They didn’t contend that the current murder spree had anything what-so-ever to do with letting criminals go free without bail, defunding police and criminally prosecuting law enforcement for doing their job. Nah as that would mean taking responsibility for these actions! Grumpy
Category: Anti Civil Rights ideas & “Friends”
Shelves lay bare at a Virginia gun store
America is more than a year into the latest ammunition shortage, and it appears supply will not catch up with demand anytime soon.
As store shelves lie barren and prices for the most popular ammunition hover at two, three, or even five times their pre-pandemic levels, manufacturers said they are still scrambling to bring enough product to market. They said they are still working through several years’ worth of orders that have already been placed.
“On certain products, we are certainly seeing backlogs that stretch out two years and beyond,” Brett Flaugher, president of Winchester Ammunition, told The Reload. “For those who shoot 9mm and 5.56 ammunition, which are both in high demand, it’s very uncertain how long it will be before people will consistently have ammunition readily available.”
“I’m looking at two and a half years’ worth of demand already on order,” Jason Hornady, vice president of Hornady Manufacturing Company, told The Reload. “So, I’m not seeing a slowdown for two and a half years.”
The shortage has become bad enough that many gun owners have simply stopped shooting for months on end. Some ranges have even run out of ammo to sell not just to customers who want to take it home but also those who want to use it on the range.
“People have been saying for a long time they haven’t shot guns because there’s no ammo to shoot,” Brandon Wexler, owner of Wex Gunworks in Delray Beach, Florida, told The Reload. “And they don’t want to shoot what they have right now.”
Retailers like Wexler said they still have trouble stocking their shelves. Lucky Gunner, one of the largest online ammunition dealers in the country, said it faces wait times to get ammo unlike anything it has experienced before.
“At this point, the total amount of ammo that we have on backorder from manufacturers is up year over year and sits at an all-time high for us,” Anthony Welsch, a spokesman for the company, told The Reload.
A Demand Problem
He said the issue was less about supply slowing down and more about demand continuing at a pace the industry hasn’t seen before.
“We’ve seen manufacturers continue to deliver product at steady intervals, but once it’s available for sale, it just doesn’t last long,” Welsch said.
Flaugher said the industry is simply struggling to keep up. He said three main factors have driven sales and continue to drive them beyond the industry’s ability to expand supply. The first was pandemic-induced safety concerns that drove millions of Americans to purchase guns for the first time. The second was the increased participation in recreational shooting and hunting during the lockdowns. The third was concern over new gun-control legislation after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Democrats who favor new restrictions took control of the Senate.
“We have certainly experienced unprecedented demand for all categories of ammunition over the past year—rimfire, centerfire rifle and pistol, as well as our shotshell products,” Flaugher said. “Over the past year, we’ve seen more than 21 million firearms sold, with over 9 million to first-time gun buyers. This is an incredible number. Overall, more than 52 million people in the U.S. participate in the shooting sports, which is actually 2.5 times higher than the number of people who golf.”
Hornady estimated demand jumped to a degree that most industries could not keep up with, let alone a centuries-old one built around physical manufacturing.
“If General Motors or the NFL, or you pick the industry, all of a sudden had 9 million new customers, how would they react? What would they do?” he said. “I mean, if the NFL all of a sudden had 9 million more people who want to go to games, what the hell are they gonna do? They’d have to build new stadiums. If they had to build new stadiums, how long is that going to take?”
And he said the surge only got worse as the year went along.
“Last year, we were up 30 percent-ish,” Hornady said. “Our whole industry was up 30 percent-ish. In the short term, you do what you can to maximize hours and maximize what you can. We got that 30 percent, and now the market is asking me for another, not just 30 percent, it’s asking for 80 percent.”
Numbers from one of the world’s largest ammo makers back up Hornady’s estimate.
Ammunition sales are the largest part of Vista Outdoor’s shooting sports business which, in turn, is the largest segment of the publicly traded company. Vista’s combined ammunition brands, including Federal Premium and newly acquired Remington, represent the largest share of the commercial market in the United States. Vista Outdoor did not agree to an interview with The Reload but did provide links to the company’s latest earnings reports, which show its sales were up more than 27 percent in the past fiscal year. Sales increased even further in the quarter that ended in March 2021.
“Sales increased 37 percent to $403 million compared with the prior year quarter, primarily driven by strong demand for commercial ammunition and hunting and shooting accessories,” the company said in a statement.
