Rayco Sales gun shop is sold out of the Bushmaster AR-15. Most of its assault rifles are sold out.
“It is chaos right now,” Joe Romine, gun clerk at Rayco Sales said of his supply of AR-15s. Gun suppliers “are on back order to April next year.”
Talk of an assault weapons ban has gun suppliers wary about taking orders they may not be able to fulfill, Romine said.
Customers have also been keen to purchase hard-to-find assault rifle parts and supplies. While ammunition has steadily increased in price since 2009, ammo isn’t the main concern for gun buyers right now, Romine said.
“It’s more the guns,” Romine said.
The Bushmaster AR-15 .223 caliber is one of the weapons used by 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza in the recent school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
Though business does pick up around the holiday, most customers are in the store due to recent talk in Washington, D.C. about new gun control laws.
President Barack Obama and other leaders have called for stronger gun laws including the potential banning of assault weapons. While fully automatic weapons can be purchased with the proper paperwork, most assault rifles are not sold fully automatic. They are semi-automatic — the trigger must be pulled in some fashion each time the gun is fired.
Romine said the best way to find assault rifles now is to look online.
“Buy it right out,” Romine said. “Don’t worry about the bidding.”
Romine said he predicts that a $1,500 AR-15 can triple in price over the next year.
Rayco Sales owner Ray Coxe said demand for assault rifles, particularly the AR-15, clips and gun parts has shot up as “people are realizing what might be the worst case scenario.”
Suppliers have allotted their stressed supply of guns and ammunition for the more popular calibers, Coxe said. Often suppliers are only able to send one gun to each client.
Coxe has sold guns in Juneau through Rayco Sales for nearly 30 years.
“I know everybody in town,” Coxe said. “From the good guys to the bad guys.”
He said he doesn’t see the current talk about gun control as putting an end to his business, although he said he believes there will probably be more rules and restrictions. However, he said he does not believe gun control stops gun ownership.
“I think people are going to have guns whether it is legal or not,” Coxe said.
So far, Washington’s talk about gun control has only helped sales at Rayco.
“I’m ordering more and more stuff,” Coxe said. “I’ll have a big shipment in next Wednesday or so.”
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (192)
Add commentNot even close
You are not living within the limits. Are you a member of a well regulated militia? Remember, at the time, the term militia meant sanctioned and legalized by the state, not a bunch of drooling end-of-time fantasy war league flag praying skinheads.
Anyways, Merry Christmas AKj. I am done for the year. Hope no fool shots me. Not that a few have not tried.
Why Are Liberals So Retarded?
Were they all born that way?
@ddtjman
Current studies suggest it is a learned behavior. It is difficult to understand. In some cases humans do mature and grow out of it.
Actually, AKj and ddt-
current studies suggest that "liberals" change their views when science and new data come to light, while "conservatives" hold on to their viewpoints regardless of information.
Political ideology appears to be correlated with distinctive brain structure, with those holding more conservative views showing a larger amygdala, and those with more progressive frameworks having a larger frontal cortex. The amygdala processes emotions, while the frontal cortex is responsible for complex reasoning in the face of conflicting data and uncertainty. Nothing in the work so far implies any linear causality (whether political ideation affects brain structure or vice versa), nor does it suggest a direct hard-wiring of political ideology, but the result do seem to support the more simplistic stereotype of conservative voters preferring a black-and-white world and decision template, while liberals consider social structures and legislation that are more complex.
Kanai R, Feilden T, Firth C, and Rees G. 2009. "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults". Curr Biol 21 (8): 677–80.
Amodio DM, Jost JT, Master SL, and Yee CM. 2007. "Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism". Nat Neurosci. (10):1246-7.
Oxley, D.R. 2008. “Political Attitudes Vary With Physiological Traits,” Science (321) 5896: 1667-1670
Using climate change and nuclear power as measuring lines, people with more liberal viewpoints were observed to change their minds when presented with scientific evidence, while conservatives showed no indication of doing so, especially when conservatives had completed college or higher. When confronted with scientific advances in the field of nuclear safety, in combination with the observable environmental risks from coal or fossil fuels, progressives in the last few years have begun to consider nuclear power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels, a marked change from the 40 years ago. Conversely, individuals who reject the idea that human beings affect climate and who graduate from college, even in areas that have absolutely nothing to do with climate or science are even more convinced that their views on climate are correct. The reasoning appears to be some form of "Well, I'm educated and nothing has changed my mind, so I must indeed be correct".
The same dynamic is operational on multiple subjects, including evolution.
McRight, A.M., Dunlap, R.E. 2011. "Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States." Global Environmental Change (21) 4: 1163–1172
Kahan, Dan M., Wittlin, Maggie, Peters, Ellen, Slovic, Paul, Ouellette, Lisa Larrimore, Braman, Donald and Mandel, Gregory N. 2011. "The Tragedy of the Risk-Perception Commons: Culture Conflict, Rationality Conflict, and Climate Change" Temple University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2011-26; Cultural Cognition Project Working Paper No. 89; Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 435; Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 230.
None of these works, of course, has anything to do with whether an individual is a nice and compassionate person or a total jerk. It bears remembering, however, that virtually all of us retain a fundamental emotional picture of the world and then seek data to support it. It appears, though, that liberals are more likely to change that emotional picture when there are no data to support it.
Wow
Wow - now I'm lost
follow the money
follow the money