Posted on 11/24/2008 12:14:11 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
DAYTONA BEACH -- The owners of Buck's Gun Rack say they didn't vote for Barack Obama, but the president-elect sure has been good for business.
Assault-style rifles, personal protection handguns, shotguns and ammunition -- business was up by as much as 400 percent after the election, exceeding records that followed Sept. 11 and preceded the Y2K scare of 2000.
"Sales have gone through the roof," Forrest Buckwald said, attributing the boost to a belief that Obama would support gun control measures.
"People were talking about Obama before the election," said Buckwald's brother and co-owner, Scott. "The Saturday after the election we could not help people fast enough. It was the biggest day we ever had" since the store opened in 1954.
"People have expressed a desire to get (their guns) while the getting is good," Forrest Buckwald added.
During the campaign, Obama called for a permanent reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004. It prohibits the sale of such semiautomatic rifles as AK-47s and AR-15s, military-style weapons that critics say are designed solely to kill people.
But while the National Rifle Association has characterized Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment, a spokesman for the Obama transition team in Chicago said those beliefs are unfounded.
"Barack Obama recognizes that firearm ownership is a rich tradition in American life," spokesman Reid Cherlin said in a telephone interview this week. "Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, and transport, and use guns, and he will support the right of communities to enact common-sense gun safety laws."
Gun advocates, though, point to his record as an Illinois state legislator when Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and tighter restrictions on all firearms.
"Obama's record is absolutely abysmal when it comes to the Second Amendment," said Ted Novin, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade organization for gun dealers and manufacturers.
Plenty of others seem to agree.
Representatives of Love's Gun and Pawn in DeLand and Florida Gun Exchange in Port Orange said their sales have tripled since the election.
"It has been unprecedented," said John Kieser, owner of the Gun Exchange.
Heather Lavornia of Love's said rumors of a tax on guns and ammunition from a Democratic-controlled Congress also have fueled customers' fears.
"They are buying and stocking up," she said.
At Buck's, Mike Murphy of Ormond Beach said he wanted to purchase a tactical version of a pump action shotgun before it could get caught up in restrictions.
"They should enforce the laws they have now," the 61-year-old said. "They make sense, but we are not enforcing them."
Justin Perkins, 28, of Kissimmee agreed, but he doesn't expect any changes anytime soon.
"I think the restrictions will happen sometime in the next two or three years," he said while looking at a hunting rifle during his lunch break.
Harry Miller admitted Obama was in the back of his mind as he looked over used pistols with his wife, Joan, but they had their own reasons for shopping that day.
"We want one for protection because we travel a lot in our motor home," said Harry Miller of Edgewater. "I already have a semi-automatic (pistol)."
"But I can't pull the slide back," his 71-year-old wife said.
That would be it.
Have either of you any experience with the .40cal HiPower? I'm a huge fan of the 9mm version, but never had a chance to try the .40.
I have no problem with a .32 providing:
1) They be able to hit consistently the size of a folded dollar bill (size of the typical human heart) at 7 yards
2) They practice not only accuracy but being able to draw and acquire the target
3) Practice the double tap
4) Practice drawing and firing from multiple positions (laying down stomach, laying down back, sitting on ground, sitting in a chair, etc)
5) Carry a mix of loads (ball, HP, ball, HP, etc)
Remember, Jack Ruby used a snub-nosed .38 to kill Oswald and that was an abdomen shot.
It’s pretty much what you’d expect - a bit more felt recoil, more muzzle flip, a little heavier, but pretty much the same weapon.
Unfortunately, then you get to the downsides of the .40 BHP, and that’s magazines. Stock flush fit .40 mags only hold 10 rounds, which means you give up three rounds right off the bat. The 15 and 17 round Mec-Gar/Military contract/Argentine mags in 9mm have no .40 counterparts, so that’s even more of a disadvantage. Finally, there are dimensional differences between some parts of the .40s and the 9mms, so there’s a parts issue there, too.
If you like .40 and you like the HP (and shoot it well), there are worse options you could choose. However, most people seem to be of the opinion that the .40 BHP is not the happiest marriage of caliber and weapon and that BHPs are best in 9mm.
