Is anybody else sick of this?
The endless profiteering that our fellow gun guys are helping to encourage.
I'm not talking about capitalism, I'm talking about getting a gun via someone not interested in making a profit on it, then turning around and reselling it.
That is NOT capitalism, there is no "production" involved - the only reason the market exists at that high level is FEAR, and those profiting from it are doing nothing to quell the fear that makes it possible, like a drug dealer, they seem to revel in the fear and pain of others.
I'm sick of the argument, "I didn't make these conditions", "That's the American way.", "If I don't do it, somebody else will". They are a total and complete moral and ethical cop-out; and to think that those same mouths that would utter those word, would claim moral high ground with the founders of our country (who all LOST their fortunes to the effort, if not their lives).
If we could harness all the effort people go through, just on this board, to obtain a gun and make a buck off of it - and put it into acquiring manufacturing capacity and MAKING barrels, trunnion block and the miscellaneous small parts that make up an AK type rifle - we could put thousands of rifles into the hands of our fellow citizens WITHOUT raping their savings accounts.
This morning, an underfolder polish kitgun went for 1300 bucks. I kid you not. A scant two years ago you could get the kit for 120 (I did) and fold your own receiver with the required parts for less than 300 total, don't wanna fold your own? Nodaks' receivers were 72 bucks.
I wouldn't normally MIND this sort of stupid profiteering, except that guns are not about capitalism, or hunting, or even self-defense. The overriding reason to have our fellow citizens armed is to insure the honesty of our government. When we hoard, stockpile and treat this stuff like it's an "investment" we ill-serve the purposes of our republican form of government.
I do a yearly inventory of my collection. In the past year it has increased in value by 300 percent over my cost basis. That's DISGUSTING. I did nothing to increase their intrinsic value, and I produced nothing. I feel like there are thousands of little Bernie Madoff's out there selling - ethics be damned - they're gonna get THEIRS.
Meanwhile, kids who are brought up hunting are dwindling, people who consider shooting a good recreational sport are disappearing and we fall towards an inevitable collapse of our gun culture.
Case in point. Recently I bought a very large amount of bullets for reloading from someone from this board. He gave me a bulk price and I bought them all. I had a few people that I'm acquianted with who then bought them from me (for the same price I paid) and that was that. There were two kinds of bullets, and I'd resold all of one type and kept the other type. I went to one of the guys I sold 1400 of them to and asked if I could buy 100 to see if they shot well in my garand. Right then and there he told me I'd have to pay double what he bought them from me for 1 week prior. His words? "Well, you can't find these out ther anymore and they're worth at least that much."
An exact case in point.
This does not encourage me to share a "good find" with these guys anymore, they're no different than the Bernie Madoff's of the world. The people who invested with Madoff were no better than he. What kind of person doesn't even ASK where 20 percent annual returns come from? They didn't ask because they didn't care that someone else had to be raped in order to insure their "income" - somewhat akin to the welfare mentality, only writ large.
ARgh...