Like Winchester, Vista said it expects “continued increased demand” for ammunition due to the pandemic and political atmosphere in the United States. It said its customer base had expanded as well.
The company said in its SEC filings that the broadened consumer base “has resulted in a much larger total addressable market opportunity for the industry and for our company. We expect to see continued increases in participation as consumers look to local outdoor activities as a substitute for travel and other competing pursuits impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
No Easy Fix
Hornady said the industry is already at max capacity, and increasing supply is difficult.
“I can promise you, even though they’re my competitors, every guy I know in the ammo business is trying to make as much as possible,” he said. “We don’t want to make 30 percent more. We want to make 50 or 100 percent more. And every one of us wishes right now we had an extra factory sitting around ready to go. But that’s not very practical.”
Spinning up a new factory involves buying dozens of specialty machines and custom installing them into a new space. It’s a process that costs a great deal of money and can take up to a year. Hornady Manufacturing Company had actually finished building a new factory in the lead up to 2020.
“We just built a new factory 18 months ago, which we moved into and more than doubled our space,” Hornady said. “We’re very rapidly filling the space we have. We were doing that whether there was an election, a pandemic, or a riot. We were already planning to grow.”
But the problem for manufacturers who are considering building new plants is uncertainty about where demand will ultimately settle out. If a company like Hornady, which has more than 500 employees, bets big on building another new factory and demand flattens back out before it’s finished, they could lose millions and be forced to lay people off. That’s why Hornaday relies on long-term plans instead of trying to react to the peaks and valleys in demand.
“I remember my father having to lay people off as a young person,” he said. “And that is something I don’t want to do. I want to keep everybody busy as long as we can. That’s important to us.”
Neither Winchester nor Vista Outdoor provided details on whether they planned to open new factories in the coming months or years.
Prices on the Rise
The imbalance of supply and demand has dramatically affected ammo prices. But it’s not just the reduced supply of finished rounds creating the problem. It’s also the reduced supply of basic materials being felt across many industries, including construction and computer chip manufacturing.
“The unfortunate part is we had to take our first mid-year price increase across the board starting June 1 of this year, and it was roughly a 10 percent increase,” Hornady said. “But we didn’t have a choice. Material costs are through the roof. Copper was $2.45 a pound a year ago. Today it’s trading at $4.50. And that is, in my career of 51 years, the all-time high. We go through several hundred pounds of copper a month. Zinc is the same way. Steel is the same way.”
Hornady had bought eight months of supplies for ammunition making when the pandemic began to make sure they could keep going regardless of where the market went. But shortages have popped up where the company never expected to see them.
“Where we’ve been caught off guard is things like tape and cardboard,” he said. “There’s a cardboard shortage right now. The other one is freight. There is a definite freight shortage occurring in the United States and, actually, globally too. Even just truck freight is overwhelmed and in short supply.”
Wexler said he’s gone from selling 9mm ammunition, one of the most popular handgun rounds in the world, for about 22 cents per round to 60 cents per round. And he’s actually undercutting the rest of the market.
“I’ve seen 9mm at ranges for a dollar a round, straight up,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Welsch said anyone “looking for a specific load or bullet” is going to face long waits or exorbitant prices.
Prices for the most desirable ammunition have been pushed beyond reason.
“We saw a case of 6.5 PRC, which right now if you have that it’s going like cocaine laced with gold, go for $1,800 the other day,” Hornady said. A case used to go for around $550.
A Summer Cool Down?
The onset of summer could offer a reprieve. Demand for firearms and ammunition has traditionally followed a seasonal pattern, with summer experiencing the lowest levels. If demand wanes as temperatures rise, manufacturers could get some breathing room.
“This summer should tell us a lot about what to expect moving forward,” Welsch said. “[The slowdown] could afford the supply side of the market a chance to catch up.”
Wexler said he’s already seen supply creep up a bit.
“I feel like some ammo is being put out there,” he said. “I’m not saying in any large amounts, but when you’re used to getting nothing, it’s noticeable.”
But neither man was confident things would return to normal. Welsch said even with a slowdown, “it would not be surprising to see hunters struggling to find some of the more niche rifle calibers this fall” because “supplies of .243 Winchester, .22-250, and .30-30 ammo are incredibly tight with little sign of change coming quickly.” Wexler said a self-perpetuating cycle of buying, shooting, and re-buying driven by pent-up demand makes it hard see when things get back to normal even after the ammo supply increases.
