By Lloyd Graff
With the machining community so riddled with woe at the moment, the guns and ammo boomlet is manna from heaven.
It’s a great time to be in the gun business. The buzz on the Web is that Barack Obama is going to push for a ban on assault riffles, something households need more than refrigerators.
Evidently, Obama’s campaign reference, that “bitter” small-town Americans “cling to guns or religion,” has fueled a tremendous surge in gun and ammo sales. People are buying AR-15s, the civilian version of the M-16 military rifle, like 42” HD televisions. At $1000 a pop (sorry) they are pumping out of the gun shops and gun shows. Wal-Mart is struggling to keep ammunition in stock because the NRA is implying that a big tax will soon be coming on each ammo box.
The high profile mass murders in Binghamton, N.Y. and Pittsburg are reinforcing a sense of insecurity, even panic, while right wing commentators foment unease as the economy slides.
But the gun run is a great boon to the Swiss CNC business as manufacturers rush to cash in on the gun bubble. While hunting rifles are currently dead, hand guns are the new Rolexes as folks look to show off their fancy shooting hardware.
It is still quite doubtful that Obama is going to risk his political capital in a quixotic joust with the gun lobbies. But the power of fear, for the moment, trumps rationality.
14 Comments
Well, people need automatic weapons more than TV’s, and a ban on assault weapons is Quixotic? No regular citizen needs a machine gun, and this little bit of idiocy, which is just vague enough to perturb both sides of the argument, is the last thing I’m going to read from you. I’ve unsubscribed.
I subscribed to your blog to get info on the manufacturing industry, not your political views. While I do not own a gun, I believe most of us do not want our country to become the ‘United Socialist States of America”. All we have to do is look at the history of once great countries and see the same things happening here. Once our population becomes unarmed, then only the criminals and our enemies will be armed and the America we all love will no longer be able to protect itself. Why would you be against people exercising their right to bear arms? It is that right that has given you the right to free speech.
Please cancel my magazine subscribtion and I’m unsubscribing to your blog.
It’s called Sarcasm. Duhhhhh.
Gus & Ammo are the hottest item on the market. President Obama is adding to the fear that is feeding the buying frenzie everytime he opens his yap. What do they feel will happen when they talk about gun control and imprinting all ammo? Some people believe in a larger gov’t and others believe in freedom.
You ever walk around at night in a foreign city where guns are outlawed and hard to get. I’ll tell you it’s pretty damn nice. That’s all I’ll say.
Let people hunt. It’s tradition. It’s a sport. But machine guns? If we really wanted to revolt against the government we would still have tons of ways to reek havok even without machine guns in our houses.
Maybe really harsh punishment for offenders is the only way. Not sure.That’s why I’m not president.
Just a Muckraker if I decide to be.
If you want to move to that “foreign city where guns are outlawed and hard to get”, I will drive up from Tennessee and help you pack.
The average law abiding citizen does not have access to ” machine guns” unless they apply for a special class three license where the ATF does an intensive background check and keeps tabs on you. The firearms referred to in this article are “assault like ” weapons but they are not true assault weapons, anyways this is America and if a law abiding citizen desires to own a legal firearm then they are allowed- guaranteed by the Second amendment.
In my family many have served and some have paid the ultimate price to preserve and protect our freedoms–even for draft dodgers.
This is good news for some businesses here in the southern New England region; the gun manufacturers have been in an economic slump for a long time, no? Colt Firearms in Hartford, CT. may finally be doing some hiring.
Smith and Wesson in Springfield, MA. will hopefully pull my resume for contacting about work! Thank heavens for human reaction!
That second amendment is a fragile thing, people, and it needs to be preserved and nurtured.
God created man, but Samuel Colt made them equal!
Stephen Eddy
Boston, MA.
A fully automatic firearm is not necessarily a ” big gun” it is a firearm that fires bullets as long as the trigger is pulled back. A semi-automatic firearm is one pull one round no different than a revolver.
My true concern of gun control is what the authors of the Constitution were trying to address- a government that turns Dictatorship. Guns or the amount of guns in the world do not scare me it is people. The greed of people that goes to the extent to have total disregard for other people and what the effect of their greed has on others lives. The world that is filled with people that have no respect for others- their privacy, well being and happiness. I am not supposing/proposing that guns are the answer to what scares me but if we as a whole or community held values that have respect for ourselves and others the world would be a much better place. I practice what I preach when I try to help people that have less than me, sometimes its a rewarding event other times its I am taken advantage of but it does not deter me since we need to start somewhere.
You mention Colombine and Northern Illinois University, the “element” used to carry out those events could have been a slew of other items not related to firearms and could have imposed a much greater tragedy. We must remember that anything can become an “assault weapon” just like a commercial jet was used in 911. The young people obtained those weapons because an adult was irresponsible and careless in the storing of the firearms which to me means they had no respect for others lives. The college student obtained firearms because an adult did not follow through a procedure which would have made him not eligible to purchase any weapons legally, again a lack of respect for others in my book.
When I make decisions in life usually I put myself or family as a priority but I always look to see if it may negatively impact others.
The (mostly) liberal news media uses the technical terms incorrectly. Semi-automatic weapons are not “Machine Guns”, machine guns are automatic weapons and cannot be purchased by those unqualified or un-regulated. After I was severely wounded in an attempted robbery, after my wife was robbed at knife-point, after one of my adopted daughters was raped, do not even try to tell me that, because of your feelings, that I should not be able to exercise my Second Amendment right to own a gun. Prosecute those who are illegally carrying, trading in, or exporting illegal firearms, but do not attempt to use it as an excuse to outlaw the abilty of law-abiding citizens to defend their loved ones, homes, and property. I might, or might not, not agree with a lot of freedoms granted by the Constitution which are legal, deadly, or otherwise against my tastes int his country but I will fight for your rights. My family has fought , died, and sacrificed for your rights, in all the wars, conflicts, and military actions since this country was founded, and you will not deprive me of rights because of your difference of opinion with me. Lloyd, I am surprised that, as a Jew, you would not agree with one’s right to defend what he holds dear. I do recognize, though, that you did publish the story, and for that I commend you.
Skip has mentioned the sacrifice that his family has made for the USA just as my family has done the same. I think people lose sight of the fact that other Americans have died to preserve our freedoms and to protect what the US Constitution provides for Americans. In other countries people do not have the ability converse freely just like we are here.