Free Republic

Fellow Conservative, This is not a drill. The Obama administration just implemented a new regulatory change that has sent the entire firearms industry into a tailspin overnight. A key ingredient necessary for making gunpowder has been re-classified as a high explosive, making it illegal for any company within the industry to transport or store it as they have for decades. It all stems from how the ATF regulates a chemical compound known as nitrocellulose. For decades, the firearm industry has been allowed to store and transport wetted nitrocellulose without having to treat it as a high explosive. Manufacturers deliberately mix...

In 2008 and 2012 the firearms industry saw a surge in both gun and ammo sales thanks to the presidential election, and while this cycle is no different for gun sales — in fact, this maybe a record year — ammo is a different story. Mark DeYoung, chief executive officer of Vista Outdoor, a conglomerate of shooting and outdoor brands said consumers just aren’t buying up ammunition like they had in those years. “As you’ll recall, we were out of stock,” he said during a conference call with investors last week. He thinks consumers built up a vast inventory...

By Dean Weingarten I chanced to be at the local WalMart in Yuma today.  This is the store on the frontage road off of old Highway 8, East of town.  Until Friday, June 24, 2016, I had not seen any .22 Long Rifle in the store for three years.On that date, there were 2,300 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags and 1,000 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity.  The Mini-Mags were in plastic 100 round boxes at $7.47 a box.  The Standard Velocity were in paper, 50 round boxes at $3.47 a box.  I was told by the clerk, Yittzel, that they would...

An online poll is running in the San Diego Union Tribune in California.  It is currently at 39% for and 60% against.   This poll is a little different in that it is about ammunition instead of firearms.  It is a clear Second Amendment issue, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.Here is a link to the poll. Online polls measure intensity. They are not scientific in sampling.  They measure how many people feel strongly enough to answer an internet poll about a particular issue.  They measure intensity pretty well.  It is common to see Second Amendment...

Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law SB 1225.  It is a lengthy, extremely restrictive law regulating the sale of ammunition in California.  It is so restrictive, that it might not hold up in court.  Challenges to the law may have to wait.  The law only goes into effect *if* the very broad, very anti-Second Amendment proposition "Safety for All Act of 2016" is not approved of by the voters.  So this bill, and several others signed by Governor Brown, do not go into effect *unless* voters refuse to approve of the anti-Second Amendment  "Safety for All Act". What...

A little more than a week ago, I was in the local Yuma WalMart.  There are three, but I primarily visit one.  Last Friday, I was surprised to find 2300 rounds of CCI Mini-mag .22 Long Rifle cartridges and 1,000 rounds of Standard Velocity CCI .22 Long Rifle cartridges for sale.  The clerk, Yittzel, told me that it was unusual, but they saw .22 come in about once a month.  She said it would be gone quickly.  I had not seen .22 ammunition in the store for three years. Yittzel tempered this by saying it appeared to be coming...

When I go to the local WalMart in Yuma (there are three), I check to see if there is any .22 ammunition.  At some point, increased production and falling demand should cross, allowing for more .22 on the shelves. At the WalMart on Frontage road, toward the Foothills, I was surprised to see .22 ammunition.  It was the first time in three years.There were 2,300 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags and 1,000 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity.  The Mini-Mags were in plastic 100 round boxes at $7.47 a box.  The Standard Velocity were in paper, 50 round boxes at $3.47...

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a measure that would ban the city employee retirement system from investing in companies that participate in firearm and ammunition manufacturing. The resolution by the supervisors could have a ripple effect throughout the country as the debate about gun control grows in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando two weeks ago at a gay nightclub that left 50 people dead and several others injured. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is trying to gather support nationwide by asking the mayors of both Boston and New York...

In 2016, Americans continue to break records for gun sales.  While the National Instant Check System (NICS) does not track gun sales directly, the numbers are highly correlated. The numbers of NICS checks, and the increase in private firearms, have skyrocketed during the Obama administration.The total for 2016 through the end of May is 11,698,006 instant checks. That is more than the entire year of 2007, which held the record up to that year. Thus, during the Obama years, the number of private firearm sales has doubled.  In 2015, the highest year on record, the total number of checks...

California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democratic lawmakers appear to be on a collision course over a new round of gun control measures. Newsom, claiming lawmakers are dragging their feet, is collecting thousands of signatures in pursuit of a gun initiative ballot measure in November. But lawmakers say they’re planning to address these issues via legislation, and the initiative could hurt what they’re doing. Critics also say the proposed California ballot initiative contains a wide variety of restrictive, costly and unreasonable gun and ammunition control measures. The proposed “Safety for All As of 2016” initiative has 600,000 signatures from...

