In the This-Will-End-Badly Dept.: "Dealers: Assault rifle sales up; long waiting list for handguns"

[Junkdrawer]

Gun advocates are up in arms and that means big business for firearm retailers.

Since the 2008 presidential election, gun sales have spiked nationally, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation tracking 1.53 million criminal background checks in November, a 42 percent increase compared with November 2007.

During election week alone, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 9, there was nearly a 49 percent increase in background checks from the same period in 2007.

“Before the election, we might have sold one or two assault rifles a week,” said Stan Dix, co-owner of Top Gun Shooting Sports of Imperial, Mo. “We’ve gotten to maybe 10 or 15 a week.”

...

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/01/12/story2.html

Actually, looking at the news, this is already ending badly...

[msongs]

1. fear of a black president + right wing media hysteria egging things on nt

[rl6214]

20. Left wing hysteria?

I have absolutely no fear of a black president. None. I have purchased six firearms since november. Why? Cuz prices are skyrocketing. Cuz availability is plummeting. Store shelves are bare. It's all about supply and demand. Economics baby.

[NightWatcher]

2. my local armory is nuts with orders. They are also moving more silencers than I've ever seen

Yes, you can get them in my state with a federal stamp (about $200 after background check), plus the items themself run about 300 for a low end entry model. Rifles are flying off the shelves and ammo is on standing backorder.

[MichaelHarris]

11. Not to start a fight, honest question

why would a person need a silencer and how does the second amendment support the right to own one?

[NightWatcher]

13. no one needs a silencer. it's existence suggests mens rea and an attempt to conceal

I've got guns, but a silencer suggests an attempt to hide. I dont think they sould be legal at all, even if you've got to pass a background and get a special stamp (license) to own one. The blackmarket for suppressors is insane and the markup is 200%

[rl6214]

21. I own an AR15 pistol

Why? Because I can. Nobody has to tell me whether I can or cannot own one.

[X_Digger]

33. Got pics?

Put this one together a while back..

[AtheistCrusader]

35. In the UK a sound suppressor is REQUIRED for use in most if not all ranges.

And the UK is extremely controlled with regards to firearms.

Another piece of safety equipment like a flash suppressor, barrel shroud, or collapsable stock, that people like you try and turn into some kind of stupid boogeyman.

[gorfle]

15. Why you might want a silencer.

You might want a silencer to reduce the sound of a firearm to make shooting more enjoyable.

You might want a silencer so that you don't annoy your neighbors when you shoot on your property (assuming it is legal to do so where you live).

[Taitertots]

17. Many people don't want to suffer permanent hearing damage

Why would a person need to blog and how does the first amendment support your right to blog? Rights are not dependant upon need.

[dashrif]

26. Well

a tax stamp and for varmints for one professional varmint hunters use them to be quiet around farms and ranches as to not spook livestock

[benEzra]

27. They don't "silence", but they do reduce the sound of a centerfire rifle

to roughly that of a .22, and a .22 to that of an air rifle. They are legal in most of Europe, and shooting with a sound suppressor would allow one to shoot a centerfire rifle with less fatigue, or a .22 or pistol without hearing protection (assuming you are shooting outdoors).

Since U.S. v. Heller upheld the National Firearms Act restrictions on sound suppressors (aka "silencers"), the Second Amendment question is moot; they're as tightly controlled as howitzers and hand grenades are. If you have a squeaky clean record and can pass a thorough FBI background check, and your local chief law enforcement officer will sign off on your application, you can legally own one, though.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Paranioa....

...in the fullest.

[baldguy]

4. The gun gods are smiling down on America, salivating over the coming rites.

Their worshipers will soon sacrifice the unlucky innocents.

2nd Amendment Uber Alles.

[aikoaiko]

7. hardly above anything else.

2nd Amendment advocates usually support the entire constitution.

[Sebastian Doyle]

10. Yeah right

Half of those morans couldn't tell you what any of the other amendments were.

[AZ Criminal JD]

12. As if you could

[baldguy]

18. I seem to remember something about ensuring domestic tranquility.

[benEzra]

25. The Constitution was "ordained and established" to "ensure domestic tranquility."

That same Constitution protects the right of the people to own common firearms for lawful purposes.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

As interpreted, that right is recognized as belonging to mentally competent adults with clean records, and it is currently limited to non-automatic, non-sound-suppressed civilian firearms under .51 caliber, plus larger-caliber shotguns and some high-caliber hunting rifles.

[baldguy]

28. "Common firearms" intended by the Founders to be muzzle-loading flintlocks.

Intended by gun worshipers to be everything up to and including nuclear weapons.

[benEzra]

30. Haven't read D.C. v. Heller, I see.

"Common firearms" intended by the Founders to be muzzle-loading flintlocks.