“It’s such a hard prediction,” he said. “I think the ammo that comes out, people are going to suck up because they want to build their supply, and they want to be able to shoot. And if they shoot, they’re going to need more ammo.”
Hornady was more certain and even less optimistic.
“This business is going to continue on the pace it is for the next 18 months to two and a half years,” he said. “That’s how long it’s gonna be before you walk in and find a box of .223, and come back tomorrow and buy a box of .223 or 9mm, or you pick the caliber.”
An attempt by Asm. David Chiu (D–San Francisco) to tie a piece of litter on the streets of his hometown to on-going gun violence in the city ended with a bit of egg on the legislator’s face.
Sunday, Chiu tweeted out a photo of the “discarded packaging of a semi-automatic on a leisurely weekend walk.”
Chiu included a photo of the packaging for a Glock 19 semi-automatic air-soft BB gun, which – though designed similar to the Glock 19 – is not a firearm.
The BB gun, though not pictured in Chiu’s tweet, is usually tipped with an orange muzzle to denote that it is not a firearm.
The packaging, however, does note that the gun was the airsoft version rather than the firearm.
Chiu caught considerable flak for the gaffe, as he is a leading proponent for gun control in California’s state legislature.
The San Francisco lawmaker’s marquee achievement in Sacramento was authoring Assembly Bill 2847, which called on gun manufacturers to transition to a form of bullet tracing technology known as microstamping.
Despite being enacted by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, the industry has repeatedly argued is technologically infeasible.
After harsh feedback on Twitter, Chiu deleted the tweet and backpedalled.
It isn’t the first time a high-ranking Democrat in California has taken on gun issues, only to find himself the subject of jokes from the state’s gun enthusiasts.
Former State Senate Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D–Los Angeles) had a similar incident related to so-called “ghost guns.”
A California state assembly committee gave its stamp of approval on April 27 to legislation that would significantly soften sentences for people convicted of some firearm offenses, with proponents saying laws against using guns in the commission of crimes disproportionately affect people of color.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 6-2 to approve the Anti-Racism Sentencing Reform Act, though the proposal still has several hurdles to clear before becoming law.
Assemblyman Alex Lee’s office said he agreed to co-sponsor the bill “to correct decades of harm done to communities of color.” Staffers recently created a “fact sheet” that argues imposing stiffer sentencing laws added on to the charge of an underlying offense drives up incarceration rates, crowds prisons, and serves as “a legal monument to racism.”
“If a gun is used during a violent felony offense – such as a robbery – California’s ‘10-20-Life’ gun enhancement applies,” it said. “A 10-year enhancement is available for any use of a gun, which is increased to 20 years if the gun is discharged, and to 25-to-life if great bodily injury or death occurs.”
AB 1509, as the bill is known, would eliminate the use of most gun enhancements and significantly reduce the others, modifying them from 10-20-life to 1-2-3 years.
“In essence, the bill decriminalizes the use of a firearm in California for the most severe, most violent felonies,” Siddall told The Daily Wire. “What this bill would do is encourage violent criminals to use guns during their crime because the penalty is so insignificant.”
Its passage would be retroactive, meaning some prisoners currently incarcerated on firearm enhancement charges could be released. However, Lee’s office said the bill limits retroactivity based on the crime, and not everyone would be eligible for resentencing.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, approximately 40,000 inmates in custody, or about 40% of the prison population, have a firearm enhancement attached to their sentences.
Lee, a 25-year-old progressive Democrat from San Jose, describes himself as “the first Gen Z, youngest Asian American, and first bisexual state legislator in California history.” He was living with his mother last November when he beat his Republican opponent in a landslide. Lee was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and worked part-time for an app-based delivery service to generate income during the campaign. His priorities emphasized “fighting for the marginalized” but did not mention criminal justice reform.
Lee introduced AB 1509 in February. Four fellow Democrats signed on as co-authors, including Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo (Los Angeles), Ash Kalra (San Jose), Mark Stone (Monterey Bay), and Sen. Scott Weiner (San Francisco).
During the committee meeting last week, Lee thanked “the over 370 incarcerated individuals who have written in support.”
Here is a look at four advocacy groups and co-sponsors that, according to Lee’s office, played an extensive role in drafting AB 1509 and remain partners in considering any amendments.
Initiate Justice
According to its co-founders, Initiate Justice was established “to activate the political power of people in prison, formerly incarcerated people, and their loved ones.” The organization claims more than 19,000 members inside California state prisons, including more than 150 organizers mobilizing inmates to change laws. Initiate Justice also trains organizers on the outside to “build our collective power and make our presence felt with legislators” through its Institute of Impacted Leaders initiative.
