The Gun & Ammo Famine of 2013-2014

The Set-Up

During the mid-October Presidential Debates, Barak Obama stated his support for a new Assault Weapons Ban (AWB). There was plenty of time for gun owners to pull their heads out of their asses and make sure this clown didn’t get reelected. Unfortunately, a substantial number of you couldn’t be bothered with this triviality and Obama was granted a ‘No Consequences’ second term. Thank you Fudds, Bliss-Ninnys, voting and non-voting retards. Liberals in national and state legislatures saw this as a public stamp of approval and immediately ratcheted-up their antigun legislative efforts.

Between July 20 and December 14, 2012 ‘Idiots with Guns’ killed 46 people and wounded about that many more, in public places such as theaters, places of worship, malls and schools. An AR15 type rifle was used in one of those shootings and another was found in the trunk of a suspect’s vehicle, after another shooting. Liberals in national and state legislatures saw this, peed down their legs, squealed with glee and again ratcheted-up their antigun legislative efforts.

On January 16th, after much fanfare about circumventing Congress, Obama announced his ‘23 Executive Actions’ for reducing gun violence. Now any 7th grader who reads these can see they will have utterly no effect on gun violence and without Congress passing an AWB, they are as hollow as the head from whence they issued. But never mind reality… the die was cast.

Effect

Suddenly, a substantial number of you had a lucid moment and concluded things were getting ugly. Oh, Golly-Gee-Whizz! Military-pattern semi-auto rifles & magazines just might be hard to get, if a new AWB is enacted. You also decided you all just had to have one… NOW dammit- and before they’re all gone!! So began the 2012-2013 Gun and Ammunition Buying Frenzy.

“Great” you might say, “It’s good for the arms industry! Besides, we’ve seen it before. Anybody remember 2009?”

Well yes, some of us do in fact remember 2009. Ammo, particularly pistol and rifle ammo for military-pattern semi-autos, became hard to get. Certain reloading components, particularly primers, became hard to get. As demand outstripped supply, the prices of these items skyrocketed. Hoarding and Price-Gouging became common. But most of us knew it would eventually pass. Why? Because we also remembered 1994, when gun owners got pissed and cleaned out two of the three branches of government.

Go to your local WalMart, sporting goods discounter or go online. Try your damndest to buy 1000 rounds of bulk 5.56, 7.62 or 5000 rounds of 22 Long Rifle ammo. This is not the same situation as 2009.

The Brave New World

So what’s different about this time? The President is a lame duck, a narcissist and a socialist who intends to dismantle Traditional America. He has utterly nothing to fear from voters. Gun control proponents in Congress see it as the ‘perfect storm’. They’re not particularly worried about their jobs either because since 2006, the only ‘message’ gun owners have sent is that they are Asleep at the Ballot Box.

Congress knows Obama will sign any gun control bill that crosses his desk, regardless of past Supreme Court rulings that would render them unconstitutional. Obama sees this as a minor obstacle. He already named two justices to the top bench — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — and it is possible he might name two or more in his second term. You can bet they will be equally liberal and that protecting the Second Amendment will NOT be part of the New America they intend to create, via Supreme Court rulings.

Some of us tried to tell you this was going to happen.

What Do It Mean?

We are going to have to face reality- and take a hard look at our priorities. I have an affinity for the 7.62×39 cartridge and the rifles that shoot it. The cartridge is model of design efficiency that gives near 30-30 performance in a compact, easy-feeding package. For decades, it was widely available at prices so low that reloading was out of the question. I can clearly recall buying 20 round boxes of Norinco Chinese FMJ for under a dime a shot; softpoint was marginally more, but still ridiculously cheap. As a wider variety of FMJ and hunting loads became available the price climbed a little. After the 2009 insanity, the price climbed more and in late 2012 I paid $4.99 for Tula FMJ and grumbled, but only a little because it held under 2 MOA in my Romanian AK clone.

At this moment, you can’t find 7.63×39 Tula locally or online. In January I saw Tula FMJ at the Stover, MO Gun Show priced at TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS per box. I’ve seen Tapco AK mags, which I paid $9.00 for in November, priced at FORTY FIVE DOLLARS each at a stocking retailer in the same area. I love the gun and cartridge, but I will not pay scalper prices to keep shooting it. When the ammo becomes as expensive as 30-30 ammo, I’ll go right back to using my Model 94 for everything.

