Reader Mail: Answering Questions On Firearms
I’ve been getting more than my usual amount of email about the topic of guns lately so I thought I would answer a couple of the more common questions here on the site. I have summarized the most common questions below.
Question: Is it true that gun stores are packed with citizens looking to buy guns?
There have been a lot of reports lately about how jammed gun stores are with people looking to buy firearms. So I know where this question is coming from. Some in the media and on the left are trying to downplay what even I have seen – gun stores with empty shelves where rifles (mostly semi-auto) used to rest.
What I can tell you is that here in Western PA a lot of gun stores are in fact running low on stock and are now into the realm of backorders. One store, whose stock I was watching because I was interested in buying one of the Mini-14 Ranch Rifles (Ruger .223) that was listed in their online stock has run out of this particular rifle. On Friday, Nov 14th I checked their listings and they had 99+ of this model listed and was making plans to go down there last week to look at them and buy one. On Monday I checked again and their stock was in the mid 80′s. On Tuesday the number in stock had dropped to the 40′s. By Wednesday they were all gone.
I am sure that they were selling them nation wide with a quick drop like that but it is still impressive to see how quickly their supply dried up. It should also be noted that, as best as I can tell, they have no semi-auto rifles in either .223 or .308 available.
During the past week I had also called about 20 different stores in the area to see what their availabilities were and most were either reporting back orders for AR-15s, Mini-14s and SU-16s. Those stores that had any of these types left had either one or two or had more expensive variants only.
I would say that rumors of a run on guns is quite true based on this information.
Question: Have you purchased any new guns?/Are you worried about soon to be president Obama’s attitude towards guns?
Of course I am worried about what an Obama presidency will mean to gun owners and our second amendment rights. That is why my wife and I went out last week and made two new additions to our “arsenal”.
The first addition was a Mossberg 500 Tactical shotgun with breacher barrel.
It is currently fully loaded (6 rounds) with 00 Buck Shot, one shot of which will end the existence of anyone that threatens me or my family. I went with the version with the breacher barrel because I wanted the ability to blow a lock apart, if necessary, to gain access to a room in our home that an intruder may have entered and hunkered down in.
The second addition was a Russian-American Armory Saiga .308-1.
It is currently loaded with 147 grain Winchester .308 rounds (8 total pending the arrival of my high cap, 30rd magazine). I went with the .308 after considering the purchase of a Mini 14 (.223). But watching the later fly off the shelves and finding base models hard to come by (although more expensive variants were to be had at $1,000 +) I rethought my opinion and decided that I wanted some extra punch should push come to shove if I was going to spend that kind of cash. Plus, priced at under $400 and based on the reliable footprint of the AK-47 it was hard to pass this one up.
A lot of people do not like the Saiga 308 and claim that they have no accuracy and are junk, but after seeing actual targets fired from this rifle (stock and unmodified) by people who own them I have come to the conclusion that the naysayers are just blowing smoke to justify spending $2,000 on their rifle of choice in their own minds.
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