A pontification by Sniper This weekend, I packed the family up and we drove back to my home town to help my brother move. This trip was going to take me through my old college town on the way, so I set it up so that I would have the time to stop at some of the old haunts, as I haven't been back to my old home town in almost five years. When we reached the college town, I started at the first gun store and there was nothing there, litterally, the entire block tore down. The second shop is now a pet store, and then the third store, at least it was still there. This last store was where I bought my first AR, UZI, SPAS-12, I bought all my ammunition from there as well, a real good gun store. The original sign was still there, so we pulled in and I went in. Instead of gun racks, I was greeted by baseball gear and nothing else. The old owner came out and I asked where all the guns were, he said "all gone". He said that he had been broken into and his guns stolen, twice! With all the problems of paperwork, insurance company canceling his insurance, it just was no longer worth it, so now he sells baseball equipment, no registration there to worry about. We prceeded on to my hometown where there were two other gun stores to visit. We got there and helped move for awhile and then in the afternoon, I was ready for a break and drove down to the first store, gone, doors closed for quite some time. I then drove to the second store, it had been there for as long as I can remember, almost 35 years, but when I drove up, it was a liquor store. When I got back to the moving, I told my brother what I had seen, he said it closed down about three years ago, "It was no longer worth it" When we come home this morning, I drove a differnt route and the same story. One town that had a surplus store was closed, another had a store of nothing but rifle scopes, gone. A total of four and a half hours of driving and every store gone. I just got off the phone with a cop buddy of mine who works in a big city and he said that you wouldn't believe the number of people that come into the station every day wanting to turn in Grandpa's guns that he left them after he died and they have no interest. We have a generation of kids that don't know what guns are, nor do they have any interest in them, and so when you will your guns to them, they will beat a path down to the cop station to get the $50 gun turn in that they are offering for your prized guns. I've always said that there will never be a big gun grab, it will be something insidious like drying up the ammo, well, welcome to the new world, it's here.
Big retail, like WalFart, drove many here away - they couldn't compete with the Bigun's lower prices. Now, since Wally is 'selling out' to the anti's, the little guys are slowly coming back. We have a new gunshop about 15 miles down the road, in a nearby small town. A range buddy got his FFL here in town and will order me what I want, and has the lowest transfer fee in town. So, things are looking up a bit. But, with the Useless Nations getting so many countires to sign onto their silly protocols, there are increasingly fewer surplus guns and ammo being brought over here. The surplus is being destroyed in this misguided and criminal destruction of a valuable commodity. Add in the manufacturers all being given HUGE government ammo contracts, reducing their production of sporting ammo - 'they' are controlling our guns by restricting our supplies of ammo. Then add in the Entitlement and Welfare Mentality of so many people today - they regard crime as better than honest work. The young have so little rgard for ethics, for other people's property or life. As the Chinese curse says - we live in "interesting times".
BIG ammo store nearby in town....Wideners......20,000sqft warehouse, and the other day about all I could find to buy was some .22 rimfire ammo.....out of almost everything in the way of .223, 7.62x39, .308, etc......not even any cases of 12ga shells....just some odds/ends boxes of stuff.....and no idea when they were gonna get anything in......pitiful compared to past experiences.
Here is why the guns are going away: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/08/18/national/main58887.shtml?source=search_story Long story short 1. Chicago has a gun ban in place 2 Chicago is "awash" with gun violence by gangs with members in the thousands 3 What is the answer? utilize limited law enforcement money and manpower in sting operations to send gun store owners to jail Makes sense to any rational person right?
It all began with accepting licensing, exchanging a right for a government mandated privilege. With corporate contracts and pressure from crime syndicates and law enforcement intervention, this becomes a real nightmare. Whenever an issuing authority tells you that you must acquire a "permit" to own a firearm, this is a sure sign that you are in trouble. A license, a permit, a PRIVILEGE can be revoked. A right cannot be revoked, only willingly exchanged for an accepted privilege or contract. Some states still have some of the old ways intact, but are constantly under pressure and continue to slowly change.
I know we still have a pawn shop about 15 miles north, a regular gun shop about 15 miles west, one 12 miles south and a Bass Pro outlet that sells guns (in a drug store and liquor store) about 20 miles south and a bit east. Then there is also Walmart for long guns as they still crry them around here. The BIG shortage around here is gun smiths. The nearest smith that can be found even through any of the shops or anything is about 50-60 miles away and thats all he dose, he dosent sell guns. That one reason why Im hopeing to get stuff paid off and some money set back then get trained as a gunsmith and open a small gunshop WITH gun smithing here.