The saddest aspect of this is that the ‘government’ hasn’t outlawed anything! We are doing this to ourselves- and the situation can only get worse, until supply catches up with demand. So the next time you see 7.62×39, .308 or .223 ammo—or for that matter .22 LR ammo–on sale, think twice. Ask yourself how much you have, how much you need and how much you can use.

A little self-control, on a nation-wide basis, might be all it takes to correct this situation. Then we can concentrate on convincing our elected idiots that we are NOT asleep at the ballot box, or willing to sit idly by while they trash those ‘certain inalienable rights’ we used to hear about in school.

 

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6 Comments

  1. Dale Flowers

    February 10, 2013

    Creeping Incrementalism. Remember that phrase and that every compromise with the gun grabbers is a victory for them.

  2. Sarge author

    February 11, 2013

    Amen, Mr. Flowers. If the bastards can make it hard or impossible to acquire, own or use ANY firearm, they will do it. Subterfuge, sensationalism and outright lies are staples of their Rules of Engagement. They happily grease the wheels of their Gun Banning Machine with the blood of children.

    Today I rationed myself 30 rounds of Tula .40 FMJ for some skill maintenance with the Glock 23, at 15 and 25 yards. The targets were a particularly unreliable old range stapler, an empty shaving cream can (Old Spice Original, of course) and some 6″ falling plates. I only missed the plates once, a product of ‘riding the reset’ too hard and a too short front sight I should have replaced sooner. With the price and scarcity of ammo these days, a man has to make every shot count.

  3. mohican

    February 12, 2013

    Good article. I will disagree about the voting a little bit. There was just enough fraud in key cities of key states. Several districts in Florida had almost twice as many voters as there were lawful registered voters. In Philadelphia there were 59 precincts where Obama got every vote. In Cleveland there were 8 or 9 of those precincts. This is mathematically impossible. With 80 IQ voters and touch screens, how does Romney get at least one vote in these precincts?

    Despite much lower turnout, Mitt Romney got 1 million less votes in the popular vote count than John McCain did in 2008. Mitt was a squish and as shitty a candidate as McCain was in 2008. If he was elected, I could see him signing the same EO as Obama. He did sign an “assault weapon ban” into effect while he was governor of Mass.

    The rest of your points apply

  4. Sarge author

    February 13, 2013

    Thank you for your comments Mohican. You are always welcome here, my friend.

    I don’t profess there was no voter fraud; I suspect there was plenty of it. In places where Voter ID was required, Romney won. In places where none was required, Zero won. Then there is the matter of military absentee votes, some of which have yet to be counted. My main point was that if say, 80% of gun owners could be counted upon to vote for conservatives- we would not be in the situation we are today.

    They did just that in 1994, so perhaps there is hope.

  5. spittle

    February 14, 2013

    I welcome the panic buyers, and I feel tremendous satisfaction whenever I hear of how dire this market has become for buyers due to outrageous demand. I’ve still managed to purchase three pistols since late December at good prices, and if I can’t afford to go fun shooting for a year or so, I see it as a small price to pay in light of the tremendous good this atmosphere has done for the fence-sitting American who always thought about getting a firearm. The more that are armed, the better! I have had liberal friends of mine ask me for advice on purchasing an AR15. These same people have professed support for Obama’s gun control drive! The proof is in the pudding, my friends.

    In time, the market will right itself, and in the meantime, this huge influx of profit into the firearms industry will finance a massive NRA machine that will do much good in discouraging politicians from supporting gun control initiatives/legislature. In the long term, we have brought millions of Americans into our camp, kicking and screaming. Semper Fi.

  6. Sarge author

    February 15, 2013

    A couple in my family were Obama voters and could not be educated or deterred from it. The girl was raised right and the guy has an interest in shooting. When she wanted to buy him an extra-nice Christmas present, she sought my advice and he wound up with a really nice EBR. I did some shooting with them about that same time.

    Fast forward to late January… EBR’s are in Zero’s crosshairs and his former supporters have become 2A advocates. So yes Spittle, you are spot in in your observation.

    Now will all these new gun owners stand together when the New Redcoats cross Concorde Bridge, to collect all our EBR’s and magazines? I’m not holding my breath. Hopefully they will have learned a lesson in politics and in the future, won’t vote their rights away.

    Welcome to the fire, Marine.

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