reported skyrocketing earnings. Quarterly earnings tripled at Smith & Wesson, and were huge at Ruger as well. 

Shelves displaying ammunition are nearly empty

Even in the best case scenarios, it will apparently be many months before the national firearms marketplace stabilizes, and firearm product prices begin to return to normal. However, that can only happen if the gun rights supporting members of the U.S. Congress are able to defeat gun ban zealots like Dianne Feinstein, Frank Lautenberg, and Chuck Schumer, during the upcoming Senate Floor debates, scheduled for the second week of April 2013. There is every reason to be optimistic though, because Senator Harry Reid has indicated he will work to block any gun rights infringing legislation, as has John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. If by May 2013 gun rights supporters have defeated all the legislation the gun ban zealot political faction proposes, only then does the firearms marketplace have any chance of settling back to normal. 

Despite the extreme urgency created by President Barack Obama when he announced a major gun rights infringement campaign, and when U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein  introduced her draconian proposal to ban on nearly every modern firearm ever manufactured, there is every reason to believe now that more reasonable minds will succeed in protecting the ongoing constitutional right of individual American citizens to keep and bear arms. There is a long watchful vigil ahead, as some state legislatures, such as Colorado's and New York's, have enacted onerously unconstitutional bans, waiting for the results of the floor debates in the U.S. Congress where the fundamental constitutional rights of every American are at stack.