Does the First Amendment protect rotary presses and email, or just hand-cranked movable-type presses available in 1791?

The Supreme Court ruled that the 2ndA protects "firearms in common use for lawful purposes." That covers handguns, shotguns, and rifles (including so-called "assault weapons," the most common centerfire target rifles and defensive carbines in America) but NOT machineguns, sawed-off shotguns, or hand grenades.

The nuke part is a figment of your imagination. NO ONE is trying to legalize nukes; even the military doesn't trust individuals with nukes.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/nsam-160/pal.html

[baldguy]

31. The same people that did US v Heller did Bush v Gore.

They have a long history of ignoring the Constitution & common sense.

[benEzra]

32. If you cannot find "the right of the people" to "keep and bear arms" in the 2ndA,

then I would be concerned that you could not find the right to privacy in the 4thA. Do you support Roe v. Wade's broad interpretation of the 4thA, or do you read it the same way you do the 2ndA?

I believe the 4thA DOES protect a general right to privacy, that the 1stA DOES protect speech from state infringement (not just Congressional), and I believe the Court got it right in D.C. v. Heller.

[AtheistCrusader]

36. You would be completely right of course, except

a twenty shot semi-auto that existed before the 2nd Amendment was ratified.

Girandoni Repeating Rifle. Look it up. Meriwhether Lewis used one on the famed 'Lewis and Clark' expedition, about 12 years after.

But if you knew anything about history, you'd know the Founding Fathers didn't specify muzzle loading flintlocks on purpose.

[Taitertots]

19. Unless you have something to back that claim up

I'll just toss it into the asshole hyperbole pile

[benEzra]

23. I support all of them, as do most gun owners I know...

and I can tell you what they all mean.

You do know that half of U.S. gun owners are Dems and indies, yes? One reason why the "assault weapon" fraud bombed so badly...

[rl6214]

22. Uber Alles

über alles." The word-for-word translation of this line is "Germany, Germany above all," which the author intended to mean that a unified Germany was more desirable than division of the Germanophonic countries

Are you suggesting that we become a Nazi state? Is that what YOU want because I believe most of us here would not agree with you.

[baldguy]

34. Man, there's a bid pile of stupid in the gungeon tonite.

The literal translation, my moronic friend is "above (over, before) everything else". It is a modifying phrase with the intent that the object should be first to the exclusion of everything else.

The phrase you're describing is "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" from the Deutschlandlied which is the current national anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany. While the Nazis used this phase, the govt of today's Germany explicitly excludes it and uses a different stanza from the song.

Of course, the Nazis never attempted to control or confiscate privately owned firearms and the people complacently allowed a dictatorship to emerge virtually without opposition. People were allowed to keep their guns, so they thought they were free.

I am trying to show by saying "the 2nd Amendment über alles" is to expose the blind stupidity of gun worshipers who put their limited and erroneous interpretation of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution over and above the entire remainder of that document, along with rationality & common sense and the safety & security of the general public. The old saying is "The Constitution is not a suicide pact," holds true. Rational gun control is an absolute necessity if we are to maintain any semblance of a Republic.

[benEzra]

24. The Bulwer-Lytton people called; they want their oracle back.

The gun gods are smiling down on America, salivating over the coming rites.

Their worshipers will soon sacrifice the unlucky innocents.

The Bulwer-Lytton people called; they want their oracle back.

Rifles account for about as many murders in the USA as shoes do, BTW. I suppose the "shoe gods" have been "salivating" over the "coming rites," too?

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_20.html

[liberalmuse]

5. Just what we need...

even more paranoid dipshits owning guns.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Just lost 3 cops here in Pittsburgh to the madness....

Anyone think they'll be the last?

[RamboLiberal]

8. I was at Cabela's in West Virginia yesterday - I've never seen them so bare

of handgun ammunition. There wasn't a box of anything but a few pricey hollowpoints to be had. No practice ammo in sight.

And looked like they were doing a booming business in the handgun section.

[aikoaiko]

9. This panic buying can all be traced to Obama's policy on reauthorizin the AWB

and the anti-firearm rhetoric of Holder and, to a lesser extent H. Clinton.

And then of course, the NRA and gun sellers used that rhetoric to increase sales.

To use a gas station metaphor, everyone is filling their tanks when they heard prices are increasing and their are shortages.

[spag68]

14. guns

The scary part is, you can't eat a gun when you run out of money, but you can use it to try to get food or money.

[gorfle]

16. As the saying goes...

"A man with a sword is never hungry."

[benEzra]

29. You can sell it for food money, if you so choose...

and the civilian AK I bought in 2003 has appreciated about 60% since then. How's that 401(k) doing?

Owning a gun, and having food in the pantry and money in the bank, are not mutually exclusive. A gun could conceivably be used to protect against the guy trying to kill you/your family for your food and money, though.