Well… we’re about a week and a half into the New Year and it doesn’t look good.  In the last two weeks we’ve sold out of just about everything… and most of it was gone within the first 48 hours after the shooting in Connecticut.  We’re still sorting out some of the problems and dealing with orders that didn’t get shipped and cannot be fulfilled at this time.  But that’s not what I want to talk about.  We’ve been getting hundreds, if not thousands, of emails from people wondering what’s happening and when a particular item will be available again.  I thought I’d talk a little about what is happening and give you the straightest answers possible.

First of all, nobody knows what’s going on or what is going to happen.  When Obama was elected in 2008, sales sky-rocketed for months and then leveled off the following summer.  But the last two weeks have been like nothing we’ve ever seen before.  I’d say demand was 3-4 times more than what we experienced in 2008.  In less than one week, the entire national inventory of assault weapons and accessories was sold out.  When will it be back in stock?  Nobody knows.

Manufacturers are producing at full capacity, but unlike 2008-2009, there’s an impending ban.  Not an imagined one like in 2009, but a very realistic threat.  Here are my predictions for 2013 and beyond…

1. A Weapons Ban Will Be Passed

I predict semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines will be banned.  This time around, unlike 1994, they will focus more upon the performance of the weapon rather than what it looks like.  You will still be able to purchase a semi-automatic rifle, but it will have a fixed magazine.

2. Magazine capacity restricted to 5 or 6 rounds

I predict that any magazine, whether fixed or detachable, will be limited to 5 or 6 rounds.  The gun banners have stirred up so much anger, I believe they won’t stop at 10 round capacity but will cut it down even further.  They have a lot of momentum right now and they’re going to push things as far as they can.

3. Ban the private sale of firearms.

Hundreds of thousands of firearms are sold privately every year.  No background check is ever completed on these sales.  A number of states, like Maryland, require all sales of firearms to be processed by a licensed gun dealer.  If you want to sell your gun to your neighbor, you both go over to the local gun store and the dealer transfers the gun from you to the buyer and performs a background check.  The buyer then pays you directly… but I can see them requiring the dealer to take it in as a purchase and then turn around and sell it to the buyer.  That way they must charge sales tax.  Of course the dealer charges a fee for this process.  I predict they will ban the private sale of firearms.  All firearms sales would be processed through a licensed dealer.

Beyond 2013….

What good does it do to ban any type of gun?  Hundreds of millions of guns are already on the streets, so what do the “control hungry” politicians gain from banning any form of firearm?  When I saw the news and the aftermath of the shooting in Connecticut, I kept wondering what is their next step.  Sure, ban the future production of semi-automatic rifles with detachable, high capacity magazines, but I just kept thinking there had to be more coming.  To me, the impending ban is just Step 1.

I talked with a lot of people, both in and out of the gun industry, and then I finally came across what I believe is Step 2 in their plan.  A very good friend of mine had the answer to what’s coming next.  It seems his wife had taken a couple of their kids into the pediatrician for a check-up.  The doctor went through his normal list of health related questions and then asked, “Do you have firearms in your home?”

She basically told the doctor it was none of his damned business, but he went on to explain that firearms in the home is a health risk to children.  Now that the government controls healthcare, they don’t need to pass laws to regulate gun ownership – they’ll just do it through your health insurance.

In the near future, they will determine that owning guns is a health risk.  You will have the option of turning in your guns or paying some outrageous fee for your health and/or life insurance.  It’s just like any other activity your insurance company decides is “high risk”.  They make you pay a whole lot more for insurance – or refuse to insure you at all.  Because you present a “high risk” to the insurance pool, the rest of the people don’t want to pay for the risk you present, so you either pay more for insurance or go without.

Maybe they decide that each gun in the home costs an additional $10,000 annual premium for health insurance.  If you have 5 guns that’s $50,000 you’d have to pay for your health insurance.  Could you pay it?  What would you do?

So there you have it:

Step 1 – Ban the production of semi-auto rifles and high capacity magazines and prohibit private sales of firearms.

Step 2 – Use health insurance to control gun ownership by determining it to be a health risk and make you pay exorbitant amounts if you choose to own guns.

Sorry I don’t have better news!  We have dark days ahead.  Don’t under estimate the people who control the Federal Government.  They want to control and regulate every aspect of your life.  They will use their control of healthcare to control every other aspect of your life… and they’ll start with gun ownership.