Just an aside. I went to the Dixie Gun and Knife show at Raleigh NC this past Saturday. I have NEVER seen anything like it! Doors opened at 9. We got there at 10 and waited in low 30 degree weather (wind blowing!) for over an HOUR just to get in the door. People were fairly cheerful and I heard a LOT of really bad racist jokes about Obama (I am ashamed to say I laughed at some of them, they were really funny sometimes!).
I went two years ago and there were STACKS of AK and SKS, so I thought “the price may have gone up a bit but I am here early” WRONG. I got the LAST AK from a huge dealer (we are talking new, alright? there were plenty of “pre-ban” AK-47s around.... at over 2,000 dollars apiece!) and the price was DOUBLE two years ago. I also bought a paratrooper norinco sks with black matte finish, folding stock, pistol grip, removable clip, flash suppressor and bayonette (who cares about a baynonette???) for just under 500 dollars, but it was the ONLY removable clip I could find on an sks!
Every dealer I asked about AKs sang the same song “I could sell at truckload of them at a thousand dollars a piece if I could just GET them!” (I considered asking them if that were true, why the price on THESE wasn’t a thou, but I just plunked down my money instead).
Ammo? Forget it. Price has already tripled. One outfit had a whole pallet of 7.62 at 250 dollars per thousand rounds.... sold out by 11:00 a.m.
Like I said, this was like nothing I have ever seen. Even pre-Clinton was not this bad.
There were nice tables of glocks, sigs, colts etc handguns., but everyone wanted Ruger minis, AR15s, and AKs... especially AKs. I may run down to the Fayetteville show in a week or so and buy another one just to flip it when Obama takes office. ......, I sold the sks to an acquaintance of mine for 200 more than I bought it less than 4 hours later. Got his copy of driver’s license and concealed carry permit in my safe this a.m. and the money in my billfold.
And Franz Ferdinand was killed by a neck shot from a FN/Browning Model 1910 chambered in .380 Auto. His wife, the Duchess, was also killed by an abdominal shot from the same gun.
And, of course, RFK was killed by a headshot from a .22LR Iver Johnson Cadet revolver.
Mouse-caliber guns may not be what one would prefer, but if it’s what you can score with, go with it. :D
I've owned two of them, can't say I honestly care for the gun. The controls are too small to be effective, especially in an emergency such as the prospective buyer describes. If his wife is 71 and has trouble racking the slide on their existing gun, she will have trouble releasing the safety and / or the slide release on a Hi-Power.
I would suggest a Ruger 10-22 with four 30 round magazines, loaded with CCI Stingers. They're still fairly politically correct, easy to operate, easy to shoot, and while a .22, even with Stingers, isn't an elephant killer, you've got enough fire power to make anybody but King Kong reconsider. IMHO
That's my strategy, except I bought both a completed lower and a stripped lower that I'll probably end up losing somewhere before too long. Those darn black parts are so find to see when they get lost.
Like a good friend of mine said: “With the way things are going my new motto is a can of Campbell’s soup and an extra magazine.”
You must have had some really OLD High Powers. Modern ones come with big (sometimes) ambi safeties and larger magazine release buttons; these can also be retrofitted to older models.
There’s “racking the slide” and there’s racking the slide. If what the guy has is a SIG 229, then yeah, she’s probably going to have problems racking it. Heck, if my hands are even remotely slick, I can have problems racking the slide on some 229s I’ve come across. Likewise most direct blowback pistols. I find the HP very easy to operate, the slide is low effort. And, by the way, you shouldn’t be using the slide release on the HP to load the gun anyway. Rack the slide instead.
Also, there have been several notes of FTS with CCI Stingers of late, even from rifles. I’d recommend something like a Mossberg HS410 before I’d recommend a .22 rifle for home defense.
I've heard this from several left-wing quarters; some credible. Talk of an exorbitant tax on ammo, similar to cigarettes, as well as purchase limits per day/week/month. What are they going to do, issue ammo stamps!?
I'm BLOATing this week.
I’m looking at an M-1A, personally. I like the .308 much better than the .223.
You know, with all the recent “neck down” cartridges, I wonder what kind of ballistics you would get with a .32 bullet in a .41 mag neck down case. I suspect it would be “hotter” than the 357 SIG.
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Freepers run a close second.
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