Americans bought over 1,000,000 guns in August

@gungasnake,

That boggles the mind. It's must be like a stamp collection for some people.

@Robert Gentel,

the gun shows are advertised within driving distance every weekend here.

if war breaks out, rural america will be well armed...

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@Robert Gentel,

I believe that's true. Some are probably thinking of guns as an investment. That would not be my financial advice, but I believe some of the thinking flows in that path.

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@roger,

I know it does, I've argued against the notion and have seen you do it too.

The thinking went that buying assault rifles before they are banned will result in an increase in value when liberals outlaw them. You correctly pointed out that it might just render them worthless if they can't then be sold.

That doesn't surprise me much, but I'm always blown away by the sheer scale. I think there must be a lot of exporting going on too (as in supplying gangs all over Latin America).

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@Robert Gentel,

You got one helluva memory.

1 Reply

@roger,

Funny you say that, I feel like my memory has deteriorated so much since I was a teenager that I'm trying the whole not being high all the time thing to see how much is attributable to dope.

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

That boggles the mind. It's must be like a stamp collection for some people.

Yes! Like ME!
My security concerns were satisfied many years ago.
When I add to my gun collection now,
it is out of a sense of art or to acquire an artifact of history.

David

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@roger,

roger wrote:

I believe that's true. Some are probably thinking of guns as an investment.
That would not be my financial advice, but I believe some of the thinking flows in that path.

Well, maybe,
but its like I don t' intend to sell my gold coin collection, either

David

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

That doesn't surprise me much, but I'm always blown away by the sheer scale. I think there must be a lot of exporting going on too (as in supplying gangs all over Latin America).

. . . not to even mention supplying teenage gangs in major urban centers domestically. I know that in the minority "ghettos" of the East Coast any 12 year old knows where to get an illegal handgun. You need lots of cash but you can earn that selling drugs on the srteet.

1 Reply

@Merry Andrew,

Oddly, I wouldn't know how to do it, and even dealing with a "collector" doing unpapered transactions at a gun show, there are pitfalls. Like, how would you like having to explain posession of a stolen fireare, or good lord, one definately connected to a major crime?

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@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

That boggles the mind. It's must be like a stamp collection for some people.

Usually, but I doubt it in this case. What we have here is almost certainly people who've never owned firearms previously and have started to believe they need them under present circumstances.

In my opinion, a lot of people are buying and hoarding the wrong things. If the whole system ever really goes south, the most major thing you'd want would be some sort of a good quality 22 semiauto rifle and a ten year supply of ammo for it and that isn't really expensive. Something like the little Ruger 10/22 and preferably the one with the stainless barrel, which is a $200 item at shows or on gunbroker.com.

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@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

I think there must be a lot of exporting going on too (as in supplying gangs all over Latin America).

That notion doesn't withstand much scrutiny. Latin America has access to the vast Russian arms market and it also has good arms manufacturers of its own including Imbel which produced the FAL rifle forever and companies like Taurus, and I don't see how buying guns from the US could be cheaper or more efficient than that.

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@gungasnake,

gungasnake wrote:

Quote:
I think there must be a lot of exporting going on too (as in supplying gangs all over Latin America).

That notion doesn't withstand much scrutiny. Latin America has access to the vast Russian arms market and it also has good arms manufacturers of its own including Imbel which produced the FAL rifle forever and companies like Taurus, and I don't see how buying guns from the US could be cheaper or more efficient than that.

According to the TV news, the going rate for AK 47s
in common Arab bazaars is $12. U see little Moslem boys holding them all the time.
Thay are easy to build; very good, rugged weapons, fully automatic.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

For twelve bucks you're likely getting something made in Afghanistan or Pakistan but the good news (for allah and Muhammed at least) is that the AK is so simple the Afghans could probably produce them decently.

1 Reply

@gungasnake,

gungasnake wrote:

Quote:
For twelve bucks you're likely getting something made in Afghanistan or Pakistan
As long as thay ACTUALLY WORK and thay DO

Quote:
but the good news (for allah and Muhammed at least)
is that the AK is so simple the Afghans could probably produce them decently.
There is no doubt about it; it is not hard.

David

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@gungasnake,

gungasnake wrote:

That notion doesn't withstand much scrutiny.

Notwithstanding your speculation, yes it does. The ATF recently increased their efforts to prevent arms from America fueling the Mexican drug wars and the reason they did so is because 90% of the weapons they have been able to trace have been found to come from the United States, which represents about 17% of the guns used in crime in Mexico.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

Notwithstanding your speculation, yes it does. The ATF recently increased their efforts to prevent arms from America fueling the Mexican drug wars and the reason they did so is because 90% of the weapons they have been able to trace have been found to come from the United States, which represents about 17% of the guns used in crime in Mexico.

Two questions... who's worrying about the other 83% of the weapons used by Mexican criminals (which are likely being bought as I described), and what's the ATF doing working for the government of Mexico??

1 Reply

@gungasnake,

gungasnake wrote:

Two questions... who's worrying about the other 83% of the weapons used by Mexican criminals (which are likely being bought as I described),

The other 83% have not been ruled out as not coming from the US at all, most of them just weren't submitted to the ATF for tracing. And as to who's worrying about it, that would be Mexican authorities, I guess. I don't see how this matters. The point is that yes the US gun market is fueling conflict elsewhere, which you had disputed.

Quote:

and what's the ATF doing working for the government of Mexico??

The same thing their cops are doing working to keep drugs out of our country. This kind of cooperation is fairly standard, and they are paying the largest price for our drug war. They could end their problem easily through legalization, but we use trade leverage to make sure that isn't going to happen with our neighbors so it behooves us to cooperate when we insist they comply with our drug policy.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

The point is that yes the US gun market is fueling conflict elsewhere, which you had disputed.

It's the "war on drugs(TM)" which is fueling the conflicts. If guns weren't being used in the ensuing turf wars, something else would be.

2 Replies

Americans bought over 1,000,000 guns in August

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