| T H E F R E E M A R K E T | | _____________________________________________________________ | | LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE VOLUME 13, NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 1995 | | _____________________________________________________________ | | | | Backfire on Gun Control | | | | By Dale Steinreich* | | | | Since October 1993, we have lived through the biggest buying | | spree of firearms in the history of the U.S. It began just | | before the passage of the Brady Bill and has yet to die | | down. And the boom in sales will continue so long as | | members of the governing elites are infatuated with the | | prospect of gun bans. | | | | Last summer, demand for guns and ammunition soared to such | | astronomic levels that even militant gun advocate Jim | | Shults, executive editor of _Modern Gun_ magazine, bacame | | alarmed. Gun companies were up to their ears in back | | orders. They ranged from a small specialty producer filling | | orders for 16,000 guns to a large maker for 178,000. Two | | mid-sized companies were back-ordered for 45,000 and 56,000 | | weapons each. | | | | Ammunition and components were back-ordered for an | | astounding nine months. At last summer's S.H.O.T. show in | | Dallas, a foreign maker's inventory for five million bullets | | was quickly cleaned out and replaced by back-orders for 97 | | million more. | | | | This spree, which was just the beginning, was prompted by | | government intervention. Regulations on the market and | | impending bans of certain guns caused a deluge of weapons | | buying. Many citizens felt that these laws were harbingers | | of a complete ban and confiscation on all private firearms, | | and they were reacting defensively to the legislation. | | | | Shults called some members of Congress to explain this, and | | was hope- ful that, once they understood it, politicians | | would stop considering more gun bans. Surely no reasonable | | person could believe that such legislation had anything to | | do with *slowing* the amount of gun buying. It was causing | | the opposite to happen. | | | | But the government elites, who are anything but reasonable, | | passed the "assault weapons" ban anyway. The rationale was | | to stop the rash of homicides, but the affected weapons were | | involved in only 0.5% of all homicides. Thus the ban made | | us no safer than before. | | | | In the real world of gun markets, the response was | | explosive. As de- mand surged, Colt AR-15s jumped from $995 | | to $1,600 in price, while AK-47s jumped from $200 to $600. | | The prices of TEC-9s, M1-As, Uzis, Mac 10s, and FALs reacted | | similarly in the midst of panic buying by the public. | | | | I went to Birmingham, Alabama, one of the largest wholesale | | and retail centers of the U.S. gun industry. "Bill Clinton | | has to be the best thing that has ever happened to the gun | | industry," a salesman at one store told me. Standing in | | front of a wall full of AK-47s he said, "Our sales jumped | | 50% after the Brady Bill and about 80% after the Crime | | Bill." | | | | After a summer of brawling with Congress to remove these | | "weapons of terror from our streets," Bill Clinton | | vacationed for a week before signing the "urgent" bill on | | Sept. 13, 1994. But every day he was in Martha's Vineyard, | | USA Magazines, Inc., worked overtime manufacturing one | | million of the soon-to-be-banned, high-capacity magazines | | per day. Other manufacturers behaved similarly, making sure | | that supply met demand. | | | | Since last December, prices have steadily fallen. Prompted | | by the initial surge in prices, people who had owned weapons | | before the "ban" sudden- ly found it worthwhile to sell | | their weapons for sometimes more than triple what was | | originally paid for them. The prospect of large profits was | | enough to overcome the strong sentimental value of a weapon | | to many gun owners. | | | | In addition, the guns that were banned began to appear in | | new, un- banned forms. The government defines an assault | | rifle as a weapon with two of these characteristics: flash | | suppressor, folding stock, protruding pistol grip, bayonet | | lug, or grenade launcher. Gun companies removed one or two | | of these features and their "assault weapons" were magically | | legal again. The banned Cold AR-15, with its flash | | suppresor and bayonet lug removed, was rein- troduced (and | | is now legally sold) as the Colt Sporter Match Competition | | HBAR. | | | | Colt had lots of work to do compared with Springfield | | Armory. Spring- field's M1-A doesn't have a pistol grip, so | | all the company had to do was re- move the bayonet lug. No | | need to worry about a more politically correct name: the | | M1-A is once again available, but without the bayonet | | attachment. The streets are now safe from drive-by | | bayonettings. | | | | At what point will statists realize that their anti-gun | | campaign is having the opposite effect of what they intend? | | Let's consider other examples. | | | | The Treasury Department raised the fee for becoming a gun | | dealer. The hope was to make guns less accessible, while | | the effect was the opposite. Many small dealers selling | | no-frills weapons have not renewed. Consumers now flock to | | larger retailers, where they discover and buy a greater | | variety of more exotic and powerful weapons. Alarmed by the | | disappearance of dealers and the variety of available | | weaponry, self protectors become full-fledged collec- tors. | | | | If politics is about rewarding friends, the militia movement | | must be pulling the strings in Washington. The movement | | went from nothing in 1993 to a burgeoning industry of | | organized groups in every state that actively train in | | military maneuvers and produce and sell newsletters and | | video-tapes. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a gun | | controller, has seen the California militia movement go from | | zero to 34 chapters in the last year and a half. | | | | The government's campaign has caused gun shows to come | | alive. Most people go to get guns, but others find they | | offer enormous opportunities for political organizing. | | Average Joes, who were only involved on the political | | periphery, join movements that drive liberals bananas. | | | | Never has the principle of the unintended effect been more | | operative. So what are the liberals doing about it? During | | the Ruby Ridge hearings, Feinstein, with all the comtempt | | she could muster, referred to America as "a gun-happy | | society." Indignant that anyone would even think of | | qustioning her sniper friends in the FBI, she said, "I will | | continue to fight until my dying breath to control weapons | | in this country." | | | | While Deomcrats have ignored the effects of the anti-gun | | crusade, the Stupid Party has done little better. After | | Colin Powell, the self-styled LBJ Democrat, announced that | | he was in favor of wealth distribution, affirmative action, | | and gun control, Republicans opened their arms to him. | | | | We'd welcome him if he ran as a Republican," said House | | Speaker Newt Gingrich. Republican mascot William Kristol | | was even more enthusiastic. After hearing Powell's view, he | | said, "Those are respectable positions." | | | | A free people are "gun happy" to the same degree that | | government and its employees are "power hungry." So long as | | power tends to corrupt, and the government threatens to | | abolish the right of self protection, Americans will | | continue to see stockpiling as a necessary corrective. | | | | * Dale Steinreich is a graduate student in economics at | | Auburn University. | | ____________________________________________________________ | | | | Copyright (c) 1995 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, | | Auburn, Alabama 36849- 5301; (334) 844-2500; fax: (334) | | 844-2583; Internet: lvmises@mail.auburn.edu, or | | http://www.auburn.edu/~lvmises. All rights reserved.