The group’s website highlights “prison abolition” as a featured project and has received at least $750,000 from two San Francisco-based grantmakers: the Libra Foundation and Rosenberg Foundation.
Taina Vargas-Edmond, Initiate Justice’s co-founder and executive director, was the executive chair of a committee that pushed a successful statewide ballot measure last year that restored voting rights to felons who have completed their prison terms. Initiate Justice was the lead organization on the Yes on 17 campaign and mobilized outside organizers on parole to direct communication efforts. The drive was also supported by the other activist groups working with Lee to reduce gun crimes punishment.
“The current approach of piling enhancements on top of convictions is an antiquated practice that needs to be rooted out from the core of California’s criminal legal system,” said Vargas-Edmond, who describes herself as an abolitionist and intersectional feminist.
Re:Store Justice
Established inside San Quentin State Prison, Re:Store Justice was created “to re-imagine our justice system.” It works “to end life and extreme sentences by changing the way society and the carceral system responds to violence and harm.” The group promotes restorative justice education sessions within prisons, bringing together homicide victims’ families with people incarcerated for murder.
Executive Director Adnan Khan co-founded the organization while incarcerated at San Quentin. He describes sentencing enhancements as “racist” and “abusive.”
“Sentencing Black, Brown and people of color to 10 additional years, or 20 additional years, or life in prison in addition to the sentence is excessive and unreasonable. We have to undo mass incarceration and the abuse we’ve normalized,” said Khan. “We are grateful for Assemblymember Lee leading transformative change.”
The organization has publicized progressive organizing actions that seek to decarcerate and close California prisons.
LaNeisha Edwards, program director at Re:Store Justice, served as a member of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s transition team and is part of his office’s Crime Victims Advisory Board.
Patty Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, sits on the board of directors. She was also a major donor to the Yes on 17 campaign and funded drives supporting Gascón’s candidacy during that same election cycle.
Essie Justice Group
Made up of women with incarcerated loved ones, the Essie Justice Group boasts about “advancing demands that would bring about a reality where prisons are abolished and systems of healing, accountability, and wellness are the norm.” The organization also pushes for the dismantling of policing.
“We are building a membership of fierce advocates for race and gender justice – including Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people,” Essie’s website says.
The group has received more than $4 million in grants from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which, in turn, received significant funding from Quillin and Hastings.
Silicon Valley De-Bug
Silicon Valley De-Bug group runs a criminal justice community organizing program where families with loved ones facing incarceration try to impact the outcomes of their cases. They often assist public defenders and produce videos that aim to tell the court a fuller story of a defendant in the hopes of securing more lenient sentences.
Its Twitter account has referenced “our movement to decarcerate and abolish jails.”
The nonprofit has received financial support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
“Gun enhancements add years to loved ones’ sentences, are often used as a plea bargaining tool, and have no real correlation to public safety,” the group said in a statement. “We’ve seen dozens of families bear the burden of excessive sentences that don’t lead to real rehabilitation.”
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- Do you believe that criminals and domestic abusers should be able to buy guns without background checks?
No background check ever stopped a criminal from getting his hands on a gun. When they steal them out of cop cars and FBI vans, they don’t leave a 4473 on the seat, and the ATF has never received a 4473 from the local dope house. And given the ever-loosening definition of “domestic abuser”, I’ve got reservations there, too.
- What is your proposal for keeping guns away from criminals, domestic abusers, terrorists and dangerously mentally ill people?
Since domestic abuse is a crime, and since terrorism is a crime, let me tighten that up for you: “What is your proposal for keeping guns away from criminals and dangerously mentally ill people?
Easy. When they are convicted of a crime, stick their arses in prison.
- Do you believe that a background check infringes on your constitutional right to “keep and bear arms”?
Yes.
- Do you believe that I and people with whom I work intend to ban your guns?
Yes.
- If yes to #4, how do you think that could happen ( I mean the physical action)?
The same way you banned guns in New York. The same way you banned guns in Chicago. The same way you banned guns in Washington DC. Duh.
- What do you think are the “second amendment remedies” that the tea party GOP candidate for Senate in Nevada( Sharron Angle) has proposed?
I don’t have a clue. Ask her.
- Do you believe in the notion that if you don’t like what someone is doing or saying, second amendment remedies should be applied?
