Mass, Pump action AR15s, future guns bans and why why why???

F

fourbore

New member
This is a long winded rant, if you are busy best to move on to another post.

So.... I made a loop around New England yesterday and I am at Cabelas in Mass and talking with an old timer clerk about some classic firearms. He mentions how 9 out of 10 customers will walk right past all the classic/wood guns and pickup this one black pump 12ga? Same form and function as other shotguns of the walnut persuasion. I shrug my shoulders. New generation? Then he goes off on a wild rant about how the next problem for Mass will be banning pump shotguns (and semi? shotguns). This guy is old and I kinda just yea, yea, yea and move the conversation along.

I ask him, why does Cableas locate stores in gun hating states like Conn and Mass instead of New Hampshire. Not only is NH gun friendly and business friendly, there is no sales tax and just 30 miles north. Now he shrugs? I guess he needs the job so that did not go very well.

I should explain the Mass assault gun restrictions have recently been greatly expanded. Google if you need or want to know more.

I stop at another place in Mass and what do I see? Pump action AR style rifles. OMG! These do look scary. Could this be what the old man was talking about? There are new Mini 14's on the rack with wood stocks also for sale. Tell me what kind of buyer is seriously going to choose a pump 223 over a semi 223 just because the pump is black and the semi is birch? I dont know to laugh or cry? Seriously, style & color over function? How much thought does it take to figure how to purchase a black stock for a wood mini? Who is worse the misguided attorney general or the color blinded customers?

One more tangent thought. Mass and CA tend to be leaders in the liberal banning agenda. After legal battles and liberal media misinformation these ideas gain national traction. You used to be able to get pretty good diesel technology in light vehicles. That was clean, reliable and very fuel efficient. Those were banned in the two states and eventually came more national laws with extreme restrictions. And now great companies like VW are caught up trying to build complex engines that make no sense. And more guns bans seem inevitable, IMHO.

Final remark from the old man at Cableas. As I looked over four Ruger No1 rifles he says, "someday those will be the only type guns you can buy". Maybe, if even.
 
I ask him, why does Cableas locate stores in gun hating states like Conn and Mass instead of New Hampshire.
Click to expand...
I really doubt the counter help at a corporate megastore are going to have much say in policy. That was an unfair and awkward question to ask him.
 
No offense fourbore but the phrase:
Pump action AR style rifles.
Click to expand...
is just goofy to me.

I think the main feature of the 'AR style' rifle is that it is a semi-automatic and I would not use 'AR' to describe a rifle that was NOT a semi-auto.

And is misusing (IMhO) the phrase 'AR style' becoming a 'thing'??? Last Sunday's (July 31) CBS Sunday Morning they used it to describe the Ruger Precision Rifle.

The Ruger Precision Rifle, was the second bestselling bolt action rifle for September 2015. This is yet another firearm build on the AR-15 platform.
Click to expand...

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/most-popular-guns-in-america/10/
 
Don't expect old toot clerks or young millennials to have the same expertise as folks on the Internet. ;)

Old toot clerks remember the days when men were men and bolt guns and shotguns were for deer and ducks.

Young just want to be cool.

Seriously, the market is driven for new shooters in the self-defense market. In long guns, the percent of sales of AR types is about equal to the other rifle types. That's quite a growth since the youth of the Old Toot.

The pump ARs, bolt ARs (they look like them but with different actions) is just an attempt to get around the local bans. They will fall in time.

In Australia, the pump shotguns were banned and folks went to lever action shotguns. They were banned, IIRC.

Antis have figured out the dodges since the AWB and will go for all. The Ruger Minis are on the list of many banners.
 
It's all part of the changing demographic of gun buyers. The emphasis is less on hunting rifles as hunting areas become more expensive and inaccessible and more on defense / tactical guns.

If the idea behind the 1994 "Assault Weapon" ban was to get them off the streets, then it was one of the most spectacular failures in legislative history because the market responded by making AR15 variations one of the most common guns in America. If you go to a gun show these days you have to look hard for blue steel and walnut guns while there's table after table of AR15 / AK stuff. Nothing stimulates the market more than the government wanting to ban something.
 
You might also consider that stores and manufacturers (like S&W) that were in MA, and other "non gun friendly" states were there LONG BEFORE the states became non gun-friendly.

A simple direct answer to "why are you in a gun hating state?" for many of them is "WE were here FIRST!!"

The movement of a factory from one state to another, especially one that has been in business for generations is not a trivial or cheap affair.

And as we have seen, when they DO move, many of the skilled workers do not move with them, which creates quality control issues for some time, until new staff members reach the same skill levels as the old ones.

This costs the company a LOT of money. So, they won't move, despite the politics, until by their bottom line, they HAVE to.
 
Nothing stimulates the market more than the government wanting to ban something.
Click to expand...

The only way to get a AR15 in Massachusetts now is in a private sale from someone who already owns one in the state. Now they go for at least double what they originally cost just because of the ban. Some of the gun stores in Massachusetts were selling their stock before the ban went into effect at double the price and still sold out.
 
The Troy pump action rifles have a pretty great reputation for quality and being fun to shoot. It's not the first thing on my list but I would happily own one.
 
I ask him, why does Cableas locate stores in gun hating states like Conn and Mass instead of New Hampshire.
Click to expand...
Maybe because they still want to sell to buyers in those states? I'm also pretty sure Cabelas makes more money on shirts and jerky than guns, anyway ;)

TCB
 
Along time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a totally cool stock for a Mini-14 that was pump action. It was called the Maxi-14. The gun still functioned normally as a semi-auto. The pump action was set up so you could use it to chamber the first round with the forestock mounted pump. This meant your hands didn't have to switch a position to charge a round.
 
Have you seen the taticool Marlin 336 yet??? Talk about a gun with no useful job.
But it is what it is. Guys are building cars and keeping them rusty just clear coating over the rust. What for? I say. But they like it.

Its their money let them buy what they like. 20 years latter when they find out that $700 thing they purchased is not worth $200 for the parts.
Oh well live and learn.:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top