The election of Barack Obama has done as much to further gun ownership in America as would Chinese troops coming ashore in Long Beach. This is no judgment on the President-elect but a simple statement of fact about consumer behavior. Prices are jacked up and inventories empty all around the Internet, gun shops are having their shelves emptied, and at this weekend’s gun show in Chantilly, Virginia the crowd was much bigger and more diverse than usual.
And by “diverse” I mean gender wise. I’ve been attending for about four years and have never seen such a high percentage of women. Maybe the female segment is usually less than 5 percent of the crowd – this time it had to be over 10 percent when I was there at about 3:00 pm.
Here are a few scenes.
Prices of items I was interested in were, at best, on the high side and the items themselves were far scarcer than usual. (Guess there is probably some economic theory related to that, huh). For example, ammo …
Now I could have bought just about anything I wanted or needed to keep my own operation well stocked, but it would have been like shopping for a Halloween costume at Tiffany’s. Doable, but at a cost.
The cheapest AK I saw was $489 and there was exactly one of them left. After that nothing was under $650; all total I think I only saw about 40 AKs. Normally there are three or four times that many around and prices start around $369. There were a few nice SKSs for under $300 – but still about $95 more than they cost at the last show and very few to be had.
Ditto on pistols; there are a lot, but the tables are far emptier than normal by Saturday afternoon (did not check prices on these). There did seem to be plenty of high capacity magazines available but at a price point that does not fit into my budget at this stage of my career.
The parking lot was WAY fuller than in the past. People were parking almost a mile away in the office parks. As I walked in, I saw more guns and hand trucks loaded with ammo coming out of the building than I have seen before. ACTivist told me that this morning the lines to get in were 100 people deep on each side of the building for much of the morning.
By the time I get there some vendors had already left because they sold completely out. About the only thing I’ve seen sold out in the past has been the hot dog concession.
So, all in all, this pre-Obama period is one hell of a good time to be in the gun or ammo selling business. People think it’s all going to change once he takes office. Personally, I think it won’t, because in light of the enormous, widespread interest in firearm ownership among the American people, any moves to impose restrictions will be political suicide. It would be 1994 all over again and Obama would become the instant enemy of a huge portion of the United States population, which tends to hamper one’s ability to accomplish a lot.
I think it’s a fight he would wait to pick until his second term, which would mean that before long all the stuff that I saw overpriced and sold out today will be available and reasonable.
But if you have no firearms or are low on anything you consider vital, don’t take the above as a reason to put off the purchase until prices come back down. I have been wrong in my predictions before, so I have everything I consider vital.
UPDATE: Here’s last year’s post. Obviously I put a lot more effort into the photography back then. Today I wanted to spend the time actually looking at stuff.
Wolverine, I never knew that about that picture.
Wolverine,
You recall correctly. That picture alone did more to turn heads toward ending the war then anything else (except the burning Buddists). I call it just rewards myself.
If anybody so much as HINTS at shooting one of Santa’s reindeer again we will see how tough you jaw flappers really are. Remember, Bumbles bounce, and I will bounce my size 97 foot off yo’ cracker ass until you can’t hold a slingshot. Now enough with the gun talk and go to bed.
Wolverine
Where did you get the information about “that little VC kid”?
ACTivist
The burning Buddhist, yes that, AND the little girl running down the road covered in flames from burning napalm.
“Ahhh, Islamic banking and shariah law rolled into one…..who would have thought here in America.”
And judging by the street celebration one sees in the Middle East periodically, gun control is not an issue in the region.
“For those of you expecting any firearms that could be used to Hunt Deer, you can kiss our collective Asses!”
Don’t worry reindeer, these guys have no interest in killing beasts with FOUR legs. Tell Santa to “Ho! Ho! Ho!” real loud as there are plenty of loaded .357s on bed side tables. And watch out for the local slasher – he could be ANYWHERE….
ACT,
I walked the whole place and did not see you. Nor did I know you where there.
“Don’t worry reindeer, these guys have no interest in killing beasts with FOUR legs.”
Oh yes I do, my Cracker Ass will be hunting for Prancers Virginia Cousins tomorrow and Friday. These days will be all about venison sausage. If my Cracker Ass is successful, maybe I can have some bambi jerky ready for distribution at the
NVTH Festivus for the Restivus!
“shooting one of Santa’s reindeer”
Shooting domesticated animals is a major no-no, as it is destruction of private property. Caribou, on the other hand, is mighty tasty..
G, where you going hunting ?