Since I don’t like being robbed, and I don’t like being assaulted, yes, I do. As for speaking, that’s what the Amendment next to the Second is for.
- Do you believe it is O.K. to call people with whom you disagree liars and demeaning names?
If they’re lying, it’s fairly appropriate. And since folks from your side have called me everything from crazy to redneck to inbred, I’d have to ask your stance on that one.
- If yes to #8, would you do it in a public place to the person’s face?
Oh, yes.
- Do you believe that any gun law will take away your constitutional rights?
Yes.
- Do you believe in current gun laws? Do you think they are being enforced? If not, explain.
Damn skippy they’re being enforced. That’s why it takes me, a peace officer and an honourably-discharged member of the United States military, five days for your so-called “Instant Check” to clear me; it’s why West Point graduates are being gunned down in a Las Vegas Costco parking lot for legally carrying their pistol, so on and so forth.
- Do you believe that all law-abiding citizens are careful with their guns and would never shoot anybody?
You mean never shooting anybody, or never shooting anybody who needs it? I believe that all law-abiding citizens are human, and thus, not perfect. That’s not a reason to ban their guns, though.
- Do you believe that people who commit suicide with a gun should be included in the gun statistics?
I don’t think there should be gun statistics. Statistics are only there to be massaged into giving the person with the statistics the answer they want to see.
- Do you believe that accidental gun deaths should “count” in the total numbers?
See above.
- Do you believe that sometimes guns, in careless use or an accident, can shoot a bullet without the owner or holder of the gun pulling the trigger?
No. Modern gun design prevents the discharge of the gun without the trigger being pulled.
- Do you believe that 30,000 gun deaths a year is too many?
Compared to what? Compared to the number of traffic fatalities, it’s minuscule. Compared to the number of swimming pool fatalities, it’s still a small number. Compared to the number of people killed each year by medical malpractice it’s tiny. Compared to the number of people beaten to death each year by a pyromaniac midget with an ivory elephant goad, it’s a large number.
- How will you help to prevent more shootings in this country?
The same thing I’ve been doing every day since I turned twenty-one. Donate my time to educate and teach.
- Do you believe the articles that I have posted about actual shootings or do you think I am making them up or that human interest stories about events that have happened should not count when I blog about gun injuries and deaths?
The plural of “anecdote” is not “data”.
- There has been some discussion of the role of the ATF here. Do you believe the ATF wants your guns and wants to harass you personally? If so, provide examples ( some have written a few that need to be further examined).
Personally? No. Doesn’t mean that they aren’t an impersonal pain in my arse, though.
- Will you continue a reasonable discussion towards an end that might lead somewhere or is this an exercise in futility?
Since what you consider to be reasonable isn’t even in the same plane of reality with what I consider reasonable, probably not.
Allow me to explain.
I hear a lot about “compromise” from your camp … except, it’s not compromise.
Let’s say I have this cake. It is a very nice cake, with “GUN RIGHTS” written across the top in lovely floral icing. Along you come and say, “Give me that cake.”
I say, “No, it’s my cake.”
You say, “Let’s compromise. Give me half.” I respond by asking what I get out of this compromise, and you reply that I get to keep half of my cake.
Okay, we compromise. Let us call this compromise The National Firearms Act of 1934.
There I am with my half of the cake, and you walk back up and say, “Give me that cake.”
I say, “No, it’s my cake.”
You say, “Let’s compromise.” What do I get out of this compromise? Why, I get to keep half of what’s left of the cake I already own.
So, we have your compromise — let us call this one the Gun Control Act of 1968 — and I’m left holding what is now just a quarter of my cake.
And I’m sitting in the corner with my quarter piece of cake, and here you come again. You want my cake. Again.
This time you take several bites — we’ll call this compromise the Clinton Executive Orders — and I’m left with about a tenth of what has always been MY DAMN CAKE and you’ve got nine-tenths of it.
Then we compromised with the Lautenberg Act (nibble, nibble), the HUD/Smith and Wesson agreement (nibble, nibble), the Brady Law (NOM NOM NOM), the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act (sweet tap-dancing Freyja, my finger!)
I’m left holding crumbs of what was once a large and satisfying cake, and you’re standing there with most of MY CAKE, making anime eyes and whining about being “reasonable”, and wondering “why we won’t compromise”.
I’m done with being reasonable, and I’m done with compromise. Nothing about gun control in this country has ever been “reasonable” nor a genuine “compromise”.
