Obama, Congress & The Political Sphere

[Fortitude88]

Unfortunately, I am not as nearly up-to-speed on current gun law legislation as so many of you are. As my bio says and as some of you may have read, I'm brand new to guns and recently placed my first firearms order on April 30th.

I understand that bullets - it seems, from what I've read, nearly every kind - are difficult to come by, and that ammunition is relatively higher than the average norm. Even in my own circumstance, the type of firearm I ordered has been 'on order' from the dealer since December (apparently).

I know that due to current, tragic, violent events involving guns and the people who shoot them that the President and Congress are working to refine/modify/employ/legislate new gun law, but I'd like to hear from anyone reading (and willing) a condensed, brief version of why wait periods are so long, why ammunition is so high, how long this current state of heated political discussion involving firearms has been going on, and what's likely to come next.

I don't mind if you Dem. or Rep. - but I do want an unbiased, truthful response, so far as I could hope to ask for in a political thread.

 

[RetArmySgt]

The true problem with prices and 'shortages' is that people are buying up everything they can just to turn around and flip it for a higher price. I talked with alot of the manufactures this weekend at the NRA convention and they told me that they are making more ammo and firearms than they have ever made before and are shipping as fast as they can.

 

[Fortitude88]

I see. Seems people are doing this out of fear that the items they're purchasing may soon become illegal or will be highly regulated. Appreciate your answer - very informative and to the point.

 

[GlockOwner]

The ammo crisis (not discussing DHS buying up massive amounts of ammo) started which panic buying when certain politicians were bringing up the gun control debate. People that know nothing about guns would also go out and buy ammo, and then sell it for a ridiculously inflated price. People continue to pay those high prices (although it has started to come back down), which is why we are still seeing the shortages.

There are many bills or potential bills being tossed about on gun control and lobbying on both sides to bring the bills to a vote. Some people (most on this forum) will tell you that gun control is NOT good because it would only affect the law-abiding citizens and would allow the criminals to out gun the good guys, since the bad guys will still go out and get guns. The same people will also say that the 2nd amendment protect us from gun control, and even the gun control already in place is illegal according to the Bill of Rights. When asked why they NEED an AR-15 or other "black rifle", they will respond with something along the lines of "It is stated as a RIGHT, not a NEED"

The ones for gun control believe that passing gun control will reduce crime and use stats from countries like the UK, where they very strict gun control laws in place and have less gun violence. They say that an AR-15 with a 30 round magazine is not needed for self-defense or hunting.

The gun control advocates will continue to attempt to pass some sort of gun control legislation while the opponents will continue to fight those bills. Both sides will use what I THINK is referred to as a "poison pill" bill. This is where, for example, a gun control is voted on, passed on to the next step, then the opponents of gun control will amend the bill to include something that would never pass a vote to become law. I might be wrong on the process, but we have at least have a while before this back and forth subsides.

That is about as unbiased as I can get. I will refrain from offering up my arguments and opinions as you can find that all over this forum.

Im not an expert on this, so any errors will soon be corrected by someone with more knowledge on the subject

 

[TheDan]

The true problem with prices and 'shortages' is that people are buying up everything they can just to turn around and flip it for a higher price.

The issue with that theory is that without demand, it wouldn't be profitable to flippers. Demand creates the shortage, and then than in turns enables the flippers.

What is causing the demand is hard to pin point. There are some people that are buying because they are scared [insert item here] will be banned, but I think those people are actually the minority. This is just my theory, but I think this is more of a reverse bubble... It used to be that every household in the country had a firearm or two, but in the 20th century firearm ownership on a household basis declined quite a bit. Now recently with the topic of "guns" constantly in the media, people are thinking about the subject more than they have in the last 80 years or so. With that increased exposure, some people who never thought about it before now want a gun. If you ask 100 new gun owners why they bought their first gun you'd get many different answers, but their reason isn't really relevant. The fact of the matter is that owning guns is natural and traditional. What we're seeing is the rebound of a decline, accelerated by popular media's "national conversation" on the topic.

 

[General Zod]

The ones for gun control believe that passing gun control will reduce crime and use stats from countries like the UK, where they very strict gun control laws in place and have less gun violence.

Part of the reason those stats (particularly in the UK) are so easy to use for the anti-gunners is that the UK government reports crime differently. They don't report by incident, they report by closed case. So their stats seem much, much slower. When taken incident-by-incident, the UK has a higher violent crime rate than the US or anywhere else in Europe. Sure, their rates for gun violence have decreased slightly - but that gap has been filled by other violent crime and home invasions are reaching epidemic proportions over there, as it is effectively illegal to defend oneself against a violent criminal under Her Majesty's law.

 

[GlockOwner]

Part of the reason those stats (particularly in the UK) are so easy to use for the anti-gunners is that the UK government reports crime differently. They don't report by incident, they report by closed case. So their stats seem much, much slower. When taken incident-by-incident, the UK has a higher violent crime rate than the US or anywhere else in Europe. Sure, their rates for gun violence have decreased slightly - but that gap has been filled by other violent crime and home invasions are reaching epidemic proportions over there, as it is effectively illegal to defend oneself against a violent criminal under Her Majesty's law.

I didn't know they only reported by closed case, but I did know that their violent crime rate is ridiculously high! But since the OP asked for unbiased info, I tried my darndest not to point out all the flaws in the anti-gunner arguments. lol