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With all of the commentary and news about the upcoming election next month I want to make a few minor predictions. Some of you who are more firearms community-savvy will think these are common sense, but for most of you these will seem strange.
If you see Hillary Clinton getting elected what is bound to happen? The prices and availability of firearms will explode. Prices will go up like they have in the past. For example, an AR-15 that goes for $800 will go for over $1500. I think availability will be the most hard hit, with sales skyrocketing and guns flying off shelves. President Obama has been the greatest gun salesman ever to have lived. More guns have been sold during his presidency than any other commander-in-chief.
Despite his anti-gun track record he will be nothing like Clinton. If she is elected she has promised more than once to push for more gun control. With the momentum she will have from being elected she may try things like executive orders and such to do as much damage to the 2nd Amendment as she can. This has the effect of causing rational, law-abiding citizens who cherish the Constitution to go out of their formerly level headed minds and become “gun and ammo hoarders!” I am already one of those, and might become the other if the election goes the way I think it will. Let’s all pray that does not happen. I am stocking up on reloading components anyway, I like to reload and this gives me an excuse to tell the wife why I need more “of that damn stuff!”
If Donald Trump gets elected I expect that people will think they are safe and things will still remain the same. But they won’t. Donald Trump promised to try and push National Concealed Carry Reciprocity and if he does more people will sign up to get their concealed carry permits where needed. Florida already has 1.6 million concealed carry license holders (more than any other state) and I see that number climbing by the hundreds of thousands if Trump wins. An increase in the number of concealed carry holders will also increase the number ammunition sales. All those new gun owners and carriers and such will need ammo. So it’s likely we will see a huge boost in sales and availability in this scenario.
Regardless of the outcome people need to stay calm and keep themselves from binge buying of ammo or firearms. The market is like any other, supply and demand. In one of my other articles I wrote about a possible scenario in which the U.S. Government were to push the law abiding citizens of this great country too far. Firearms and ammunition would then become very important just to ensure your survival or safety. I’m not saying it will or should happen, I’m just saying it can and has happened in the past. I don’t want to have to try and find ammo and wait months for it to become available or have to pay 50-100% more for a firearm just because of who is in office.
So what does this mean for the average Joe like me who has firearms for self-defense and also sport? We will find it hard to get any new firearms for a while, prices will eventually come back down, and ammunition will eventually be back on the shelves. But until then, I will have to hold out with what I have, and since things have not yet started to go crazy (there has been an uptick in sales of both guns and ammo) I am stocking up to ride out the craziness. Then I will sit back and see… do I need my AR for protection or my bolt gun for hunting? I guess it depends on who gets elected.
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Chris is a U.S. Army Veteran and has been in law enforcement the last 35+ years. He specializes in LE Firearms Instruction, and is in charge of a large Police Academy in North Florida. In his spare time Chris is a free-lance Military Reporter and owner/founder of the Largest Military Videos Channel on YouTube “3rdID8487”.
