I went to the FTW Gun Show yesterday. It was probably the fifth one I have been to this year. It was also the most packed show I’d been to ever. I’ve seen some crowded gun shows, but this one took the cake. Still, in talking with one of the vendors they said that the day before (I went on a Sunday) was even worse and that the flow of people by the vendor booths was only about 2 feet per minute because it was so crowded.
I noticed that the general price of guns was up. Not much, but a little bit. Ammo seemed about the same – if you could find it. The guys that normally sold in bulk were either out, or very close to being out. These are the guys that sell cases of ammunition. Need 500 rounds? They usually have tons of the stuff, but not yesterday!
Coincidentally there is a gun store called Cheaper Than Dirt. The store normally does about $500,000 / month in gross sales. The day after Obama got elected they had their first ever $100,000 day. That’s fairly impressive!
My friend commented that it was ironic that you have someone (Obama) that favors gun control and yet that same person is the catalyst for an enormous spike in guns and ammo sales.
I was talking to one of my friends about this and they asked if it was similar to what happens to the stock market when new presidents are elected. The phenomenon is that the market typically goes down when a new president gets elected, especially if it’s a democrat. There are various reasons for this but the two prevalent ones are that democrats typically like to raise taxes and any time there is uncertainty (new president).
However, in this instance I think that this goes beyond simple perception. The reason being that the democrats control both the house and the senate. They have openly said they are for gun control. And now you have a president elect that is openly for gun control. So while you can say that its speculation, and I’d agree, I’d have my money on some new legislation being enacted that affects gun owners.
Last night I was talking to my mom about this and I used the frog in the boiling water theory. I think the same thing happens to our rights. If the government were to try to pass a law to ban guns and take our guns away from us you would have a revolt in the south and possibly some of the other states. (this would be like throwing the frog into the boiling water) But if you slowly enacted legislation and chipped away at our rights we would probably allow it to happen (putting the frog in first and then turning up the heat slowly). The end result would be the same, but it would take longer to get there and people would one day say “didn’t we used to have the right to own guns?”
One last note – I’ve come to the conclusion that the gun show is a great place to see a ton of stuff at once. You might even come across a few deals, but the prices at the show were typically higher than what I’ve been able to find for similar products at other places. Know your stuff before you fork over your cash.
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