Lovisa, I was in that war. Got sent home in a medevac plane about 4 months before the photo was taken. My stay in the military hospital really brought home to me for the first time the growing anti-war thing in CONUS. Can you imagine lying on a stretcher on a hospital receiving room floor with a bunch of wounded Marines (some so bad you could only see their eyes through the body cast and others who never stopped moaning in pain during the long flight home) and being told that, once we were ambulatory and able to go on leave, we should avoid wearing our uniforms in public because we would get spat upon, called names, and goaded into fights by our fellow Americans? Needless to say, we all paid a lot of attention to the news coming back from the front, especially the 1968 Tet Offensive, since we still had friends in the thick of it.
Speaking of the thick of it, that is where you will find a lot of Vietnam vets when it comes to supporting the troops to the max in Iraq, despite all the political contentiousness involved with that conflict. I may no longer be the young guy I once was, but, to quote a famous author of long ago, this old hound still has teeth and those teeth can still bite. I swear that if I ever see any of our young Iraq veterans disrespected by the current anti-war crowd in way we were, those teeth will start biting in remembrance of all those young Marines in those stretchers on that hospital floor.
That said, I went back and did a little checking. I apparently did misremember a bit on that photo. The family of the Police Chief was not the one killed. It was the family of one of his deputy commanders and a very close friend in Saigon. Story goes that the VC in the picture was part of an urban assassination squad directed at the families of police officials. They reportedly attacked the deputy commander’s family with machetes and sliced up the mother, father, and children in their own kitchen, along with a lot of other people in the area. The Chief was apparently reacting out of extreme anger, sorrow, and frustration. He paid personally for that photo for the rest of his life.
Eddie Adams, the AP photographer who took the principal photo, was initially skeptical about the South Vietnamese version of the story but then claimed to have verified it himself. He began opining that he or anyone else might have been sorely tempted to do the same thing as the Chief under those terrible circumstances. Adams actually claimed that he apologized to the Chief years later because one photo ruined the guy’s life after being flashed across the world without an explanation of the circumstances. THAT you can actually chalk up to chaps like Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America”, who somehow failed consistently to give us all the “other side of the story.”
All said and done, that photo and the little girl/napalm thing were indeed critical to the rapid change of sentiment in this country with regard to the war…along with Cronkite’s stupid assessment that Tet signaled defeat for us, even though the US/ARVN counterattack virtually wiped out the VC and forced the North Vietnamese Army to take over the bulk of the fighting.
The flaming monks I couldn’t have cared less about. They were “useful idiots” to the VC and North Vietnamese. Same goes for those pampered, wealthy, stupid students at the university in Saigon who, having wangled their way out of the South Vietnamese draft, were always agitating and rioting against the war. I often wonder how many of them wound up in “re-education” camps or worse after 1975 or, if they were lucky, escaped on those small boats, many of which sank at sea with terrible loss of life because the U.S. Navy was ordered to stand by and not help them.
Ah, ACT, no wonder you and Killer have such a bond….
Greg,
If at some point you have move Bambi than you can use, especially the jerky kind, I would love a bite. Bambi is sooo delicious!
I just need a place to find him where I can shoot him!
Brian
Joe, I must say you sure do draw an interesting crowd to your blog.
Before Stoner threatens to shoot me again…, I must tell you. I may be the only Loudoun County citizen who entered the Fauquier County Izzak Walton League Turkey shoot, and won. Now that oughta give ole Stoner a clue.
cool story about Va woman who negotiated with Somali pirates, helping to end the stand-off–
http://patriotroom.com/did-one-woman-in-virginia-just-bring-down-the-somali-pirates/
G. Stone – Do you have a Cracker Ass recipe for venison sausage? My attempts (yes, my Elitist Ass likes to munch on Bambi as much as your Cracker Ass) have been too dry and I really want to make pure Bambi sausage with no help from Porky (not that I have anything against Porky mind you – he tastes mighty good as well).
E Troll:
The problem with Venison as sausage without pork or beef fat is it is A. hard to keep together in any form minus a casing and B. it tends to cook up dry , again lacking any fat.
I usually have mine made into Sweet Italian links.
Deer Alert !
Prancers cousin, Virginia Whitetail while taking a leisurely walk up the eastern slope of Short Hill Mountain in Hillsboro Virginia, fell victim to a gun shot wound to the neck. Based on the wound path, it appears the assailant was lying in wait perched in one of several hundred trees in the area. Authorities believe the Deer was specifically targeted in that there were others in the general area who were unharmed. The Deers relationship to Prancer is under investigation as a possible motive for the shooting.
The ambush is believed to have occurred between 7:35 and 7:38 am. Based on eyewitness accounts from other Deer present at the ambush, the assailant is a Big Ugly Camouflaged Guy with a bunch of guns.
My heart bleeds for thee, Virginia Whitetail. I shall avenge thee.
Well done G, feast and be merry !