Gun sales "explode" in Oregon

Guns and ammo sales spike in U.S. on coronavirus worries - CBS News

Gun, Ammo Sales Spike In US During Coronavirus Outbreak: ‘Busier Than Christmastime… Black Friday’ – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Gun & Ammo Sales Spike Over Coronavirus Concerns – CBS Miami

 

At some point I'll be curious if these are new owners or the same old guys gone back to pick up a 43rd.

 

Some are.
Some aren't.

A way to track this would be to look at new permit applications and ask range owners how many noobs are on their ranges.

New gun owners flood shooting ranges; restrictions at most conceal-carry offices | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Conceal carry permits and gun sales see recent spike

We're seeing a rise/fall in permitting in some states because many states have adopted "Constitutional Carry" obviating the need for a permit, while some others suggest that rises in some areas reflect an opinion that more gun legislation might be on the horizon after November.

Gun range owners are very sensitive to the needs of noobs.
They HAVE TO BE because they're always one 'bad range day' from going out of business....or much worse....loosing clients the ugly way.

Local anecdotal evidence is that interest in 'new shooter' classes remain pretty high.

YMMV

 

The wife and I have discussed getting one. She's generally anti, but not completely so.

I'm (only) somewhat pro, but the big thing holding me back is that all the local ranges I'd hope to use for proficiency & entertainment currently require their members to also be NRA members.

 

I talked with a coworker years ago about guns, and he told me he’d bought a 9mm for home protection, but he’d never used it. I couldn’t believe it!

The next time he was in our local office, I took him to a range and taught him how to make sure it’s empty, how to load, fire, re-load and use it safely. Then we shot lots of targets.

I think it is more dangerous to have a gun you don’t know how to use than to have no gun at all.

 

when Obama took over there was a fear guns would be prohibited & wesaw there was a massive run on NATO / 223 rounds. So, here we go again. Fortunately, on my cannonball Run to Nashville a couple weeks ago my father-in-law on the way back (in Arkansas) , gave me a mini 14 & (unexpectedly) 2,500 rounds to boot. No price gouging fears, & all set for plinking for the rest of my life.

.

 

The gun dealers literally longed for the days of Obama. Gun and ammunition sales dropped until recently.

 

+2

I gave up the opportunity to be certified as a firearms instructor for free because there was a requirement at the time that I be an NRA member.

That's actually somewhat true.
9mm ammo was as cheap as $0.11 a round.
I'm reading articles where it's literally not worth saving the brass because there's no interest in reloading the stuff, since it's cheaper just to buy it outright.

I recently acquired an AR - something I leaned away from in the past the because didn't want to have to feed it.
Now...the ammo AND THE RIFLES are so cheap that if you need a rifle at all it almost doesn't make sense to get anything else.
If we follow the pattern....prices will rise just a little bit, and then drop back below pre-virus levels because of the massive infrastructure inspired by the acute shortages in the 2010's.

Pistols are so plentiful that they're going to resist the price swings probably through the economic downturn.
My last carry piece (I alternate between 3) was $206....tax, transfer, and all.

I can't get a current price because they're sold out on-line but the .40 cal flavor of that same gun is about the same price.

 

A certain amount of live fire is very important. But snap caps will suffice for safety training and practicing handling, loading, unloading, etc. In fact, they are sometimes better because mistakes are much less fatal.

As for NRA membership to go to a range, that's a pretty amazing restriction. Never heard of that before. I am not an NRA member and have never been turned away from a range here in the Tampa area.

 

Snap caps? Are those like percussion caps but in cartridges? Out of date here.
I totally agree live fire is very important! For our practice with our .357 magnum as teens, we reloaded the cartridges with primers only and pressed the tips of the shell casings into a block of wax to create “wax bullets” , which would give good , safe, live-fire draw-and-shoot practice for body profile targets up to 15-20’ away (the length of the garage we were practicing in). I KNOW the primer-propelled wax bullets were safe because when our landlord caught us , my brother intentionally shot himself in the palm of his hand to show her that these were not “real” bullets and forestall her from either reporting us to the police or evicting us. After firing the wax bullet into his palm, he calmly explained it all to her and she left, whereupon he turned back to us and said, “DAM THAT HURT!” It resulted in a decent blood blister but did not in fact break any bones even at point-blank range.
Not being cognizant of the dangers of lead poisoning, we also did cast and reload lead bullets and add smokeless powder un top of the primer for real use. My brother experimented with cutting the lead bullet widthwise into 3 equal, smaller pellets (?) , and found that you can get a nice triangular pattern from firing of the resulting cartridge, which would be a real boon for a novice with unsure aim. Each “partial bullet” would be less lethal than a normal .357 slug, of course, but you would be far more likely to hit or wing your target, which would be distracting even if not disabling. For moral reasons, I would far rather discourage an assailant rather than kill them.

 

Snap cap - Wikipedia

 

Thank you. Should have just looked it up! Not usually so lazy.
I do think wax bullet rounds would be my preference, but to make those we did need the basic reloading gear.

 

The snap caps let you practice anywhere and they are as quiet as dry firing. I practice in the house. My weapon will dry fire w/o damage, but I like to make it a little more realistic. Only problem is that you have to manually rack the slide to be able to pull the trigger again.

 

I agree with this.
Which is why I think "Newbies" buying firearms in specific reaction to this crisis, are not being responsible.

And those that already have firearms?- Probably just using this crisis as an excuse to add to their collection.

Hoarding? Going to happen in situations like this.
But you would hope it's NOT huge runs of 1st time gun owners, inexperienced, simply buying out of fear.

 

You are so right!! Hopefully you gave him the unbreakable rules of gun handling.

1. Finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
2. Never point at what/who you do not want to get shot.
3. The weapon is ALWAYS loaded.

Even the pros can screw up.

 

Shite happens!

 

The pros actually screw up more than than people who sit at home and watch on TV, for pretty obvious reasons.

If anybody ever goes to a shooting range, do what I always do.
Look for holes (or patches) in unlikely places........

Entertainment is where you find it......



Folksy Anecdote:
In the service, they call them NDs or Negligent Discharges, and they often came with career-altering consequences.
My unit was in GTMO and the sand-box for a full year each, and we had zero such occurrences, even though we carried daily.
It's not as simple as one may think because we had to exchange Condition-1 weaps before and after every watch cycle.

Another unit that was co-located with us had so many NDs that we stopped looking around and wondering what was happening when an M-4, 240, M9 fired into a clearing barrel.
The Commanding General got a little upset over it all and issued paper that any ND would result in an expedited trip stateside with career-ending paper stapled to the offender.
A couple of days later....one of his leg-humpers lit up a clearing barrel at the front gate with the weapon (M4) in 'pew-pew-pew' mode.
He looked at the weapon in utter amazement, and before anybody could stop him he "tried to clear weapon" again.......

I never bothered to ask one of my counterparts whatever happened to him, but I like to imagine that he's doing 'statistical analysis' in the Pentagon.

 

Florida Woman Fatally Shot During Citizen Police Academy Training

 

.....in 2016.

 

Coronavirus: Americans flock to buy guns

It ain't just puny population Oregon with exploding gun sales now. Local news say it's 1,000% increase here in the land of fruits & nuts.
.