Confirming what retailers are saying, the FBI reports logging 108,000 more background checks last month than in October 2007 -- a 15% increase -- and since January those checks are up 8% compared to the first ten months of last year. But the most telling snapshot is the last seven days -- background checks are up 49% over the same period a year ago.
Demand eclipses that seen before Y2K, after 9/11 and in the wake of Katrina. The reason for the run is obvious: Obama-Biden.It's a fait accompli that the new administration will attack citizens' Second Amendment rights. We know it'll try to make the expired Clinton (nee Biden) Assault Weapons Ban permanent and prohibit the lawful carrying of concealed weapons. We can predict that Obama-Biden will seek to impose 500% higher taxes on firearms, ammunition and parts. It also wants to allow state and local governments to make their own gun-control laws, even if those laws violate the U.S. Constitution.
Whether it's cost-prohibition or outright prohibition, dark days are coming for Americans who cherish our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, thus the commercial feeding frenzy.
Clearly, we're seeing yet another panic-buying phenomenon -- but are we seeing a reasonable reaction? That depends.
Because Obama-Biden poses a very real threat, it's only prudent for citizens to have acquired their firearms-of-choice (etc.) before the administration turns them into unobtanium. So for procrastinators, the unarmed and the under-prepared, there may be little choice but to become part of the present cluster.
For those of us who saw this coming and are adequately prepared, however, it doesn't make much sense to join the panic. Even if we're not ideally ready, with far more pressing economic issues on center stage we can be relatively sure that Obama-Biden won't launch its gun-control agenda right away. Provided the new president can keep an anxious Congress in check, we likely won't see new law in the first 100 days, probably not before the 2010 State of the Union address.We may have time to wait until demand and retail price-gouging (according to anecdotal reports) have subsided. A window may open after retail prices have ebbed and before wholesale prices increase -- that, it seems to me, would be a better time to buy.
Depending on the item, the source and the price, now still might be a good time for the savvy gun owner to acquire replacement parts and (presumably) soon-to-be-banned items like high-capacity magazines and certain types of ammunition. It's never a bad time to build defensive skills -- having the proper training is a must. And there's never been a better time to support organizations that defend our Second Amendment rights, as I do the National Rifle Association and the Buckeye Firearms Association.
The well-heeled among us will do whatever they like, of course, and those with an "armory mentality" will do whatever they can, with their eyes fixed firmly on TEOTWAWKI.
All of us, though, must recognize that the danger to law-abiding gun owners is clear and present. What we do to prepare ourselves in the face of this imminent threat is up to each citizen.