The  presence of .22 rimfire at Wal-Mart has been uncommon for three years now.  When President Obama pushed for more infringements on the Second Amendment, starting in 2013, the demand for .22 rimfire skyrocketed.  Instead of raising prices on the ammunition sufficiently to bring demand down to reasonable levels, manufacturers tried to keep prices stable to earn customer good will.  It failed as a strategy.  With the demand so high, less public entrepreneurs purchased all the .22 they could obtain, then offered it over the Internet, at gun shows, and other venues, at three to four times the price...

Wall-Mart .22 rimfire has been uncommon for three years now. When President Obama pushed for more infringements on the Second Amendment, starting in 2013, the demand for .22 rimfire skyrocketed. Instead of raising prices on the ammunition sufficiently to bring demand down to reasonable levels, manufacturers tried to keep prices stable to earn customer good will. It failed as a strategy. With the demand so high, less public entrepreneurs purchased all the .22 they could obtain, then offered it over the Internet, at gun shows, and other venues, at three to four times the price purchased. The producers stayed with...

I have never, ever had anyone tell me that he had too much ammunition. Not in a combat zone, not in a civil disaster, not even in peacetime. Never. Nor have I lived through a time where our governing class was so deeply corrupt, so utterly foolish, and so dangerously focused on the perpetuation of its own power that it risked bringing down everything we have built not merely in the United States but in the entire West. Right now, if you are watching the news, you have questions about the future. And the answer to all of them is...

I wish I could say I'm shocked, but this is New York. It's an anti-gun state. Of course, some local legislators were going to try and regulate the sale of ammunition (via Brooklyn Daily Eagle): State lawmakers from Brooklyn announced on Monday new draft legislation aimed at tightly restricting the sale of ammunition in New York. The Senate and Assembly bills were drafted in an effort to keep potential terrorists from stocking up on ammo, according to sponsors state Sen. Roxanne Persaud and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. The twin bills are backed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who worked with...

I just got back from the North Dallas Wal-Mart just off the George W. Bush freeway and Marsh rd, consistently had 5 cent .22 ammunition when I visited my Daughter in October.  When I checked on 29 November, there were five boxes of Winchester copper-plated .22 LR, 333 round boxes for $14.97.  That translates to 4.5 cents a cartridge.   I suspected that it was a fluke.Today, at 11:30 on 11 December, I checked again.  This time the shelves were full of .22 at Wal-Mart, including quite a few bulk packs.  The Remington ammo today was 4.9 cents a round;...

The NRA -- and their gun-loving Republican cohorts -- are refusing once more to stop terrorists intent on getting armed in the U.S.A. A legal loophole allows suspected terrorists on the government's no-fly list to legally buy guns, but a bill to fix that will likely wither on the vine. The federal Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, even in the wake of last week’s terrorist killing of 129 people in Paris, remains a long shot due to its rabid pro-gun opponents. "Anything which they feel restricts the use or the ability to retain a gun they’re opposed...

In August, Kleck told Mother Jones that he doesn’t know of any “credible criminologist” who believes that “with more guns there are less crimes.” More recently Kleck was interviewed by Ari Armstrong about these points and Kleck’s claims that there hasn’t been any increase in the rate that people are carrying permitted concealed handguns and that neither more guns nor more concealed handguns reduce homicides or any other type of violent crime. Here is the beginning of Ari’s interview with Lott: Recently I interviewed criminologist Gary Kleck about gun ownership and crime. In the course of that interview, Kleck expressed...

The idea was to ask the state to establish a special sales tax on handgun and ammunition sales. The thought was that the money made from the sales tax would help pay for body cameras. The Baltimore City Council's public safety committee rejected the resolution, but it is clear the conversation about funding the body camera program is not going away. City Councilman Carl Stokes, who is running for mayor, was one of the resolution's sponsors.

Our tax-cutting cup runneth over. Not since adoption of the Federal Personal Income Tax (16th Amendment) over 100 years ago has so much attention been given to the adverse effects of high-rate income taxes on economic growth, personal wealth creation, and wage and job levels. Thank you, national Republican debates and presidential hopefuls. Also weighing in are investment business leaders like Carl Icahn regarding the disastrous effects of U.S. tax laws on American businesses. U.S. corporations are fleeing the highest corporate tax rate among industrialized nations (about 40%, including state corporation taxes) through inversions — buying a controlling interest in...

Gun control advocates are launching a new regulatory push in California to impose first-in-the-nation instant background checks for ammunition sales, a move that comes as gun violence surfaces as a lightning rod issue in the 2016 presidential race. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2018, joined with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in announcing the initiative last week. snip It would require owners to turn in "large-capacity" magazines -- those holding 11 rounds or more -- and report when their weapons are stolen. snip Aside from the ammo background checks, the California proposal also...